Newton Crain Blanchard (January 29, 1849 – June 22, 1922) was a United States representative,

U.S. senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

, and the 33rd governor of Louisiana.

Personal life

Born in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana, he completed academic studies, studied law in Alexandria in 1868, and graduated from the Tulane University Law School in 1870 (then named the University of Louisiana). He was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

and commenced practice in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

in 1871; in 1879 he was a delegate to the State constitutional convention.

In 1873 he married Mary Emma Barrett, the daughter of Capt. William W. Barrett, an officer in the Confederate army. Their daughter, Mary Ethel Blanchard, married Leonard Rutherford Smith.

Political career

Blanchard was elected as a Democrat to the 47th and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1881, until his resignation, effective March 12, 1894. While in the House of Representatives, he was chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors (50th through 53rd Congresses). He was appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Douglass White, who was appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Blanchard served in the Senate from March 12, 1894, to March 3, 1897; he was not a candidate for a full term in 1896. While in the Senate, Blanchard was chairman of the Committee on Improvement of the Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Fifty-third Congress). Elected associate justice of the

Louisiana Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Louisiana (french: Cour suprême de Louisiane) is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orlea ...

, Blanchard served from 1897 to 1903, when he resigned. Blanchard became the highly qualified Democratic nominee for governor in 1904. He was elected and was governor from 1904 to 1908, and thereafter resumed the practice of law in Shreveport. As governor, he appointed Sheriff

David Theophilus Stafford David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

of Rapides Parish, a son of

Leroy Augustus Stafford Leroy Augustus Stafford Sr. (April 13, 1822 – May 8, 1864), was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Early life Leroy A. Stafford was born on Greenwood Plantation near Cheneyville, south of Alexandria ...

, a Confederate brigadier general mortally wounded in the American Civil War, as the Louisiana adjutant general. In 1913, Blanchard was again a member of the State constitutional convention, this time serving as president. He died in Shreveport in 1922 and was interned at Greenwood Cemetery.

References

External links

State of Louisiana - Biography

Cemetery Memorial
by La-Cemeteries {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchard, Newton Crain 1849 births 1922 deaths Democratic Party governors of Louisiana Louisiana lawyers Tulane University alumni Tulane University Law School alumni People from Rapides Parish, Louisiana Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana Justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court Democratic Party United States senators from Louisiana Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana Burials in Louisiana 19th-century American lawyers