Early Life and Education
Elam was born near Hope in Hempstead County in southern Arkansas, to William Jefferson Elam, an educator from Virginia. The family moved to Coryell County, Texas, in 1823 where a brother, Charles Wheaton Elam, was born. In 1826, they relocated to Natchitoches, Louisiana, where a sister, Mary Jane Elam, was born. By 1833, the family moved to Fort Jessup, Louisiana, the westernmost outpost of the United States at that time, where William Jefferson Elam tutored the officers' sons. Another brother, John Waddill Elam, was born there in 1833.
Elam was educated at Fort Jessup. Later, he read law with his cousin John Waddill in Alexandria, Louisiana. Waddill helped the kidnapped freeman Solomon Northup to obtain his freedom in court proceedings in 1853. Elam was admitted to the bar in October, 1843, and began his practice in Alexandria, Louisiana. He moved to Sabine Parish and settled in Many, Louisiana in 1844.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Barton Elam
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or education:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
““next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims” and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ‘tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jing by gee by gosh by gum”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“But the mother’s yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the debased, degraded man.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“... in the education of women, the cultivation of the understanding is always subordinate to the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishment ...”
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)