Louisiana AHGP

Part of the American History and Genealogy Project

William Wirt Culpepper, M. D.

William Wirt Culpepper, M. D., is a Georgian by birth, born in Houston County, October 8, 1834, to Charles S. and Nancy (Cunyus) Culpepper, who were born, reared and married in Georgia, removing to Louisiana about 1850, and settling in Jackson Parish. The mother having died in 1818, the father married again and reared a family by his last wife. He passed from life in 1872. Dr. William Wirt Culpepper attained manhood in Jackson Parish, Louisiana, and in 1801, left home to enlist in the Confederate Army, becoming a member of the Second Louisiana Infantry, and served until he received his discharge for disability from a wound which he had received. He was in the engagements at Great Bethel Church and Malvern Hill, and on the last day of the seven days' fight he was wounded in the right knee by grape shot and permanently disabled. After being in the hospital for some time he was furloughed home, where' he was afterward elected sheriff of Jackson Parish, and this position he held for about two years.

Soon after arriving at mature years he began the study of medicine, and took his first course of lectures at New Orleans in 1855, and had practiced some prior to the opening of the Rebellion. He once more began practicing, after finishing his duties as sheriff, going soon after to Rapides Parish, where he remained some three years. In 1869 he again went, to Now Orleans and took a second course of lectures, and in the spring of 1870 was graduated as an M. D., locating soon after in Webster Parish, where he remained for some ten years.

On January 7, 1880, he moved to Claiborne Parish, and has been practicing in the vicinity of Athens ever since, and has become widely and favorably known in his social life as well as professional capacity. In connection with his practice be has of late years also carried on a farm, at which he is doing well.

He was married in Jackson Parish, on February 14, 1865, to Miss Anna I, Barnes, a native of Mississippi, but reared in Louisiana, by her father, James Barnes. She died in 1873, leaving two sous: James Curran and William Tell. The Doctor's second marriage took place in 1876, to Miss Anna Isabelle Hise of this State and parish, a daughter of Aaron Hise, by whom he has four children: Charles Stewart, Joseph Hiram, Vernon Hise and Winfred Wirt. The Doctor and his wife are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and he is an A. F. & A. M.

Biographical Sketches| Claiborne Parish

Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, Southern Publishing Company, 1890