Easterly, Ernest S.

Ernest S. Easterly, Livingston Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

Ernest S. Easterly is present superintendent of schools of Livingston Parish, having been elected to that office shortly after he graduated from the State university. Mr. Easterly was also in training as an officer during the hatter part of the World war.He was born at Watson, in Livingston Parish, June 19, 1897. The Easterly family originated in Germany, but have been in America since Colonial times. His grandfather, John Bird Easterly, was born in Mississippi, in 1839, but spent the greater part of his life as a cotton planter in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. He served with the rank of colonel in the Confederate army.

Colonel Easterly, who died at Denham Springs in 1904, married Jane Spiller, who was born in Livingston Parish in 1844 and died in 1921. Their son, Seigle B. Easterly, was born at Watson, Louisiana, in 1869, was reared and married there, and was engaged in farming and merchandising in that community until 1922, since which year he has been ,the leading merchant of the Village of Weiss, in Livingston Parish. He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Masonic fraternity. Seigle B. Easterly married Eliza Hunstock, who was born at Watson in 1879. Of their six children, Ernest S. is the oldest; Rudolph P. is associated with his father in the mercantile business at Weiss; Alton S. is a farmer at Watson; Maurice H. is a farmer at Watson; Leroy Percy and Eldo W. are both students in the Live Oak grammar school at Weiss.Ernest S. Easterly acquired his early advantages in the public schools at Livingston Parish, and graduated from the Denham Springs High School in 1915. He then entered the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, and while there volunteered for service in the World war. In September, 1918, he was sent to Camp Martin, Louisiana, and two weeks later was transferred to Camp Pike, Arkansas, where he was in the Officers' Training School, but the armistice was declared before he received his commission and he was honorably discharged December 5, 1918.

He also taught as assistant principal of the high school at Napoleonville, Louisiana, for a year. He graduated with the A. B. degree at the university in 1920, and in the same year was elected superintendent of schools of Livingston Parish, being chosen for an unexpired term, and in 1921 was re-elected for the full term of four years. On January 1, 1925, he was re-elected again for the four-year term beginning July 1, 1925. Under his supervision are thirty schools, ninety teachers and a scholarship enrollment of four thousand.Mr. Easterly is a democrat, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Live Oak, and is worshipful master of Denham Springs Lodge No. 297 of the Masonic Order, member of Washington Chapter No. 57, Royal Arch Masons; Lambert Council No. 22 at Baton Rouge, and belongs to the Louisiana State Teachers' Association.

He owns an attractive country home with three hundred and twenty-three acres of valuable land located in the first ward of Livingston Parish, at Watson, and also has some real estate in Denham Springs.He married at Denham Springs, November 25, 1922, Miss Esna Wasson, daughter of Wilbur and Lavada (Greene) Wasson, residents of Baton Rouge. Her father is a mechanical engineer. Mrs. Easterly is a graduate of Louisiana State University, having been awarded the A. B. degree in 1920. They have one child, Ernest S. Easterly, Jr., born September 4, 1923.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 155-156, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.