Minos Talbot Gordy Jr. (1865-1926)

Portrait from "The Convention of '98", 1898.

   Following on the heels of former Louisiana judge Wakeman Wakeman Edwards, another oddly named resident of Vermilion Parish is accorded a write-up, Minos Talbot Gordy Jr. A longtime attorney in that parish and a graduate of the Tulane Law School, Gordy served a decade as District Attorney for Louisiana's 17th judicial district and in 1898 was a member of the state constitutional convention. This post was followed by a stint as district court judge for the 17th district, which he filled for four years. The son of Vermilion Parish sheriff and Confederate veteran Minos T. Gordy Sr. (1830-1910) and the former Betty Ann Johnson, Minos Talbot Gordy Jr was born in St. Mary Parish, Lousiana on September 29, 1865. 

  A student in the Franklin, Louisiana schools, Gordy also attended the Rugby Academy in that parish and from 1880-83 studied at the University of Louisiana. Following graduation, he spent the next few years as a store clerk in Franklin and Abbeville before deciding upon a career in law, and in the mid-1880s began to study in a law office in Abbeville. In 1888 he enrolled at Tulane University, and after graduating the following year established his first law practice in Abbeville.

  Just one year after setting up his law practice politics beckoned to Minos Gordy, and in 1890 he was appointed by then-Governor Francis R.T. Nicholls as District Attorney for Louisiana's 17th judicial district, this appointment coming about due to the death of sitting attorney Robert Cade Smedes (1855-1890). Gordy would serve out the remainder of Smedes' term and in 1892 was elected to a term of his own in that post. He would win reelection to another four-year term in 1896 and left office in 1900. 

  Minos Talbot Gordy Jr. married on April 28, 1896, to Mississippi native Laura Cage Haynes (1877-1949). The couple were wed for thirty years and had four children, John Collins (1897-1960), Walter Haynes (1899-1970), Minos Thomas (1901-1961), and Oliver Bascom (1902-1905).

  In 1898 Minos Gordy added another political feather to his cap when he was elected as Vermilion Parish's delegate to that year's state Constitutional Convention held in Baton Rouge, and during the convention proceedings sat on the committees on Federal Relations, Parochial Corporations, and Suffrage and Elections. He continued to advance politically two years following his service as a delegate when he was elected as District Court Judge for the 17th district in 1900 and served a four-year term. This post also saw Gordy "by virtue of his office" serve as a judge on the state court of appeals, and for a time was a member of the Criminal Code Commission, a group of lawmakers appointed to codify then existing state criminal laws.

  At the conclusion of his judgeship in 1904 Gordy retired from politics but continued with his Abbeville based law practice. In 1908 he briefly returned to politics with his service as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Louisiana and was a member of the committee on Platform and Resolutions. He continued residence in Abbeville until his death at age 60 on August 8, 1926. He was survived by his wife and children and was interred at the Graceland Cemetery in Abbeville. Acknowledged as a man of "unusual strength of character", Gordy was further memorialized in his Abbeville Meridional obituary as having:

"Did much to check the condition of semi-anarchy that prevailed in this parish in the early '90s. He will be remembered here as a staunch and upright citizen--standing four square to the world--a terror to evil doers.

Wakeman Wakeman Edwards (1826-1921)

Portrait courtesy of geni.com.

  Louisiana yields yet another amusingly named public official in Wakeman Wakeman Edwards, whose first and middle names are the same! A one-term member of the Arkansas legislature prior to the Civil War, Edwards was a native of New York who, following residence in Indiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, permanently resettled in Louisiana, where he practiced law. Named as a state district court judge in the late 1880s, Edwards continued with his practice until retirement and spent the remainder of his life as a local historian and elder member of the Vermilion Parish bar.

  The son of Henry and Elizabeth (Rogers) Edwards, Wakeman Wakeman Edwards was born in Charlton, Saratoga County, New York on September 13, 1826. For reasons known only to his parents, Edwards was given the same first name and middle name, making him unique amongst the political figures profiled here. Edwards' formative education in New York was obtained "in the public schools of his native village" and later attended the Schenectady Lyceum. A young man with a keen interest in astronomy and mathematics, Edwards continued his schooling at the Union College (also in Schenectady), graduating third in his class with his A.B. degree in 1850. 

  Following his graduation, Wakeman Edwards sought his fortune out of state, and soon afterward removed to Indiana, where he took up the study of law in the office of Lovell Harrison Rousseau (1818-1869), later to attain prominence as a Union General in the Civil War and as a member of Congress from Indiana, 1865-67. By 1851 Edwards had moved south to Camden, Mississippi, where he would begin a teaching career at a "classical school" in that city. He remained here until at least 1855, whereafter he decamped to Sulphur Springs, Mississippi to escape an epidemic of yellow fever. While here, Edwards made the acquaintance of Mississippi supreme court justice Alexander Hamilton Handy (1809-1883), with whom he studied law, and in the latter portion of that year was admitted to the bar. 

  In 1856 Edwards left Mississippi for Arkansas, and for the next several years practiced law in that state. He married in 1857 to Martha Hollingsworth (1832-1908), to whom he was wed for over five decades. The couple later had three children, Dr. Clarence Jeptha (1858-1920), Sarah Elizabeth (1860-1943), and William Pierrepont (born 1867). In 1858 he began his political career by winning election to the Arkansas house of representatives from Conway County. He served in the session of 1858-59 and in the latter year resettled in Chicot County to continue his law practice. In the final 18 months of the Civil War Edwards' life and career were upset when he was conscripted into the Confederate Army, with which he served until war's conclusion.

  At the conclusion of his military service, Wakeman W. Edwards left Arkansas for good and removed to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he began another law practice. He continued along this route until 1875 when he permanently settled in Abbeville in Vermilion Parish, and in 1889 was appointed as District Court Judge for Louisiana's 25th judicial district in the wake of the resignation of Judge C. DeBaillon. Edwards' time on the bench extended until at least 1890 when he was succeeded by another oddly named man, Orther Charles Mouton.

  In addition to his law practice and brief judgeship, Edwards also held local public office, being president of the Vermilion Parish school board as well as U.S. Commissioner for Louisiana's western district. Retiring from his law practice in 1905, Edwards' remaining years saw him acknowledged as a leading local historian for Vermilion Parish, authoring a number of "historical sketches" that appeared in the Abbeville Meridional newspaper beginning in 1905. Widowed in 1908, Edwards continued to reside in Abbeville until his death at age 94 on March 10, 1921. He was later interred alongside his wife Martha at the Graceland Cemetery in Abbeville.

From the Abbeville Meridional, March 19, 1921.

Hillyer Sealy Parker (1905-1968)

From the 1940 Tulane "Jambalaya" yearbook.

  Lifelong Monroe, Louisiana resident Hillyer Sealy Parker served in several prominent public posts in Ouachita Parish, being a one-term state representative, assistant city attorney, assistant district attorney, and in the six years prior to his death was a judge for Louisiana's 4th judicial district. Born in Monroe on April 16, 1905, Hillyer Sealy Parker was the son of leading local cotton trader and planter John Peyton Parker (1854-1929) and the former Marie Camille Stephens. A student in schools local to Monroe, young Hillyer was a member of the Monroe High School graduating class of 1924 and four years later graduated from the Louisiana State University.

  Having decided upon a career in law, Parker undertook further study at the Tulane Law School, earning his degree in 1933. After his admittance to the Louisiana bar in July 1933, Parker established a law practice in Monroe and would later marry Helen Womack (1913-1998). The couple's union saw the births of two sons, Bruce Stephens (born 1943) and William Hillyer Parker (1946-2017). 

  In 1940 Parker entered the political life of his state when he won election to the Louisiana House of Representatives from Ouachita Parish. His term extended from 1940-1943, resigning in the last-named year to join the U.S. Army. Prior to his resignation, Parker entered the Democratic primary race for district judge in September 1942 but lost out in the vote count on election day.

   Information regarding Parker's service in the military following his resignation from the house remains scant. He was discharged sometime in 1946 from "the armed forces" and returned to Monroe, and in 1947 he took on the post of assistant campaign manager former Governor Sam Houston Jones, then running for a second term. Touting Jones' platform of "clean and efficient government", Parker saw Jones' campaign go down to defeat in the Democratic primary of 1948, losing out to former Governor Earl Kemp Long.

From the Jena Times, October 30, 1947. 

   In 1948 Hillyer Parker was selected as assistant city attorney for Monroe, an office he'd continue in until July 1956. In that year he advanced to the post of assistant district attorney for the Fourth Judicial District, where he served until 1962. In that year Parker was elected as district court judge for Louisiana's Fourth judicial district and was one of three judges to serve that court. He served on the bench until his death at age 62 on March 31, 1968, following hospitalization for a long illness. He was survived by his wife and sons and later was interred at the Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery in Monroe. 

From the Monroe News-Star, April 1, 1968.