1925 Biography - John McGrath

John McGrath, who died in his ninetieth year, lived retired at Baton Rouge, and had a career of singular experience and service, both as a military man and a public official.

He was born at Bangor, Maine, May 25, 1835, but for the greater part of his life was a resident of Louisiana. His father, Martin McGrath, was killed in the Seminole Indian war of 1837-38. His mother, Catherine Rouark, died of yellow fever in September, 1853. John McGrath lived as a boy at Baton Rouge, and his education was chiefly derived from work in the printing office of the Baton Rouge Gazette and a brief attendance at public schools.

When a youth of twenty years he joined William Walker's expedition to Nicaragua, and was gone about two years, being twice wounded while in the service. Returning to Louisiana, he resumed his work as a printer, and when the war broke out between the states he at once enlisted in the Confederate army and became captain of Company G of the Thirteenth Louisiana infantry, he participated in all the battles fought by the army of Tennessee, being under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph Johnston, Braxton Bragg and Hood. He was twice wounded during the war.

In the printing business General McGrath is remembered for his long service as an editor and publisher for twenty-six years of the Daily Truth. From 1866 until 1877 he served as recorder of deeds and mortgages at Baton Rouge, was deputy collector of internal revenue for four years during the first term of President Cleveland, and served as commissary general of Louisiana during the Spanish-American war. He was for four years state printer during the term of Governor Foster, and was for twenty years a member of the State Board of Pensions, serving as president of the board for eight years.

Mr. McGrath was a democrat, was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, was a Catholic and a member of the Confederate Veterans and the Veteran Firemen. He married at Baton Rouge, in 1858, Lavinia Ann Smith, daughter of Jacob Smith, and a descendant of Nicholas Smith, who served under Washington during the Revolutionary war, being a member of a Pennsylvania regiment. Mr. McGrath had two daughters, Mattie B. and Julia J.

The following tribute to General McGrath was given in a local publication:

A governor of a great state, a governor-elect, and hundreds of Louisiana's citizens of high and lesser rank met at the bier of Gen. John McGrath a weeks ago and paid silent tribute to that venerable man who as a hero of two wars, editor, publicist and philanthropist, endeared himself to the entire southland.

Baton Rouge, especially, owed a debt of gratitude to General McGrath, for it was here that he came as a boy of ten, and it was here that he labored for many years, absenting himself from it only when adventure called him to the tropics and when for four long years he bore arms and fought for what he deemed the right. As an editor General McGrath wielded his pen for every cause that he thought just: he helped rebuild the Village of Baton Rouge during the trying days of the reconstruction; he saw the village grow into a town, and before he passed away he saw Baton Rouge take her rightful place as one of the principal cities of the South.

General McGrath has answered the last roll call on this earth, and he has joined his comrades of other days, but to his sorrowing relative we would say:

"Weep not for him, who has lived such a complete and useful life, for the name of McGrath shall live as long as the pages of history shall endure."

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, page 60.