Adolphe Lafargue

Adolphe Jolna Lafargue (October 3, 1855 – January 24, 1917) was a lawyer, Democratic politician, and newspaper publisher in his native Marksville in Avoyelles Parish in south central Louisiana.^[1]

Background

Descended from a prominent family originally from the Pyrenees Mountains, Lafargue's father, Pierre Adolphe Lafargue (1818-1869), was born in Orthez, France. The senior Lafargue later dropped "Pierre" from his name and was known only as "Adolphe Lafargue." While he was teaching school in Natchitoches Parish, he wed the former Zepherine Michel Zorich, a member of an influential family from the Rachal community. They had a daughter and two sons, Adolphe and Arnaud, both of whom became members of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The senior Lafargue subsequently became a professor of French and mathematics at the former Jefferson College in Convent in St. James Parish in South Louisiana and then at Tulane University in New Orleans, known then as the "University of Louisiana". He subsequently settled in Marksville and became superintendent of public instruction for Avoyelles Parish. In 1856, he founded Marksville High School. He was also a mayor of Marksville.^[2] The senior Lafargue started the newspaper then named The Pelican and later The Marksville Villager.^[3]

Career

Adolphe Jolna Lafargue was educated at the former Jefferson College and then studied law at what became Tulane University. He returned to Marksville in 1880 to publish and edit The Marksville Bulletin,^[2] later The Marksville Weekly News, the name still in use. The publication is the oldest continuously operating newspaper in Louisiana.^[4] In 1878, Adolphe Lafargue married Annie Winn Irion (1860-1890), the daughter of U. S. Representative Alfred Briggs Irion of Louisiana's 6th congressional district, which then stretched northward into Avoyelles Parish.

In 1884, Governor Samuel D. McEnery named Lafargue the Avoyelles Parish assessor. In 1886, Lafargue was appointed clerk of court. Both positions are now elected.^[2] Considered an excellent orator, Adolphe Lafargue was elected to the Louisiana House in 1892.^[5] In 1899, near the end of his second legislative term, Governor Murphy J. Foster, Sr., named him to fill an unexpired term as judge of the state 10th Judicial District. In 1912, he was elected judge of the 14th District, a position that he held until shortly before his death.^[2]

Family

Lafargue's brother, Arnaud D. Lafargue, served in the Louisiana House from 1916 to 1917. The brothers died the same year. Arnaud Lafargue was succeeded in the House by Willam A. Morrow, who eighteen years earlier had succeeded Adolphe Lafargue in the same position.^[5]

Oldest son Walter Lafargue of Thibodaux was first the assistant principal of Thibodaux College and thereafter the long-term superintendent of schools in Lafourche Parish.^[6] Third son Alvan Lafargue was a physician for fifty years and from 1926 to 1938 the three-term mayor of Sulphur in Calcasieu Parish in southwestern Louisiana. He had been one of the first settlers of Sulphur and founded a hospital and a bi-parish fair there.^[7] A Lafargue grandson, Malcolm Lafargue, son of Edwin Louis Lafargue, was from 1941 to 1950 the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport. He resigned to run unsuccessfully for the United State Senate against his fellow Democrat Russell B. Long.^[8]

References