John Smith Young (1834-1916) is the son of Dr. John Y. Young (1793-1868) and Eliza Henry Jones Young (1807-1882). He was born in North Carolina and raised in Arkansas. He enrolled at Centenary College of Louisiana in 1852 and graduated in 1855. He subsequently worked as a school teacher, then became a lawyer. He served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Young practiced law in Homer, Louisiana, and served in the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana’s fifth district from 1878 to 1879. In 1881, he moved to Shreveport, where he continued to work as a lawyer. He also served as sheriff of Caddo Parish from 1892 to 1900. Young was married to Frances Rhoda Hodges Young (1848–1891), then Mattie Hamilton Young (1845-1922); he had four sons.