Monroe, Frank A.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Monroe, Frank Adair, chief justice of the supreme court of Louisiana, was born at Annapolis, Md., Aug. 30, 1844, but was reared at Frankfort, Ky., the borne of his parents, Victor and Mary Townsend (Polk) Monroe. His father was a native of Kentucky, and born in Glasgow, Barren county; he was a lawyer by profession, and was appointed, by Pres. Pierce, the first federal judge for the territory of Washington; he crossed the great plains in the early '50s on his way to the territory, going in company with the first territorial governor of Washington, Gov. Stephens, and at Olympia, Wash., his death occurred, his family having never joined him. Judge Victor Monroe was a son of Thomas Bell Monroe, a native of Albemarle county, Va., and a direct descendant of Andrew Monroe, a Scotchman of a Highland clan, who came to America in 1650, and settled in Virginia, and became the progenitor of the noted Monroe family of the Old Dominion state, of which Pres. Monroe was a member. Thomas Bell Monroe became a lawyer of prominence in Kentucky, and was appointed, by Pres. Jackson, judge of the United States District court, and held the position until the election of Pres. Lincoln. Toward the close of the Civil war, he came South and located at Pass Christian, Miss., where be died. His wife was a daughter of John Adair, a native of South Carolina and a patriot of the American Revolution, after the close of which he removed to Kentucky, where he won honors in public service, becoming one of the early governors of the State, and later a United States senator. The mother of Judge Frank Adair Monroe was a native of Maryland and her father was an officer in the United States navy. Judge Monroe has one brother, William Winder Monroe, and a sister, Mary Eliza, the wife of Judge Joshua G. Baker, of New Orleans.

Judge Monroe received his early scholastic training in private schools at Frankfort, Ky., and then entered, in 1860, the Kentucky Military institute, where he had just begun his sophomore year, when he entered the Confederate States army, in which he served 4 years, first in Co. E, 4th Kentucky infantry, then in Co. C, 1st Louisiana cavalry. He was wounded and captured near Somerset, Ky., March, 1863, and was exchanged in Oct., 1863. For many years Judge Monroe has been prominently identified with the United Confederate Veteran organization. He has served as president of the Association of Army of Tennessee, Camp No. 2, U. C. V., and for years as a member of the Board of Governors, Confederate Memorial hall, New Orleans. The war closed; Judge Monroe went to Pass Christian, Miss., to where his paternal grandfather and other members of his family had removed from Kentucky. Not long after, he took up the study of law, and in 1867 became a member of the Louisiana bar. Upon being admitted to practice law, he entered on his professional career in New Orleans. He rose rapidly in his profession, and in 1872 he was elected judge of the Third District court, but was dispossessed of office after a month's service, by the ''carpet-bag" regime. He took part with the White League in the action of Sept. 14, 1874, which overturned the "Packard" government, and in Nov., 1876, he was reelected judge of the Third District court. In 1880 he was appointed judge of the Civil District court, parish of Orleans; was reappointed in 1884 and in 1892. In March, 1899, he was appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of Louisiana. He had a long and honorable career as judge of the Civil District court, and it was his ability in that position that won for him the appointment to the bench of the supreme court. In Nov., 1906, he was elected to succeed himself as associate justice of the supreme court, for the term of 1908-20. In April, 1914, he became chief justice, succeeding Judge Joseph A. Breaux, retiring. The courts of Louisiana have had many able judges, the names of whom have come to be regarded throughout the country with great admiration. Among these jurists Chief Justice Monroe holds conspicuous place. He has won an enviable reputation for fairness and justice, and that of a profound lawyer, and his decisions have placed him among the ablest of associate justices, who have served on the supreme court bench of the state. For 37 years, an unprecedented period in the history of the Louisiana bench, Judge Monroe has held a judgeship, and this period will have been extended to 42 years, should fortune smile on the state in the preservation of his health and life until he has served out his present term of office. He has held other positions of honor, among which is that of a member of the Louisiana State Constitutional convention of 1898. For 20 years he was a member of the law faculty of Tulane University. His lectures in this institution were characteristic of a profound knowledge of the law. His grandfather, Judge Thomas Bell Monroe, was in the habit, for years, of coming South and lecturing in the law school of the old University of Louisiana, and in the summers many of the law students followed him to his Kentucky home to continue their studies under him, and among these were some of the afterward leading lawyers and jurists of the South.

Judge Monroe has remained throughout all these years a Democrat in politics. He took an active part in the anti-lottery campaign of 1892, and has always stood for those men and measures by whom he believed the public interests would be best served. Jan. 3, 1878, Judge Monroe married Miss Alice Blanc, the daughter of Jules A. Blanc. Unto Judge and Mrs. Monroe were born 5 sons and 5 daughters. The sons are Frank Adair Monroe, Jr., J. Blanc Monroe, Winder Polk Monroe, William Blanc Monroe, James Hill Monroe, and the daughters are Alice, wife of S. S. LaBouisse; Kate Adair, wife of G. R. Westerfeldt; Gertrude, wife of T. M. Logan, Jr.; Adile, wife of George E. Williams; and Marion Monroe. At 847 Carondelet Street, Judge Monroe has long maintained his home, and here his wife has joined him in extending a generous hospitality to a large circle of appreciative friends and acquaintances as the years have come and gone.

Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 17-19. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.

NOTE: Photo of Judge Monroe included in the book.