USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. III > Part 51
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he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church. He has two children-Georgia and Lucille.
Lake, William Watts, of Jackson, Miss., was born in Longwood, Norfolk, England, Nov. 24, 1859, and is the son of Benjamin Lake and Mary (Watts) Lake, both of whom were natives of England. Mr. Lake received his early education in England. At the age of sixteen he immigrated to the United States. After a residence of several years he located in Monroe, La., in 1885; then removed to Texas, and in 1890 to Jackson, Miss., where he established a Bot- tling Works under the firm name of Sample & Lake. He has since established a business known as the Jackson Bottling ' Works. Mr. Lake is vice-president of the Mississippi Foundry and Machine Company, vice-president of the Building and Loan association; is a director of the Merchants' bank and Cotton Compress and presi- dent of the Crescent City Carbonate Company, of New Orleans. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Odd Fellows and Wood- men of the World. In 1886 he was married to Viola E. Ensminger, of Monroe, La.
Lamkin, Louis Henry, M. D., is one of the representative phy- sicians and surgeons of the city of Natchez, where he controls a large general practice and has high standing among his professional confreres. Dr. Lamkin is a native of Mississippi, having been born at Monticello, Lawrence county, July 19, 1859, and being a son of John S. and Isabella E. (Teunisson) Lamkin, the former of whom was born in Georgia and the latter in Illinois. John S. Lamkin was a valiant soldier of the Confederacy in the war between the States, having been a captain in the Fifty-second Mississippi infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. He became one of the leading lawyers of Pike county, and continued in the practice of his profession until his death. After due preliminary academic training Dr. Lamkin was matriculated in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Louisiana, in New Orleans, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1881, duly receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has kept closely in touch with the advances made in both departments of his profession and has fortified his technical knowledge by effective post-graduate work in the New York Poly- clinic and the Post-Graduate medical school of New York, in which latter he took two courses. Shortly after his graduation Dr. Lamkin located in Natchez, where he has since given his undivided attention to the work of his humane and exacting profession, ever remaining deeply appreciative of its dignity and responsibilities,-the profes- sion in which rest the issues of life and death. He is a member of the American medical association, the Mississippi medical associ- ation and the Adams county medical society, of which last he is president, in 1906. His political support is given to the Democratic party, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and holds mem- bership in various clubs and social orders. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church and he is a member of the vestry of the parish of Trinity church. In 1887 was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Lamkin to Miss Alice Rose, daughter
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of Robert Rose, of Natchez, and they have one daughter-Fanny Rose.
Lampton, William Eddie, who is one of the representative business men of Marion county, where he is identified with interests of wide scope and importance, merits specific consideration in this work. He is a member of the Lampton Company, wholesale and retail dealers in general merchandise at Columbia; was the organ- izer of the Columbia bank of which he has since been president; and has other capitalistic and industrial interests in this section of the State. Mr. Lampton was born in Pike county, Miss., Oct. 14, 1861, and is a son of Benjamin and Mary Jane (Lewis) Lampton, both of whom were likewise born and reared in this State, a fact that implies that the respective families have long been established in the commonwealth. After completing the curriculum of the public schools he entered the University of Mississippi, at Oxford. He initiated his business career by taking a position as salesman in a mercantile establishment in Pike county, thus gaining an intimate knowledge of details and business methods. In 1880 he came to Columbia, where he became identified with the general mercantile business here opened under the firm name of B. Lampton & Sons, acquiring an interest in the enterprise four years later. After the death of his honored father, in 1885, he formed a co-partnership with his brother, I. W. Lampton, under the firm name of I. W. Lampton & Brother, which succeeded the original firm, of which the father had been the founder. In 1902 the business was incorporated under the title of the Lampton Com- pany, with a paid-up capital of $100,000. The company controls a very extensive business, both in the wholesale and retail depart- ments, and is notable for reliability and correct management, as well as for progressiveness. The concern deals largely in cotton, han- dling an average of about 5,000 bales annually, while the aggregate business of the company reaches the noteworthy total of more than a quarter of a million dollars annually. Mr. Lampton is one of the largest stockholders in the Columbia Cotton Oil Company, in his home city, and also in the Magnolia Oil Mills, the Magnolia Cotton Mills, and Magnolia bank, the Jackson Fertilizer Company, the Lamp- ton Brothers & Rawls Company, of Mount Olive, and the Mount Olive bank and the Mount Olive Compress Company. In 1899 he organized the Columbia bank, the first in Marion county, and the same is capitalized for $30,000, while its deposits average about $200,000. He is president of this institution; Dr. T. B. Ford is vice- president; G. C. Maxwell is cashier. Mr. Lampton has never sought official preferment but has ever been known as a stanch supporter of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, in whose cause he takes a loyal interest. He is identified with the time-hon-
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ored Masonic fraternity and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South. On Feb. 23, 1886, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lampton to Miss Lou Baylis, daugh- ter of George and Caroline (Fenn) Baylis, of Marion county, and they are the parents of six children, namely: Olivia, Nellie, Edmund, George Benjamin, William Jabez and Victoria.
Lang, Hon. John Huddleston, incum- bent of the office of mayor of Pass Chris- tian and known as one of the most enthusi- astic spirits in connection with the de- velopment of the Gulf coast of Mississippi, is one of the leading business men and influential citizens of the popular resort city whose municipal head he is. He is a native of Harrison county, Miss., where he was born Nov. 7, 1853, and here his entire life has been passed. He is a son of Dr. John H. and Emily A. (Huddleston) Lang, the former of whom was born in Winchester, Wayne county, this State, and the latter in Columbus, Lowndes county. Dr. Lang was one of the representative physi- cians and surgeons of the State, having been graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in Phila- delphia, as a member of the class of 1846 and having been a class- mate of Dr. Edmund P. Gaines and other eminent physicians. John H. Lang received his educational training in the public schools of Mississippi and in 1866 took up his residence in Biloxi. In 1873 he entered the employ of the New Orleans & Mobile railroad, and through capable and faithful service secured rapid promotion, having been a freight conductor on the lines of this company at the time of tender- ing his resignation, in 1877. He then engaged in the mercantile business in Clarke county, but in the following year took up his resi- dence in Pass Christian, where he established himself in the livery business, in which he continued for a number of years, with excellent success. In 1890 he turned his attention to the real estate business, in which line he is now one of the leading operators in the southern part of the State, and in addition to this he conducts an undertaking business, having the best of equipments throughout. Mr. Lang has from the start shown a loyal and helpful interest in public affairs of a local nature, and he has been called upon to serve in various offices of distinctive trust and responsibility, having been incum- bent of the positions of secretary of the board of health of the county, justice of the peace and constable and alderman in 1895; while in December, 1904, he was honored with election to the office of mayor, in which connection he is giving one of the most liberal, progressive and businesslike administrations the city has yet known. He was for ten years identified with the Mississippi National Guard, having been captain of Battery F, First regiment of artillery known as the Thornton artillery and having later served as major of the regiment.
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He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Honor. The mayor is an extensive owner of real estate in this section and is recognized as a leading factor in the development of the Gulf coast, being insistently public-spirited in his attitude and progressive in his ideas. He is a director of the First National bank and vice-president of the Home bank of Pass Christian. On Nov. 12, 1877, Mr. Lang was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Nelson, daughter of Capt. John and Jane E. (Marmion) Nelson, of Pass Chris- tian. The names and respective dates of birth of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Lang are here entered: Edwin Buckner, Dec. 20, 1878; John Walton, Feb. 26, 1884, is a member of the class of 1907 in the United States Military academy, at West Point; Arthur Wallace, May 23, 1888; Emily Jane, April 24, 1891; and Eaton Adlai, Oct. 8, 1892. The following children are deceased: Nelson B., born April 10, 1880, died Aug. 25, 1881; Frank S., born Nov. 10, 1882, died Nov. 17, 1882; Robert L., born Aug. 16, 1886, died April 1 1887; Nellie A., born Jan. 1, 1890, died Aug. 21, 1890.
Langston, Benjamin F., junior member of the well known and popular general mercantile firm of R. H. Smith & Company, of Shel- by, Bolivar county, was born near Holly Springs, Marshall county, Miss., June 1, 1859, being a son of William C. and Mary J. (Smith) Langston, both of whom were born and reared in Tennessee, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they removed to Mar- shall county, Miss., several years before the Civil war. The father went forth as a valiant soldier of the Confederacy, having been a member of a Mississippi regiment. He continued actively identified with plantation interests during his entire active career, becoming the owner of a valuable estate in Tate county, Miss., where he died in 1904, his wife having passed away in 1889 and both having been consistent members of the Baptist church. Benjamin F. Langston had such educational advantages as were afforded in the common schools of Tate county, and he early began to depend upon himself, having been in a significant sense the architect of his own fortunes. He was employed three years as clerk in a general store at Inde- pendence, Miss., and thereafter he was similarly employed in the extensive mercantile establishment .of A. M. Wooten & Brother, in Memphis, Tenn., for several years, gaining an exact and intimate knowledge of all details of the business. This firm opened a branch store in Shelby, Miss., in 1888, and the confidence reposed in Mr. Langston was then shown, in that he was chosen to assume charge of this branch establishment, of which he remained superintendent until 1895. He then withdrew from mercantile pursuits and was engaged in farming, in Bolivar county, until 1905, when he purchased an interest in the general merchandise business of his father-in-law, Richard H. Smith, in Shelby, and he now has the practical manage- ment of the business, which is conducted under the firm name of R. H. Smith & Company. The firm controls an extensive business and the concern is one of the most popular of the sort in the county. Mr. Langston is known as a progressive and reliable business man and is not denied the unqualified confidence and esteem of the community
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with whose interests he is so intimately identified. He is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and formerly served as justice of the peace for the Second district of Bolivar county. He and his wife are valued members of the local Baptist church. On Jan. 16, 1895, Mr. Langston was united in marriage to Mrs. Illa May Green, daughter of Richard H. Smith, of whom specific mention is made in other pages of this compilation. They have no children. Lanneau, K. Palmer, city attorney of Natchez, and ex-member of the State senate, is an able representative of the bar of Mississippi and he has been en- gaged in the practice of his profession Natchez since 1872. Mr. Lanneau was born in Charleston, S. C., Jan. 14, 1843, and is a son of Bazile R. and Sarah L. B. (Palmer) Lanneau, both of whom were likewise native of Charleston. The Lanneau family is of French Huguenot extraction and the Palmer family was of New England Puritan stock. The sub- ject of this sketch was a student in Oakland college, Mississippi, as a youth and was there graduated. He was still in college at the time of the outbreak of the war between the States, when he promptly tendered his aid in defense of the cause of the Confederacy. He first joined what was known as Lumsden's battery, organized at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and served some time with this command. During the latter part of the war he was a member of the Beaufort artillery, with which he continued in active service until the close of the great conflict between the North and the South. He took part in numerous en- gagements and was made a first corporal in his command. On his return from the war he was granted his diploma, with first honors, by Oakland college, and was invited to deliver the valedictory ad- dress. He was in South Carolina at the time and thus found it impracticable to respond to this invitation. He finally located in Yazoo City, Miss., where he was an instructor in an academy for three years. In 1870 he became a teacher in a private school in Natchez and in the meanwhile he began reading law. He was ad- mitted to the bar of the State in 1872, since which time he has been established in active and successful practice in Natchez. Mr. Lanneau is an uncompromising adherent of the Democratic party, in whose cause he had done effective service. In 1878 he represented Adams county in the State senate, in which body he did much to promote wise and effective legislation. In 1900 he was elected city solicitor of Natchez and was re-elected in 1905. He has proven most dis- criminating and successful in handling important legal matters for the municipality. In 1882 Mr. Lanneau was united in marriage to Miss Emily M. Martin, daughter of Gen. William T. Martin, and she passed to the life eternal in 1900. She is survived by four chil- dren-Bazile R., Margaret C., K. Palmer, Jr., and William M.
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Laughlin, Jefferson Davis, was born in Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 28, 1845, and is a son of William and James (Armstrong) Laughlin. His father was a native of Antrim, North Ireland, and came to the United States when a young man, locat- ing in New Orleans, from which place he moved to Vicksburg. Returning to New Orleans he became a commission mer- chant of that place and member of the city council. Mr. Laughlin was reared on a farm near Vicksburg; prepared for college by a private tutor and attended the St. James college near Hagerstown, Md. At the beginning of the war .he offered his services to the Confederacy, but was rejected on account of his youth; he afterwards joined L. C. Moore's company, Vicksburg volunteers, and served in the Army of Northern Virginia, in the brigades of Generals Featherston, Posey and Harris, Company H, Sec- ond Mississippi battalion and afterwards in the Forty-eighth Mis- sissippi and remained in active service until the close of the war. He was wounded at Gains' Farm. At the close of the war he re- sumed farming; was elected member of the board of supervisors of Warren county in 1886 and re-elected for a second term. In 1901 he was elected chancery clerk in which capacity he has served for thirteen years. He is a member of the Episcopal church and of the fraternal orders of Masons, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, American Guild and Suburban Club. He was twice married; in 1892 to Miss Lulu Cavett; and to Miss Annie Caraway, of Vicksburg, in 1897. Mr. Laughlin has one child, Flora, by his first marriage, and by his second marriage has three children- Jefferson, Annie and William.
Leach, Joshua Gilbert, one of the ster- ling and honored citizens who lent dignity and value to the civic and business affairs of Holly Springs and Marshall county, was a veteran of the Confederacy and was a man who stood high in the regard of all who knew him. He was for many years one of the leading business men of Holly Springs, where his death occurred April 23, 1904. Mr. Leach was born in Wilson county, Tenn., Oct. 10, 1842, and in his native State he was reared and educated. He gave four years of service in defense of the cause of the Confederacy, having enlisted in Company G, Thirteenth Ten- nessee infantry, and having made a record for faithful and valiant service. His regiment was a part of Cheatham's division and took part in many important battles. After the war Mr. Leach returned
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to Tennessee, and in 1869 he located in Holly Springs, Miss., where he was engaged in active business thereafter until his death. For many years he was in the retail grocery trade, under the firm name of J. G. Leach & Company, and he at all times maintained a public- spirited and progressive attitude, giving his aid to all enterprises tending to conserve the general welfare of the community and being a man of inviolable integrity in all the relations of life. He was a director and the first president of the Merchants and Farmers' bank of Holly Springs, was secretary and treasurer of the Holly Springs Jug Factory, and had other capitalistic interests of impor- tance. His political support was given to the Democratic party, he was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and for many years he was a steward of the Holly Springs Methodist Episcopal church, South. Mr. Leach first married Miss Maria Butts, daughter of Wil- liam and Mary Butts, and she passed to the life eternal in 1884, being survived by four children, all of whom remain resident of Holly Springs, namely: Mary, Cordelia, Ruth and Margaret. Cordelia is the wife of L. G. Fant, a prominent lawyer of Holly Springs. In 1894 Mr. Leach contracted a second marriage, being then united to Miss Nellie Lamm, daughter of Capt. H. J. B. Lamm, of Aberdeen, Miss. Her father was a Confederate officer in the Civil war and was a prominent merchant and influential citizen of Aberdeen, having been president of a Bank and Trust Company. His wife, whose maiden name was Pauline Morgan, was a daughter of Judge Monroe, who was an honored pioneer of Monroe county. Mr. and Mrs. Leach became the parents of one daughter, Pauline Berta, who remains with her widowed mother in the attractive homestead in Holly Springs.
LeBaron, Charles, M. D., one of the successful physicians and surgeons of Gulfport, Harrison county, is a native of the State of Alabama, having been born in the picturesque and historic old city of Mobile, April 12, 1868. His father, Thomas M. LeBaron, was likewise born and reared in that city, and his mother, whose maiden name was Jane Ames, was born in Montgomery, Ala. In the Jesuits' school of Mobile the doctor secured his preliminary educational training, which he supplemented, in the academic sense, by a course of study in Spring Hill college, near Mobile, from which institution. he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, while two years later his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. In the meanwhile he had been matriculated in the Medical college of Alabama, in Mobile, and was graduated from the same in 1889, receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine and coming forth well equipped for the practice of his exacting profession. Shortly after his graduation
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the doctor entered practice in his native city, being there associated with Dr. Rhett Goode, and in 1891 he accepted the appointment as surgeon for Indian prisoners of war, his services in this connection continuing three and one-half years, during which time he maintained his residence in Mt. Vernon, Ala., and Ft. Sill, Okla. He then re- sumed the general practice of his profession, locating in Yellowpine, Ala., where he remained four years, at the expiration of which, in 1900, he removed to Jackson, Miss., where he was established in practice until May, 1904, since which time he has been engaged in the work of his profession in Gulfport, where he has made many friends and built up an excellent practice. The doctor is a communi- cant of the Catholic church, and in a fraternal way is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the American medical association, the Mississippi State medical society and the Harrison county medical society. On Nov. 30, 1891, Dr. LeBaron was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Roberta Evans, daughter of Louis d'Neuville and Emma E. (Buckner) Evans, of Port Gibson, Miss., and the children of this union are two-Charles, aged twelve; and Mary Linzee, aged eight years (1905).
Lee, Robert Edward, one of the leading architects of southern Mississippi, has his home and headquarters in Hattiesburg, Perry county, and is known as a man finely educated in his chosen pro- fession, which has to do with the practical and esthetic values ex- emplified in every community. Mr. Lee was born in Plattsburg, Winston county, Miss., Dec. 29, 1870, and is a son of Thomas J. and Elizabeth P. (Quarles) Lee, both native of Mississippi and repre- sentative of old and honored families of this commonwealth. Thomas Jefferson Lee served with distinction during the Civil war, rendering loyal service as a member of a Mississippi regiment and making a record of a faithful and earnest devotion to the cause whose final loss became a matter of history. Robert E. Lee first completed the work of the public schools, being reared in Philadelphia, Neshoba county, and later he attended the Agricultural and Mechanical college at Starkville, Miss., and finally entered the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, where he continued his technical studies bearing upon his chosen profession. After leaving school he entered the offices of Gustave M. Torgerson, the well known architect, at Meridian, Miss., who designed and supervised the construction of the World's Cotton Centennial Exposition, at New Orleans, La., remaining with this able preceptor for a period of four years and thoroughly forti- fying himself in all details of the work of his profession. In 1901 he located in Hattiesburg, and is now the leading architect of this city, where he is held in high esteem in both business and social cir- cles. He is unequivocal in his allegiance to the Democratic party, but has never been an aspirant for official preferment of any sort. Mr. Lee was supervising architect of the new court house which was built in Perry county, in 1905, and he devotes special attention to the planning and superintending of business blocks and school build- ings, while his services are in demand in the most diverse sections of the State. He is progressive in his attitude and is a careful and
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reliable business man, commanding the esteem of all with whom he has dealings. On June 15, 1902, Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Rada Hilliard, daughter of Ransom and Mary E. (Austin) Hilliard, of Newport, Ky. They have two children-Ray Goss, born June 25, 1903, and Zada, born Jan. 7, 1906.
Lewis, Fletcher D., of Woodville, is one of the representative citizens and success- ful planters of Wilkinson county, and is a scion of one of the most honored pioneer families of this county, where his father took up his abode more than a century ago. Mr. Lewis was born in Woodville, Miss., Jan. 10, 1844, being a son of John S. and Eunice W. (Higgins) Lewis, the former of whom was born in Virginia, in 1780, and the latter of whom was born on Frenchman's Bay, Hancock county, Maine. John S. Lewis was a child at the time of his parents' removal from the Old Dominion to Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood. He made several trips to New Orleans on flatboats, down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and returned home on horseback, passing through Mississippi. The first trip of this sort was made in 1794, when he was but fourteen years of age, and about 1800 he took up his residence in the little hamlet of Woodville, Wilkinson county, Miss., where he passed the remainder of his life, having acquired much land in this locality and having been one of the influential and honored pioneers of the State. He was a colonel in the Seminole war and was prominent in public and civic affairs in the early days. He died in 1848, and his wife survived him by a number of years. Fletcher D. Lewis was about two years of age at the time of his father's death, and he was reared with solicitous care by his devoted mother. After leaving the school of his home town he entered the Centenary col- lege, at Jackson, La., where he was a member of the sophomore class at the initiation of the Civil war. He forthwith enlisted in the Confederate army, becoming a member of Company K, Sixteenth Mississippi infantry, with which he joined the forces operating in Virginia, participating in the engagements at Front Royal, Port Republic and the Valley campaign under Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson; the Seven Days' fight before Richmond, and the battles of Fred- ericksburg, second Manassas, Sharpsburg or Antietam, Chancellors- ville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, in the "bloody angle," Petersburg and a number of engagements of minor impor- tance. He was wounded in front of Petersburg, 1864, and was home on crutches at the time of the final surrender. He returned to his native county after the close of his' service and has here been ever since identified with agricultural pursuits, being the owner of a well improved plantation of about 3,500 acres, while he is held in high esteem in the county which has figured as his home throughout
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