James Mason Elam was born in Nottoway County, Virginia January 30, 1796 and died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana November 7, 1856. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and later served as Ensign aboard the U.S.S. Guerriere under the command of Captain Stephen Decatur, he was part of the crew that went on in 1815 to attack the Barbary Pirates off the coast of Algeria.
In 1820, Elam moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and became a lawyer. He ran unsuccessfully as a Whig for the United States House of Representatives in the Third District of Louisiana against John Bennett Dawson in 1843. His son, James Essex Elam was elected Mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. James M. Elam died on November 7, 1856 and was buried in the family plot in the Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge.