Iberville.

(SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.)

Editor Louisiana Planter:

This week Iberville records the death of one of her most prominent and successful planters in the person of Hon. James A. Ware, who died on Saturday last at his home on the Belle Grove plantation and was buried on Monday in New Orleans. He had been in bad health for some time, though his relatives expected that his sturdy constitution would pull him through the ordeal. He leaves a widow and an only son, J. Stone Ware, who were with him at the time of his death; also two sisters, Mrs. F. W. Bocker, of Marshall, Texas, and Mrs. L. W. Mitchell, of Dallas; also four brothers, W. H. Ware of Marshall, John M. Ware of St. Landry, R. M. Ware, of New Orleans, and R. J. Ware, who attended to the store and financial end of the plantation. Mr. Ware was the owner of the Belle Grove and Celeste plantations and for thirty years has devoted himself almost exclusively to the cultivation of cane and the manufacture of sugar. He was born in Harrison county, Texas, in 1847, and at the youthful age of seventeen entered the ranks of the men in gray and served gallantly under the command of Gen. T. D. Wharton to the end of the Civil War. The war being over he started life in New Orleans, beginning the study of law, finally going into the commission business. At this time he married Miss Mary E. Stone, a daughter of the late Dr. J. P. R. Stone, formerly owner of the Evergreen plantation in this parish. In 1879, with his father, Henry Ware, he purchased the Belle Grove plantation, afterwards adding the Celeste, making one of the largest and finest cultivated tracts in the sugar belt. Mr. Ware was very active in politics, being for years a member of the State Legislature. He has always been a staunch Democrat and from 1879 to date has been a member of almost every state and parish convention.”

Source:  The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, Vol. 41, by Louisiana Sugar Planters’ Association, New Orleans, July 4, 1908, page 164