Robert Jesse Willson

From 1974 letter by Annie Wagner (Hanna): Robert Jesse Willson (my grandfather), was sent at a very early age to a boarding school in New Orleans, and later attended the Roman Catholic convent at Grand Couteau, Louisiana, and then went to Jefferson College (a Jesuit school) at Convent, Louisiana."

Robert Jesse Willson was a planter by occupation, but he occupied several official positions. In 1860, he was elected to the state senate as a Whig, defeating Judge J. N. T. Richardson, notwithstanding the district was largely Democratic. This was due to his personal popularity. For many years he was a clerk at the Louisiana State Supreme Court, serving under Manning and Bermudez courts.

He served as Clerk of the U.S. District Court, Clerk of the Northern Louisiana section of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, when the court sat in Monroe as well as New Orleans. Later he was deputy clerk of the Ouachita Parish District Court. Throughout this time, he was a planter.

Letter 1980 from Annie Wager (Hanna): "Thank you for sending me the family information from the 1900 census of Ouachita Parish. Some of the items interest me greatly - e.g. the listing of my grandfather, Robert Willson, as a “dairyman.” Somehow I never thought of him that way. It is true, however, after he sold Ellerslie Plantation on Island DeSaird, he bought property a few miles south of Monroe (now in the Monroe city limits) and there established a dairy and truck farm known as “Kewanee,” but he continued his work in Monroe as deputy clerk of the Ouachita Parish District Court. My grandmother, Annie Lundy Willson, was actually the manager of the dairy, supervising the workers, sending out the bills, etc."