William Clark Hughes Explained

William Clark Hughes
Office:Louisiana State Representative from Bossier Parish
Party:Democrat
Term Start:1904
Term End:1930
Preceded:At-large members:
J. T. Manry
L. T. Sanders
Succeeded:J. E. Walker
Office2:Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Term Start2:1926
Term End2:1928
Preceded2:James Stuart Douglas
Succeeded2:John B. Fournet
Birth Date:31 January 1868
Birth Place:Rocky Mount, Louisiana, US
Death Place:Kingston Plantation, Louisiana, US
Death Cause:Lightning
Resting Place:Rocky Mount Cemetery in Bossier Parish
Occupation:Farmer
Spouse:(1) Lula Dubois Holt (died 1899)
(2) Annie Oliver (married 1904)

William Clark Hughes (January 31, 1868  - August 29, 1930) was an American Democrat who served from 1926 to 1928 as the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He represented Bossier Parish in the lower house of the legislature from 1904 until his accidental death in 1930.[1] Hughes was born in the Rocky Mount community of Bossier Parish to William Josiah Hughes, a captain in the Confederate Army, and the former Mary Ann Clark. His home in Rocky Mount remained in the family until 1972, when it was donated to the Bossier Restoration Foundation.[2] In 1995, the house was relocated to Benton, the seat of Bossier Parish government. There the Hughes House sets in Benton Square near the Bossier Parish School Board office.[3]

Hughes and his first wife, Lula Dubois Hughes (1869-1899), had three daughters: Mary Virginia (born and died 1894), Martha "Mattie" L. Hughes Dowdell (1895-1970), and Margery Hughes O'Kelley (1896-1973). Hughes later married Annie Oliver, who was born 1882 in Giles County, Tennessee. They had one daughter, Annie Elizabeth Hughes Hale Tucker, who was born in 1906 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Hughes' legislative service traversed the administrations of seven governors from Newton C. Blanchard to Huey Pierce Long, Jr. He was Speaker of the House under Long's short-term predecessor, Oramel H. Simpson; in Louisiana despite the presumed separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, the governor handpicks the Speaker. Long chose his lieutenant, John B. Fournet, a freshman member from Jeff Davis Parish in southwestern Louisiana, who later became the long-term Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.[4] Hughes operated the Kingston Plantation in the Bossier Parish community known as Hughes Spur, presumably named for Hughes' father.[5] In 1930, at the age of sixty-two and still serving in the legislature, he was struck dead by touching a metal cistern which had been electrically charged in a lightning storm. He had intended to use the cistern to fight a lightning-induced fire on his farm.[6] Hughes is interred at the Rocky Mount Cemetery.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2012. house.louisiana.gov. July 1, 2013.
  2. Web site: Louisiana Confederate Monuments and Markers. scvtaylorcamp.com. July 2, 2013.
  3. Web site: Hughes House - Benton, Louisiana. waymarking.com. July 2, 2013.
  4. Book: Harnett Thomas Kane, Huey Long's Louisiana Hayride: The American Rehearsal for Dictatorship, 1928-1940 . 70–71 . Gretna, Louisiana . Pelican Publishing Company (1941 and 1998). July 2, 2013. 9781455606115 . 1971 .
  5. Web site: Kay McMahan, "Bossier Parish, LA, Towns". usgwarchives.net. July 2, 2013.
  6. Book: Clifton D. Cardin, Images of America: Bossier Parish, p. 17. Charleston, South Carolina

    Arcadia Publishing

    . July 2, 2013. 9780738501727. 1999.
  7. Web site: Rocky Mount Cemetery. files.usgwarchives.net. July 2, 2013.