Associate Justice L. B. Watkins was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, Oct. 9, 1836. His education was received at the Cumberland College in Kentucky, and at Bethel College in Tennessee. In 1854 he came to Louisiana, and studied law in the office of Watkins & George, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company G, Eighth Louisiana Regiment, and was mustered into service at Camp Moor. His regiment participated in the first battle of Manassas. He closed his career as soldier at the end of the war in Georgia, as captain and provost-general of the corps, having served through its entire length with a record for discharge of duty and gallantry on the field of action. At the close of the war he returned to Minden, Louisiana, and resumed the practice of law. In 1871 he was appointed Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District. Judge Watkins was appointed to the Supreme Bench by Governor McEnery in 1886. His address is soft, gentle, and pleasant, and he is ranked as one of the finest pleaders of the Louisiana Bar.
Associate Justice Samuel D. McEnery is a native of Louisiana, and was educated at the Naval Academy of the United States at Annapolis, and at the University of Virginia. He graduated at law in 1859 from the National Law School at Poughkeepsie, New York. He served all through the war as an officer of the Confederate Army, and afterward took front rank among those who sought to redeem the home of his birth from the ruthless hand of the despoiler. He lived in Monroe, Ouachita Parish, and practised his profession there up to 1878. Judge McEnery refused all official honors, but in that year he was persuaded to accept the nomination for the Lieutenant-Governorship on the ticket with Governor Wiltz. During the long sickness which preceded Governor Wiltz's death, Judge McEnery was acting governor, and upon the demise of that gentleman, took the oath of office in October, 1881, as Governor of Louisiana. A deter mined fight was made against the re-election of Governor McEnery, but he was triumphantly renominated by the State convention of 1883, and reelected the following April.
Toward the close of his administration an intensely bitter feeling sprang up between the partisans of McEnery and Nicholls. In order to avoid dividing the democracy of the State, a party of which he had been a lifelong and most loyal follower, Governor McEnery prevailed upon his friends to forego the presentation of his name to the convention as a candidate. One of the first acts of Governor Nicholls, upon his installation, was the appointment of his predecessor in office to the then existing vacancy on the Supreme Bench. The same distinguished ability which marked his incumbency of the gubernatorial chair is displayed in the justice's rulings and opinions, and his treatment of the intricate and vexatious problems which came before him as a member of the court.
