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

United States representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

U.S. senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

, and the 33rd governor of Louisiana.

Personal life

Born in

Rapides Parish Rapides Parish () () is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 130,023. The parish seat and largest city is Alexandria, which developed along the Red River of the South. ''Rapides'' is th ...

Central Louisiana Central Louisiana ( French: ''Centre du Louisiane''), also known as the Crossroads, is a region of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The largest communities in the region as of the 2010 Census were Alexandria (47,893), Natchitoches (18,323) and ...

, he completed academic studies, studied law in Alexandria, Louisiana, 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 (law), bar and commenced practice in Shreveport in 1871; in 1879 he was a delegate to the Louisiana Constitution, 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 Democratic Party (United States), 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, Blanchard served from 1897 to 1903, when he resigned. Blanchard became the 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 of

, a son of Leroy Augustus Stafford, a Confederate States of America, Confederate Brigadier General (United States), brigadier general mortally wounded in the American Civil War, as the Louisiana State adjutant general, adjutant general. Various reforms were also introduced including a minimum wage law.Earl K. Long The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics By Michael L. Kurtz, Morgan D. Peoples, 1991
/ref> 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 interred at Greenwood Cemetery (Shreveport, Louisiana), 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 Democrats 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 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century United States senators