1892 Biography - Franklin Garrett

Franklin Garrett, the eldest surviving son of Isaiah and Narcissa Garrett, was born in Monroe, La., on November 6, 1840; was educated at the local schools to nine years of age, then for two years attended school in Liberty, Miss. Returning to Monroe, he continued to attend school until 1855, when he was matriculated at Louisiana (now Jefferson) college in the parish of St James, remaining there a year; thence in 1857 to Centenary college, at Jackson, La., where he remained until the summer of 1S59, when he matriculated at the University of North Carolina, whence he was graduated in a class of over ninety with distinction in June, 1861; entered the confederate army in the Second Louisiana regiment soon afterward, serving on the Virginia peninsula until his health was wrecked in the spring of 1862, when he was discharged; resumed service in the staff department of the Mississippi, and subsequently the trans-Mississippi department of the confederate army. In 1864 was commissioned in the staff department and assigned to duty under Gen. P. 0. Hebert--subsequently put in charge of the collection of supplies to maintain a part of the Missouri and other troops under General Price in northern Louisiana--paroled at Natchitoches in June, 1865, with the rank of captain; taught school in Monroe after the war closed until November, 1865, when he became chief clerk of the senate enrolling committee of the first post-bellum legislature in Louisiana. He studied law two years under his father, and in March, 1888, was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Louisiana; at once became partner with his father, the partnership continuing until the death of the latter. He was an active leader during all the era of reconstruction from 1868 to 1876, and could at any time have commanded the suffrages of his fellow-citizens but devoted himself to his chosen profession. He was attorney for Ouachita parish in 1877-78, formulating many laws for the local guidance. In 1880 was elected to represent Ward 3 of Monroe in the city council and re-elected for three successive terms, during which period he acted as city attorney and drafted many of the laws that now are in force in that city. He was requested in 1880 to endeavor to establish public schools in Monroe that should be representative. He devoted a number of years to the task and finally evolved model graded schools wherein many children have been enabled to fit themselves for the battle of life. Starting with only $63 in the school treasury in 1880, he retired from active management of the schools in 1888 leaving available an annual revenue of nearly $6,000 besides comfortable buildings, etc. In 1888 he was again selected to represent Ward 3 in the city council for two years, and in the same year appointed by Gov. Francis T. Nicholls as the member of the state board of public education for the Fifth Congressional district and now occupies that position; has been active in local and state and national politics as a democrat since 1868; is a democrat of the strictest state's rights school, and delights to witness the confusion of all the so called democrats who claimed that the "war" settled adversely such doctrines in favor of the republican destructiveness of centralization, in the light of the recent demonstrations for states' rights and individual liberty throughout Kansas and the great Northwest. Franklin Garrett was married in Shelby county, Tenn., to Miss Agnes M. Bond, October 20, 1869, and four children--two daughters and two sons--survive as issue of the union; Mrs. Garrett died early in 1887. In the latter part of 1889 Mr. Garrett was married to Miss Leila E. Johnston, of Alabama. He is six feet in stature, has dark hair and eyes and weighs 215 pounds.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published in 1892, volume 1, pages 437-438.