William Wright Heard

from 1900 to 1904.

Early life

Heard was educated in a local school in Union Parish. In years to come, he remembered the challenges of educating children that rural residents met. Education was one of his major concerns for the residents of the state; hence, as governor, he formed the first Louisiana State Board of Education.

Heard married the former Isbella E. Manning on December 3, 1878. The couple had two children: William Wright Heard, Jr. and Alma, who died as a toddler.

Public service

In 1884, Heard was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives representing Union Parish. After a single 4-year term, Heard was then elected to the Louisiana Senate in 1888 for a 4-year term. In 1892, Heard was elected the Louisiana state auditor where he served for two terms of 8 years. As a protege of the outgoing incumbent governor, Murphy James Foster, Sr., he was controversially hand-picked by Foster to succeed him at the Democratic convention of 1900. He was considered a Silver Democrat with Populist tendencies.

At the general election, he defeated two Republicans running on separate tickets, both of whom received less than 22% of the vote in total following the mass-scale disenfranchisement of Black voters via Jim Crow laws. Reflecting this was the dramatic decline in voting, from a post-Reconstruction high in the 1896 statewide election of over 203,000 votes down to only 76,000 by 1900. Not until 1940 would more than 200,000 voters participate in a general election for governor. With this election, too, marked the last time Republicans would have any real presence in the legislature until the 1960s.

Heard was inaugurated governor on May 8, 1900, and held this office until May 10, 1904. His term was fairly low-key compared to other colorful and dynamic personalities that held that office and he was considered to be a "bureaucratic" governor.

It was during Heard's term that the discovery of oil was made by W. Scott Heywood and Associates. This company completed Jennings Oil Company Number 1, Jules Clement, at Evangeline on September 21, 1901. This was the start of the vital Louisiana oil and gas industry. Coupled the wealth of this industry with the rise of forestry and the earlier discovery of Sulfur, the state was sent on a new wave of economic growth. Eventually, Heard's home state became one of major American producer of oil and natural gas in addition to a center of petroleum refining and petrochemicals manufacturing, which it remains to this day with off-shore drillings.

The Louisiana Revised Statutes specify that the Governor of the State of Louisiana shall determine the design of the official state seal. To standardize a design for the seal, Governor William Wright Heard instructed the Secretary of State in 1902 to use a seal described as:"A Pelican, with its head turned to the left, in nest with three young; the Pelican, following the tradition in act of tearing its breast to feed its young; around the edge of the seal to be inscribed 'State of Louisiana'. Over head of the Pelican to be inscribed 'Union, Justice', and under the Pelican to be inscribed 'Confidence'."The description of the seal included the motto, which Gov. William Heard had chosen: Union, Justice, Confidence. This seal was adopted on April 30, 1902.

Two other noted achievements of Heard's term were forming the State Prison System, thus eliminating private contracted prisons. He also was instrumental in forming the State Department of Pest Control, thus trying to control the hated cotton weevil.

Serving in public office most of his early life, William Heard became a banker in New Orleans after his single term as governor.

Heard is buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans.

Lineage

William Wright Heard was born near the rural community of Shiloh in Union Parish north of Ruston. He was the son of Stephen Southard Heard and Mary Ann Wright. They are buried at Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery in Dubach along with other allied members of the Heard family. Coming from a long lineage of southern pioneers, his ancestors included John Stovall, Owen Griffin, John Anderson and Charles Heard, all Revolutionary War patriots. Stephen Heard RS, one of the first governors of Georgia, was also from this noble line. As with most members of his family, he was Baptist.

External links

* [http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/389/Default.aspx State of Louisiana - Biography]
* [http://www.la-cemeteries.com/Governors/Heard,%20William%20Wright/Heard,%20William%20Wright.shtml Cemetery Memorial] by La-Cemeteries