Hewitt Bouanchaud
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Hewitt Leonidas Bouanchaud
| birth_date=August 18, 1877
| birth_place=Poydras Plantation
New Roads, Pointe Coupée Parish
Louisiana, USA
| death_date=October 17, 1950 (aged 73)
| death_place=New Roads, Louisiana =
| office=Louisiana State Representative
for Pointe Coupée Parish
|term_start=1904
|term_end=1920
|preceded=William C. Carruth
|succeeded=Two members:
Ferdinand L. Claiborne
Simeon Parent
|office2=Speaker of the
Louisiana House of Representatives
|term_start3=1916
|term_end3=1920
|preceded3=Lee Emmett Thomas (Caddo Parish; former mayor of Shreveport
|aucceeded3=Richard Flournoy Walker (East Feliciana Parish)
|office4=District Attorney for 18th Judicial District
|term_start6=1929
|term_end6=1936
|religion=Methodist
|party=Democrat
| spouse= (1) Emma Campbell Kearny Bouanchaud (married
Hewitt Leonidas Bouanchaud (August 19, 1877 – October 17, 1950) was a Democratic attorney and politician from one of the oldest families in New Roads in Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana, located north of the capital city of Baton Rouge. He was the Louisiana lieutenant governor from 1920 to 1924, at a time when that officer presided over the state Senate. Now the lieutenant governor, Billy Nungesser, is charged in the state constitution with the promotion of recreation and tourism.
Bouanchaud was born at Poydras Plantation, one of eight children of Joseph Alcide Bouanchaud (1838-1896) and his second wife, the former Eugénia Helene Hébert (1853-1918). He graduated from Poydras Academy, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and Tulane University in New Orleans, from which he obtained his LL.B. degree in 1902.[1] In 1908, he was elected as the state representative for Pointe Coupée Parish, at a time when each of the sixty-four parishes had at least one member elected to the state House. He was the House Speaker in his final House term from 1916 to 1920.[2]
While lieutenant governor, Bouanchaud was also elected as the president of the 1921 state constitutional convention, since updated into the current constitution in 1974. In 1924, rather than seeking reelection as lieutenant governor, Bouanchaud ran unsuccessfully for governor in the primary election but was defeated by Henry Luse Fuqua, Sr. (1865-1926) who died two years into his gubernatorial term. In 1929, with his state political career at an end and Huey Pierce Long, Jr. as governor, Bouanchaud was elected as district attorney for the 18th Judicial District in New Roads. He left the DA's office in 1936, and resumed his law practice and engaged also in farming and cattle raising.[1][3]
From his first marriage in 1905 to the former Emma Campbell Kearney (1876-1914), he had three children. After Emma's death, he married in 1916 the former Eustatia Morrison and had another child.[1] His descendants continued to live in Pointe Coupee Parish. A great-nephew, James Madison Bouanchaud (1931-2020), was a prominent civic figure and automobile dealer in New Roads, who branched out into Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish and Gonzales in Ascension Parish.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bouanchaud, Hewitt Leonidas. A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography: Louisiana Historical Association. Retrieved on June 10, 2020.
- ↑ Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2024. Louisiana House of Representatives. Retrieved on June 10, 2020.
- ↑ A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography used the sources for its article on Bouanchaud: Alcée Fortier, ed., Louisiana, Vol. 3 (1914);Judy Riffel, ed., A History of Pointe Coupée Parish and Its Families (1983), and Dave H. Brown, A History of Who’s Who in Louisiana Politics in 1916 (1916).
- ↑ James Madison Bouanchaud. The New Orleans Times-Picayune (June 7, 2020). Retrieved on June 10, 2020.
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