1925 Biography - Jared Y. Sanders, Jr.

Captain Jared Young Sanders, Jr. The bar of Louisiana has its full quota of able and loyal lawyers of the younger generation, the major number being natives of the state. Among these successful practitioners a place of relative precedence is consistently to be ascribed to Jared Y. Sanders, Jr., and he is a scion of old and honored southern families whose names have been prominent in the annals of Louisiana. He was in overseas service in the World war, in which connection he gained the rank of captain.

Captain Sanders was born in Franklin, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, April 20, 1892, a son of Jared Young Sanders, Sr., and a grandson of Jared Young Sanders, who became one of the most extensive and successful planters in the South and who died on his homestead plantation, near Morgan City, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, in the year 1881, his widow, whose maiden name was Bessie Wofford, being now a resident of the City of New Orleans. The original American representatives of the Sanders family came from England and settled in North Carolina in the early Colonial era. The Woffords likewise came from England and were numbered among the Colonial settlers in Virginia.

Jared Y. Sanders, Sr., who resides at Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish, was born on his father's plantation near Morgan City, St. Mary Parish, January 29, 1867, and he was a boy at the time of the family removal to Franklin, where he attended school until he was fifteen years of age. He then began to aid in the support of his widowed mother and the other children of the family, and his career has been one of constructive enterprise and consecutive advancement. He was for several years engaged in the insurance business, and thereafter became editor and publisher of the Mary Banner, a weekly paper at Franklin. While thus engaged he attended the law department of Tulane University, and after receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Franklin until 1908, in which year he was elected governor of Louisiana. In his term as chief executive of his native commonwealth, Governor Sanders gave a most careful and progressive administration, the record of which has become an admirable part of the history of Louisiana government. He had previously served two terms in the Lower House of the Louisiana Legislature, and he was speaker of the House of Representatives in the period of 1900-04, under the administration of Gov. W. W. Heard. Under the regime of Gov. Newton C. Blanchard, Mr. Sanders served as lieutenant governor from 1904 until 1908, in which latter year appreciative popular vote elected him governor of the state. Still higher honors were in store for him, for while he was serving as governor he was elected to the United States Senate, as successor of the late Douglas C. McEnery. However, he resigned this office without taking his seat in the National Senate, as he was actuated by his desire to continue his fight to have the Panama Exposition held in New Orleans. In this ambition he was frustrated, however, as San Francisco was selected as the stage of the great exposition. In 1912 Governor Sanders resumed the practice of law, in the City of New Orleans, and while still retaining his offices in that city, he removed in 1914 to Bogalusa, Washington Parish, where he was elected to the United States Congress, as representative of the Sixth Congressional District of Louisiana, his service in Congress continuing for two terms and being marked by the same high stewardship that had characterized all of his previous official service. He was a member of the Louisiana State Constitutional Convention of 1898, and also that of 1921. The Governor is a Knight Templar Mason, has received the thirty-second degree of the Masonic Scottish Rite, and is affiliated also with the Mystic Shrine. He wedded Miss Ada V. Shaw, of Fouke, Arkansas, and their only child is Jared Y., Jr., the immediate subject of this review.

The early education of Jared Y. Sanders, Jr., was acquired in public and private schools of St. Mary Parish, and continued in Dixon Military Academy, at Covington, this state. In 1908 he entered the University of Louisiana, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At the university he became a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, was a letter man in the basketball team, and was valedictorian of his class, besides having been in 1912 the editor of the university annual known as 'The Gumbo.' He was likewise a member of several of the university debating teams, and thus participated in inter-collegiate debating contests. In 1910 he was winner of the Gang Medal for public speaking. After his graduation in the Louisiana University Mr. Sanders was for one year a student in the law department of historic old Washington and Lee University, Virginia, and there he became affiliated with the Phi Delta Phi, the honorary legal fraternity, besides which he was a member of the inter-collegiate debating team of Washington and Lee. In 1913 he entered the law department of Tulane University, his graduation therein being as a member of the class of 1914, and his admission to the bar having been virtually coincident with his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In the meanwhile he had been for one year a student in the law department of the State University of Louisiana. .

Mr. Sanders was admitted to the bar in June, 1914, and his professional novitiate was served at Bogalusa, where he continued in practice until 1913, since which time he has been established in successful general practice in the City of Baton Rouge, except for the period of his service in the World war. He is senior member of the law firm of H Sanders & Gottlieb, with offices in Suite 318-19 New Reymond Building, his partner being Mr. S. J. Gottlieb, a member of one of the prominent families of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Mr. Sanders is a thoroughgoing adherent of the democratic party, his basic Masonic affiliation is with St. James Lodge, No. 47, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and in the Louisiana Grand Consistory, Scottish Rite, he has received the thirty-second degree. Mr. Sanders is an active member of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce and the East Baton Rouge Parish Bar Association, is attorney for and a director of the Commercial Securities Company and the Baton Rouge Building & Loan Association, and is distinctly loyal and progressive in his civic attitude, with deep interest in all that touches the welfare of his home city and native state. In the capital city he owns his attractive home property, at 2332 Wisteria Street.

In May, 1917, the month following that in which the nation became definitely involved in the World war. Mr. Sanders volunteered and was sent to the first Officers' Training Camp at Fort Logan H. Roots, in Arkansas, where he received, in July of that year, his commission as captain. He was transferred to Camp Pike and there assigned to Company B, Three Hundred and Forty-sixth Infantry, Eighty-seventh Division. With his command he was ordered to Camp Dix, New Jersey, to prepare for embarkation, and there he was transferred to the regimental staff in the capacity of Intelligence and Operations Officer. With his division he crossed the Atlantic in August, 1918, and after arriving at Le Havre, France, was sent to a position near Bordeaux, whence he was billeted to the base sector near St. Nazaire. In October, 1918, with other officers, he was sent to the Officers Line School at Langres, where he remained until December, when he rejoined his division, at St. Nazaire. Captain Sanders returned to the United States in March, 1919, and early in the following months received his honorable discharge, at Camp Dix.

At Little Rock, Arkansas, October 5, 1921, occurred the marriage of. Captain Sanders to Miss Mary Briggs, daughter of Charles H. and Eugenia Briggs, of that city, where the father is engaged in commercial printing and publishing. Mrs. Sanders attended Ward-Belmont College, Nashville, Tennessee, and her gracious personality has given her special popularity in the social circles of Baton Rouge. They have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth.

Note: The referenced source contains an autographed portrait of the subject.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 6-7.