| Richard Maxwell Drew | |
|---|---|
| State Representative from Claiborne Parish | |
| In office 1848 – 1850 |
|
| Preceded by | Unknown |
| Succeeded by | S. Smith |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 26, 1822 Overton community Near Minden Then Claiborne Parish Louisiana, USA |
| Died | July 11, 1850 (aged 28) Overton community Now Webster Parish |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Jessie Cleveland |
| Children | Richard Cleveland Drew |
| Occupation | Attorney |
Richard Maxwell Drew (June 26, 1822–July 11, 1850) was an attorney and politician in Claiborne Parish in north Louisiana whose family was among the first settlers of what is now Webster Parish, established in 1871 as a breakaway from Claiborne Parish.
Drew was a son of Newitt (or Newett) Drew, a native of Southampton County in Virginia, who later moved to Wilson County, Tennessee, and then northwestern Louisiana. Richard Maxwell Drew was born in his father's Overton community on Dorcheat Bayou near Minden, the parish seat of Webster Parish. The community was subsequently wiped out by yellow fever. Drew's brother, Thomas Stevenson Drew, who was twenty years his senior, became the governor of Arkansas in 1844.[1][2][3] Thomas Drew was the namesake of Drew County, Arkansas.[2][4][5]
R. M. Drew married the former Sarah Jessie Cleveland (1828–1880). At seventeen, he was already practicing law. At twenty-three in 1845, he was a district judge in Claiborne Parish (prior to the establishment of Webster Parish),[6][7] and a delegate to the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1845.[4] For the last two years of his short life, Drew was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives.[8][9]
Drew died shortly after his 28th birthday. His son, Richard Cleveland Drew, and grandson, Harmon Caldwell Drew, were subsequently judges of both the Webster Parish district court.[10] and the state circuit court, the only father-son combination thus far on the latter court.[11] R. M. Drew's great-grandson, R. Harmon Drew, Sr., was a municipal judge and a state representative. His great-great-grandson, Harmon Drew, Jr., serves on the same circuit court as did his grandfather and great-grandfather.[11]
Drew is interred at an abandoned cemetery off Interstate 20 at Overton. The epitaph on his tombstone, which was damaged several years ago by a bulldozer operating in the area, reads: "His public and private virtues have survived his death and will endure when this dumb marble shall have faded."[12][13]