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FABACHER, Joseph Henry, farmer, businessman. Born, New Orleans, August 28, 1858; son of Franz Joseph Fabacher of Busenberg, Germany, and Magdelena Frey of Rosenwiller, Alsace. Education: local schools. Married (1), 1880, Dora Ginkel (1860-1904), daughter of Abraham Ginkel and Charity Ginkel. Children: Andrew (b. 1881), Francis (Franz) Lawrence (b. 1886), Magdelena (b. 1888), Joseph (b. 1890), John Lawrence (b. 1892), Cecilia Dora (b. 1894), Albert Clarence (b. 1896), Agnes Barbara (b. 1898), Leo Peter (b. 1899), Theodore (b. 1900). Married (2), 1906, Annie Crossan (1875-1943) in 1906. One child: Hazel (b. 1906). Active in the settlement of Southwest Louisiana by German nationals. Credited with the introduction of the culture of rice in Acadia Parish. Served as postmaster in Canal, now Frey, La. Died, New Orleans, February 2, 1910; interred St. Joseph Cemetery I. L.P.C. Sources: William Henry Perrin, Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical (1891; reprint ed., 1971); Fabacher Family Papers.
FABRY DE LA BRUYERE, André, colonial official, explorer. Arrived in Louisiana in 1735, as Bienville’s secretary. In 1736 took part in the first Chickasaw war. In 1739, went to Frence to obtain a brevet as scrivener. During his stay in France, wrote several memoirs for Minister of Marine Maurepas. Returned to Louisiana in time to participate in the second Chickasaw war (1739-1740). In 1741 led an expedition of fifteen to Santa Fe, charged to observe and record the geography, botany, geology and astronomy of the region as well as to expand French trade in Spanish-held territories. Returned to New Orleans in November 1742. Having supervised army expeditures in Louisiana from 1743 to 1744, went to France in 1747, on Le Chameau, to present his accounts. The ship sank May 28, and Fabry lost all his papers. He remained in Paris for twenty months, being finally awarded 1,200 livres on October 13, 1748. During his stay, wrote a “Memoir on Louisiana” (November, 1747). In early 1749, wrote a proposal for establishing tobacco plantations and commerce in lumber in the colony. M.A. Sources: Pierre Margry, ed., Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l’ouest et dans le sud de l’Amérique septentrionale (1614-1754), 6 vols., IV, (1880); France. Bibliothèque Nationale, manuscrits français, nouvelle acquisitions, vol. 9301, folios 354-356; Marsha Royce Blaime, “French Efforts to Reach Santa Fe: André Fabry de la Bruyère’s Voyage Up the Canadian River in 1741-1742,” Louisiana History, XX (1979).
FALCON, Cléoma Breaux, musician (guitar), singer. Born 1905; daughter of August Breaux and sister of Amédé Breaux (q.v.). First Cajun woman to record, 1928; with husband Joseph Falcon (q.v.) recorded from the 1920s into the 1940s. Recordings include “J’ai passé devant ta porte” (Mon coeur t’apelle). B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.
FALCON, Joseph. musician (accordion), vocalist, bandleader, composer. Born, Robert’s Cove, Acadia Parish, La., September 28, 1900. Married Cléoma Breaux (q.v.). With wife, became first Cajun musicians to record with the release of “Allons à Lafayette,” 1928. Continued to record during 1920s and 1930s. Leader, Silver String Band. Often performed with Breaux Brothers, Ophé and Cléopha. An important figure in Cajun music after World War II. Died, Crowley, La., November 19, 1965. B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.
FANT, Clyde E., mayor of Shreveport. Born, Linden, Tex., 1916; son of John P. Fant. Education: Marshall College (now East Texas Baptist College). Taught school for one year. Appointed Shreveport Commissioner of Public Untilities in 1944. Served as mayor, 1946-1954; 1958-1970. Never defeated in an election. Directed slum rehabilitation and riverfront development. In 1948, was one of four American mayors invited to The Hague, Netherlands, for conference of International Union of Municipalities. In 1953, selected as Louisiana’s mayor of the year. Married Margaret Moos. Children: Clyde, Jr., and John F. Died, July 6, 1973. P.L.M. Source: Clyde Fant Scrapbooks, LSU-Shreveport Archives.
FARMER, William Wood, Sr., planter, surveyor, state legislator, lieutenant governor. Born, August 27, 1813; eldest of eight children to Mills Farmer and Susannah Wood. Married Pamelia Mason, Ouachita Parish, March 21, 1839; children: William Wood, Jr. (b. 1840) and Susan (b. 1849). When Union Parish was created out of Ouachita in 1839, he served successively as justice of the peace (1839), road commissioner (1840), member on the five mem-ber public school board (1841), and tax assessor (1843). He was a successful planter and owned several slaves. He was a professional surveyor, often doing work for the United States government. Served two terms in the state legislature, and in 1853 he was elected lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket with Gov. Paul Octave Hébert. Died of yellow fever while in the city to collect surveying debts from the United States government, New Orleans, October 29, 1854. Temporarily interred in the Protestant Girod Street Cemetery in New Orleans, but a joint committee, appointed on January 15, 1855, by the general assembly, removed his remains to his present burial site in the Farmerville Cemetery. G.I. Sources: New Orleans Daily Picayune, October 30, 1854; E. Russ Williams, ed., Encyclopedia of Individuals and Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley of Louisiana from 1785-1850 (1996); Max H. Williams, ed., Union Parish (Louisiana) Historical Records. Police Jury Minutes. 1839-1846 (1995); Harry F. Dill and William Simpson, Some Slaveholders and Their Slaves, Union Parish, 1839-1865 (1997).
FARRAGUT, David Glasgow (born James Glasgow Farragut), sailor. Born, Campbell’s Station, near Knoxville, Tenn., July 5, 1801; second of five children of George Farragut and Elizabeth Shine. Family removed to New Orleans, La., in 1807; mother died when he was seven; adopted by David Porter. Education: Washington, D. C., and Chester, Pa., the latter the home of his guardian; appointed midshipman, December 17, 1810; commanded prize ship Alexander Barclay at the age of twelve; distinguished himself in the engagement between the U. S. S. Essex and the Phoebe and Cherub, March 28, 1814, in the harbor of Valparaiso; a prisoner on parole until exchanged in November 1814. Changed his name from James to David, apparently in honor of his guardian (1814); stationed in the Mediterranean, 1815-1820; learned to speak French, Italian, Spanish and Arabic; returned to U. S. in 1821 to take preliminary examination for promotion to rank of lieutenant, which he failed; served chiefly in the Gulf of Mexico, 1822-1825; obtained his lieutenancy in 1825; generally on shore duty at Norfolk, 1825-1854; ordered to West Coast, August 1854, to establish a navy yard at Mare Island; commissioned captain, September 14, 1855; returned to Norfolk in 1859, where he was awaiting orders when Virginia seceded, April 17, 1861. Despite his birth in Tennessee and relatives in Louisiana, Farragut’s state loyalty was to Virginia. But his service in the navy influenced him to remain loyal; moved family the following day to Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N.Y. Civil War service: virtually unemployed because of his Southern descent until January 9, 1862, when he was given command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and ordered to capture New Orleans; sailed from Hampton Roads in his flagship, the Hartford, February 2, 1862, for Ship Island, Miss., where he organized the mightiest fleet ever assembled by the United States to date; captured New Orleans April 25, 1862; commissioned rear admiral July 30, the first officer in that grade in the U. S. Navy (unconfirmed until January 9, 1863); found Vicksburg impregnable to naval attack; after mid-July concentrated on blockade duties, and had secured the entire Gulf Coast, except for Mobile, by December; suffered several reverses in early 1863; mistakenly believed the successful passage of Port Hudson by two vessels on March 14 was a significant victory; sailed for New York City August 1; returned to the gulf in January 1864; entered Mobile Bay August 5; Fort Gaines surrendered August 7 and Fort Morgan, August 23; ordered to command the expedition against the defenses of Wilmington, N. C., but given a leave of absence because of his failing health; arrived in New York City December 12; presented with $50,000 by that city’s leading citizens in expectation that he would become a resident of the city which he did; when the office of vice-admiral was established December 23, he was immediately named to fill it. Remained in navy after the war; commissioned admiral July 26, 1866. In 1869 suffered a severe heart attack in Chicago, from which he never fully recovered. Married (1), September 24, 1823, Susan C. Marchant, of Norfolk, Va. Married (2), December 26, 1843, Virginia Loyall, eldest daughter of William Loyall, resident of Norfolk. One child, Loyall. Member, Protestant Episcopal church late in life. Died, Portsmouth, N.H., August 14, 1870; interred Portsmouth; reinterred at the request of the citizens of New York in Woodlawn Cemetery, Westchester County, N.Y., September 30, 1870. L.L.H. Sources: Lawrence L. Hewitt, Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi (1987); Dictionary of American Biography, VI (1946).
FARRAR, Edgar Howard, attorney, civic leader. Born, Concordia Parish, La., June 20, 1849; son of Thomas Prince Farrar and Anna Girault. Education: University of Virginia, M. A., 1871; studied law, University of Louisiana; admitted to bar, 1872. Married, 1878, Lucinda Davis Stamps; two sons, five daughters. Member of law firm Farrar, Goldberg, and Dufour. Considered an authority on tax law. Served as president, American Bar Association; temporary chairman, Gold Democratic Convention that nominated Palmer for president against William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley. Selected, 1882, by Paul Tulane (q.v.) as a trustee for Tulane University. Chairman, Executive Committee of 100 to reform municipal government in New Orleans. Chairman, Committee of Safety to prosecute murderers of Chief of Police David Hennessy (q.v.). A leader in the movement to abolish the Louisiana Lottery. President, Louisiana Tax Commisison, 1906-1908. Died, summer home, Biloxi, Miss., January 6, 1922. G.R.C. Sources: Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942; New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 7, 1922.
FAUCHEUX, Wilhelm Joseph, Sr., businessman, politician. Born, Gramercy, La., May 21, 1889; son of Arcise Vicknair and Cleophas Faucheux. Married Martha Roussel, daughter of Elmire St. Pierre and Christophe Roussel. Children: Marguerite, Myrtis, Wilhelm, Jr., Robert, Rose Mary. Active in state and local politics. Associated with Lutcher and Moore Cypress Lumber Co. Represented St. James Parish as state representative, 1940-1944. Automobile dealer. Died, July 3, 1944, interred St. Joseph Cemetery, Paulina, La. R.F.S. Source: Author’s research.
FAVROT, George K., jurist, politician, congressman. Born, Baton Rouge, La., November 26, 1868; son of Charles Didier Favrot and Fannie Kent. Education: attended local schools; Louisiana State University, graduated 1888; law department of Tulane University, graduated 1890; admitted to the bar the same year. Commenced practice in Baton Rouge; served as district attorney of the Twenty-second Judicial District, 1892-1896; delegate at large to the state constitutional convention, 1898; again served as district attorney, 1900-1904; district judge, 1904-1906; served as a Democrat in Sixtieth Congress, 1907-1909; member of the state house of representatives, 1912-1916; elected to the Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth congresses; resumed the practice of law in Baton Rouge; elected judge of Division B of the Nineteenth Judicial District Court in 1926 and served until his death in Baton Rouge, December 26, 1934; interred Roselawn Memorial Park. Survived by wife Elvina Reddy. J.B.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950); Stanley C. Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (1931; reprint ed., 1971); Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, obituary, December 27, 1934.
FAVROT, Joseph St. Clair, jurist, civic leader. Born, Dallas, Tex., August 14, 1906; son of the elder Favrot and Lucy Holcombe Kendall. Education: Baton Rouge schools, Louisiana State University. Worked in Washington for the government and then for United Press International; later became night editor of the Atlanta Constitution. Attended George Washington University Law School; took law degree from Louisiana State University. Began practice of law in Baton Rouge, 1938. Married, 1940, Dorris Melisse Coleman of Jena, La. Elected city judge, 1944; later served eight years as district attorney. Resumed private practice in 1960. Served, 1958-1959, as president of National District Attorneys Association. Helped found the Baton Rouge Assembly, serving as first chairman. Active in historic preservation. Published a history of early Baton Rouge. Member, Boston Club, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, National Press Club, Foundation for Historical Louisiana. Died, August 31, 1976. C.H.B. Source: Author’s research.
FAVROT, Pierre Joseph de, soldier, administrator. Born, New Orleans, July 16, 1749; son of Claude Joseph de Favrot and Louise Elizabeth Bruslé. Married Francesca Gérard. Eleven children. Began military career first in the Indian campaigns. In 1778 received Spanish commission as captain. Served under Bernardo de Gálvez (q.v.), taking part in the campaign against Manchac and Baton Rouge. Named commandant of the fort at Baton Rouge and acted as judge in the notorious Mary Glass (q.v.) trial. Served as commandant at Mobile, 1784-1787. In 1796 given command of the post at Plaquemines and served there until 1803. Died at his home, Monte Vista, in West Baton Rouge Parish, 1824. C.H.B. Source: Helen Parkhurst, “Don Pedro, A Creole Pepys,” Baton Rouge State Times, December 1942.
FAY, Amy, pianist, teacher. Born, Bayou Goula, La., May 21, 1844. Her father, Dr. Charles Fay, Episcopal minister and Harvard graduate, taught his children Latin, Greek, French, and German. Learned piano first from her mother, an accomplished amateur pianist. Studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 1869, went to Germany to study with Carl Tausig and Theodor Kullak. Studied also in Weimar with Franz Liszt. Returned to America, 1876. Gave concerts in New York and on tour, then settled in New York as teacher and (specializing in the Deppe method) and recitalist. Published her letters from Germany as Music Study in Germany (1885), frequently reprinted. Died, Watertown, Mass., February 28, 1928. M.A. Sources: Amy Fay, Music Study in Germany (1896; reprint ed., 1979); Nicolas Slonimske, ed., Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1984).
FEARN, John Walker, attorney, diplomat. Born, Huntsville, Ala., January 13, 1832; son of Richard Lee Fearn, M. D., and Mary Jane Walker, sister of Leroy P. Walker, Confederate secretary of war, and daughter of U. S. Senator John W. Walker of Alabama. Education: private academy of Dr. Norman Pinney, Mobile; graduate of Yale, 1851; studied law under Judge John A. Campbell. Married Fanny Hewitt, daughter of James Hewitt, New Orleans merchant. Children, one son and one daughter. Admitted to Alabama bar, 1853; secretary of legation, Belgium, 1853-1856; secretary of legation, Mexico, 1856-1859; law practice, Mobile, 1859-1860; secretary to Confederate agents in Europe, William Yancey, Pierre A. Rost (q.v.), and A. Dudley Mann, 1861-1862; lieutenant colonel, Confederate Army, on staffs of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and William Preston, 1862-1863; secretary to Confederate mission of L.Q.C. Lamar to Russia, 1862-1863; secretary to Confederate mission of William Preston to Maximilian’s Mexican empire, 1864; law practice, New Orleans, 1866-1885; alleged professor of Romance Languages, University of Louisiana (now Tulane University); 1884-1885; minister resident and consul general to Greece, Rumania, Serbia, and Yugoslavia from April 18, 1885, to October 24, 1889; established international law firm with offices in New York and London, ca. 1889; chief, Department of Foreign Affairs, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1891-1893; member, International Mixed Tribunal, Egypt, 1893-1896. Died, Hot Springs, Virginia, April 7, 1899. T.D.S. Sources: Dictionary of American Biography, VI (1946); National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XII (1906); U. S. Dept. of State, United States Chiefs of Mission, 1778-1973 (1973).
FEAZEL, William C., oilman, politician, United States senator. Born, near Farmerville, La., June 10, 1895. Education: local schools. Married, January 12, 1912, Cynthia Day. An independent oil and gas producer; member of the state house of representatives, 1932-1936; appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John H. Overton (q.v.) and served from May 18, 1948, to December 30, 1948; was not a candidate for election to the office in 1948. Resumed the oil and gas business in Monroe and Shreveport, La.; part owner of the old Shreveport Sports baseball club; voted “Mr. Democrat” by the Louisiana Democratic party in 1960. Resident of West Monroe. Died, Shreveport, La., March 16, 1965; interred Hasley Cemetery, West Monroe. J.B.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Official Congressional Directory, 80th Congress (1948); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, March 17, 1965.
FENNER, Charles Erasmus [I], attorney, jurist, civic leader. Born, Jackson, Tenn., February 14, 1834; son of Erasmus Darwin Fenner ([I]q.v.) and Annie America Callier. Education: public schools of New Orleans; Western Military Institute of Kentucky (valedictorian); University of Virginia. Entered law firm of Benjamin, Micou, and Finney as student while enrolled in law department of University of Louisiana (now Tulane University); LL. B., 1855. Formed partnership with Lewis E. Simonds. Civil War: formed military unit of Louisiana Guards. Entered Confederate service day after Ft. Sumter fired upon. Assigned to Pensacola; became part of Dreux’s Battalion. Served in Virginia. Formed Fenner’s Battery of artillery. Served at Port Hudson, in Georgia, and Tennessee. Surrendered with Richard Taylor (q.v.) in Meridian, Miss. Returned to New Orleans, formed partnership with Gustave A. Breaux (q.v.). Married Carrie Payne, daughter of J. U. Payne. Children: Charles Payne, Erasmus Darwin [II], Guy C., and Gladys (Mrs. Edward J. Gay II). Named associate justice, Louisiana Supreme Court, 1880; resigned, 1894. President, R. E. Lee Monument Association. Instrumental in the erection of Lee Monument, delivered the unveiling oration, 1884. Vice-president, then president, board of administrators, Tulane Fund; instrumental in organization of Tulane University. Member, Peabody Education Fund. Died, New Orleans, October 24, 1911; interred Washington Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: New Orleans Daily Picayune, October 25, 1911; Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942.
FENNER, Charles Erasmus [II] cousin of the subject above), attorney, broker, humanitarian. Born, Guatemala City, Guatemala, September 4, 1876; son of the American consul Darwin Ponton Fenner and Amanda Logan. Removed to New Orleans at age 12 after death of father. Education: Tulane University, graduated 1896; University of Virginia, law degree, 1898. Married Virginia Schriever of New Orleans. Children: Virginia (b. 1905), Darwin Schriever (q.v.), and Laura (b. 1912). Career: practiced law in New Orleans, 1898-1901; became a brokerage clerk; was partner in brokerage firm of Fenner and Solari, 1905-1915; co-founded firm of Fenner and Beane which became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1922; firm became Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane in 1941; by 1963 Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith was the nation’s largest brokerage firm; was vice president and a voting stockholder of the firm; president, New Orleans Cotton Exchange, 1935-1937; founding member of International House; president of Audubon Park Commission; vice president and president of Southern Eye Bank, third eye bank set up in the nation; president, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital in New Orleans; devoted half his time to that hospital during World War II; helped promote its post-war expansion; named by the American Hospital Association in 1948 as one of the fifty laymen who had contributed most to the health of the American people; received the Times-Picayune Loving Cup, 1948, for outstanding service to the city; received a forty-year service award from the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital in 1952. Member: Paul Morphy Chess Club, Lake Shore Club, Episcopalian church, Krewe of Rex; was king of New Orleans Mardi Gras, 1939. Died, November 15, 1963, at country home in Slidell, La.; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. J.B.C. Sources: New York Times, obituary, November 16, 1963; New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 16, 1963; Charles L. Dufour, Darwin Fenner, a Life of Service (1984).
FENNER, Darwin Schriever, financier, civic leader, philanthropist. Born, New Orleans, July 12, 1908; son of Charles Erasmus Fenner ([II]q.v.) and Virginia Schriever Fenner. Education: local schools, Tulane University. Married, May 28, 1931, Flora Sanders Hardie (b. 1908). Children: Darwin Charles (b. 1932), James Hardie (b. 1936), Flora (b. 1938). Joined father’s brokerage firm, Fenner & Beane in 1929; worked in various capacities to learn business; became general partner, 1934. In 1941 merger, firm became Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane (later Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith); served as general partner of new firm; vice-president, 1957; senior vice-president, 1964; retired, 1970; became president, Gulf States Assets Management, Inc. World War II service: 1942-1946, Army Air Force, entered as second lieutenant, demobilized as major. Communty activities: chairman, Community Chest; founder, United Way; member, biracial committee to smooth transition to integrated public schools; member, later chairman, Tulane University board of administrators; founder, director, later president, Council for a Better Louisiana; founder, Metropolitan Area Committee; founder, Health Education Authority of Louisiana. Rex, 1955; captain of the Rex organization, 1956-1970; revamped parading style of organization, bringing back Boeuf Gras and Rex bandwagon, introducing doubloons. Honors and awards: Good Citizenship Medal, Sons of the American Revolution, 1957; Weiss Brotherhood Award, New Orleans Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1962; Distinguished Service Medal, Dominican College, 1963; Times-Picayune Loving Cup, 1965; one of ten distinguished New Orleans civic leaders, Institute for Human Understanding, 1975; honorary LL. D., Tulane University, 1978; Certificate of Merit, Governor of Louisiana, 1979. Member, Trinity Church (Episcopal). Died New Orleans, June 9, 1979; interred, Metairie Cemetery. P.B. Sources: Charles L. Dufour, Darwin Fenner: A Life of Service (1984); New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 10, 12, 1979; interview with Darwin C. Fenner.
FENNER, Erasmus Darwin [I], physician, editor. Born, Franklin County, N. C., 1807. Education: private academy, Raleigh, N. C.; University of Transylvania Medical School. Married, 1832, Annie America Callier. One child: Charles Erasmus ([I]q.v.). Removed to New Orleans; member, faculty of Medical College of Louisiana; instrumental in establishing New Orleans School of Medicine. As a leading sanitarian, constantly campaigned for better health conditions in New Orleans. Editor of medical periodicals; founder, Southern Medical Reports and New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal; assistant editor, New Orleans News and Hospital Gazette. Died, New Orleans, May 4, 1866. M.S.L. Sources: D. Warren Brickell, “Biographical Sketch of Erasmus Darwin Fenner, M.D.,” Southern Journal of Medical Science, I (1866-1867); John Duffy, “Erasmus Darwin Fenner (1807-1866), Journalist, Educator, and Sanitarian,” Journal of Medical Education, XXXV (1960); John Duffy, ed., Rudolph Matas History of Medicine in Louisiana, 2 vols (1962); Dictionary of American Medical Biography, I (1984); “Obituary,” New Orleans Daily Crescent, May 5, 1866.
FERNANDEZ, Joachim Octave, congressman, politician. Born, New Orleans, August 14, 1896. Education: local schools. Married Viola Murray of Covington, La. Children: Floran, Mercedes, June Rose, and Joachim, Jr. Elected to state constitutional convention, 1921; member, state house of representatives, 1924; elected to state senate, 1928. During senate term broke with New Orleans political machine to become supporter of Huey P. Long (q.v.). Elected with his support to United States House of Representatives, 1930. Re-elected in 1932, 1934, 1936, and 1938. Served on Naval Affairs Committee and Appropriations Committee. Defeated for renomination in 1940 by F. Edward Hébert (q.v.). Served on active duty United States Naval Reserve, 1941-1943. Appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for District of Louisiana, 1943. Resigned in 1946 to campaign for mayor of New Orleans as candidate of “reform” forces. When his campaign attracted little popular support, withdrew from the race, and announced support for the incumbent machine candidate; in return for his withdrawal just before the filing deadline, Mayor Robert Maestri (q.v.) reportedly agreed to assume his campaign debts. Leaders of the “reform” movement then turned to State Representative DeLesseps S. Morrison (q.v.) as their candidate. Entered private business as a tax consultant. In 1952 appointed to head income tax section of State Revenue Department. Following death of first wife, married Jessie Nosacka. Roman Catholic. Died, New Orleans, August 8, 1978; interred Metairie Cemetery. W.R.S. Sources: Edward F. Haas, DeLesseps S. Morrison and the Image of Reform: New Orleans Politics, 1946-1961 (1974); Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Official Congressional Directory, 72nd Congress, 1st Session (1932); Official Congressional Directory, 76th Congress, 2d Session (1939); obituary, New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 10, 1978.
FERRATA, Giuseppe, pianist, composer. Born Gradoli, near Rome, Italy, January 1, 1865. At age 14, won a scholarship to Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome where he was the pupil of Giovanni Sgambati and Eugenio Terziani. Graduated, 1885; was one of Franz Liszt’s last students. Came to the United States, 1892. Active in Baltimore, then in Pittsburgh where he was an associate of Victor Herbert. In 1909 became the first piano instructor at Newcomb College; head of the piano department. Compiled a book of scales and Esthetic Exercises of Technique. Prolific composer, produced 40 songs (with Italian and English texts); twenty duos for violin and piano; fifty piano pieces; string quartets; choral works; symphonic pieces; organ compositions; and several operas, one of which won a prize awarded by Jules Massenet and Engelbert Humperdinck. Knighted by the king of Portugal, 1887, and by the king of Italy, 1904. In 1914, made commander of the Order of the Crown by the king of Italy. Died, New Orleans, March 28, 1928. M.A. Sources: Charles Panzeri, Louisiana Composers (1972); Nicolas Slonimski, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1984); H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (1986); New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 29, 1928.
FERVIN, Justine, see COUVENT, Justine Fervin.
FEUILLE, Jean-François, New Orleans engraver and printer, 1835-1841. Brother: “Feuille,” New Orleans portrait and miniature painter, 1834-1841. J.A.M. Source: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918.
FICKLEN, John Rose, academic. Born, Falmouth, Va., December 14, 1858. Education: grammar school of Randolph Macon College; University of Virginia, Bachelor of Letters degree, 1879. Member, Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Assistant professor of Ancient Languages at Louisiana State University, 1879-1880; studied modern languages in Paris and at the University of Berlin, 1880-1882. Removed to New Orleans; instructor, 1882-1883; assistant professor, 1883-1885, and associate professor, 1885-1886, of English at the University of Louisiana (Tulane University from 1884 forward); professor of Rhetoric and History, 1886-1893; professor of History, Political Science and Economics, 1893-1905. Married, 1886, Bessie Mason Alexander, of Savannah, Ga., daughter of Confederate general and engineer Edward Porter Alexander and Bettie J. Mason. Children: Edward Porter Alexander (1888-1963), Elizabeth “Bessie” (?-1969). Although his early academic career was in history and the social sciences, Ficklen’s broad interests and agile mind are reflected in such works as his Outline Study of Graecian History (1895), and, with Alcée Fortier (q.v.), Central America and Mexico (1907), but his most important historical contributions are to Louisiana history. These include “Historical Sketch of the Acadians,” in M. A. Johnson, comp., The Acadians in Story and Song (1893); (with Grace E. King), A History of Louisiana (1893; rev. ed., 1905); Art Work of New Orleans (1895); “The Northwestern Boundary of Louisiana, with Special Reference to the French Cession of 1803,” Louisiana Historical Society Publications, II, Pt. 2 (1898); “Was Texas Included in the Louisiana Purchase?”, Publications of the Southern History Association, V (1901); (with Grace E. King), Stories from Louisiana History (1905); History and Civil Government of Louisiana (1901); and posthumously, History of Reconstruction in Louisiana (through 1868) (1910; reprint ed., 1971). Contributed articles to the American Historical Review, Journal of Education and Modern Language Notes. Helped reorganize the Louisiana Historical Society in 1894 and served as its vice-president and secretary for several years. Member, executive committee of the Southern History Association. He actively participated in the Chautauqua organization, and was a vice-president of the Round Table Club. He was prominent in New Orleans society and was an active sportsman, particularly hunting and fishing. Retired to his summer home in Flat Rock, N. C., near Asheville, 1905. Died in an accident at Chautauqua, N. Y., August 3, 1907. R.L.W. Sources: John P. Dyer, Tulane, the Biography of a University, 1834-1965 (1966); John R. Ficklen Papers, Collection #257, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Ficklin File and Tulane University Scraps, vols. 1-8 (1884-1907), Tulane University Archives, New Orleans; New Orleans Times-Democrat, obituary, August 4, 1907; Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., “Las impresiones de un general de la fuerzas confederadas sobre Centroamérica,” Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos, IV (1978).
FICKLIN, James H., merchant. Born, Philadelphia, Pa. Began mercantile firm in new town of St. Francisville, La., prior to 1809, with business partner John Horton of Jackson, La. Donated land for public squares in both Jackson and St. Francisville, 1815. Died, November 7, 1817, St. Francisville. E.K.D. Source: West Feliciana Parish Records.
FIELD, Alexander Pope, attorney, Illinois secretary of state and Louisiana attorney general. Born, Kentucky, 1800; was by 1820s living in Illinois. From 1822 to 1826 represented Union County in Illinois legislature and Johnson County from 1826 to 1828, when he received an appointment as Illinois secretary of state, a post he retained until 1840, when he was replaced by Stephen A. Douglas. A Democratic elector for Andrew Jackson (q.v.) in 1824, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1831 and 1836. By 1838 he had abandoned the Democratic party and supported the Whig party. Became a friend of Abraham Lincoln while practicing law in some of the same courts; present when Lincoln was admitted to practice in the U. S. Circuit Court, and they campaigned together for the Whig ticket in the southwestern part of the state in 1839. Removed to New Orleans in 1849, establishing a law office. Although he opposed secession, he was careful once it came not to offend public opinion; even after the Union occupation he admitted that he had given “willing allegiance to the Confederacy.” During the war he supported the Conservative Union faction and was elected to Congress in a makeshift, unauthorized election in 1863, but was not seated by the House of Representatives. Later elected in an 1864 presidentially approved contest, but because of the dispute over Reconstruction policy between the president and Congress, he was again denied a seat. He did not aid his cause when after getting drunk he attacked an opponent of seating the Louisiana delegation, Congressman William D. Kelley, cutting him slightly on the arm in the dining room of Willard’s Hotel. The affair resulted in a thirty-three page congressional “Report from the Select Committee to Investigate the Assault upon the Hon. W. D. Kelley, by A. P. Field, a citizen of La.,” condemning Field but failing to assess punishment. In 1865, he headed the state executive committee of the National Conservative Union party, which claimed the middle ground between Radical Republicans and Democrats and ran, albeit unsuccessfully, as the party’s nominee for the Second Congressional District. Following the triumph of the Democrats, he went over to the Radicals in February 1866 and supported the reconvening of the 1864 consitutional convention, an attempt which resulted in the New Orleans riot of 1866. Later, in the 1870s, he supported the Republican Customhouse Faction and was a successful candidate at age 72 for state attorney general in 1872. J.A.B. Sources: U. S. Congress, House, New Orleans Riots of July 30, 1866 (1867); Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, XVIII (1923); Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas (1961); Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress; Peyton McCrary, Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction: The Louisiana Experiment (1978); Henry Clay Warmoth Papers, University of North Carolina.
FIELD, Martha Reinhard Smallwood, pen name “Catharine Cole,” journalist. Born, Lexington, Mo., 1855; daughter of Col. W. M. Smallwood. Removed to New Orleans at an early age with family. Education: Mace Lefranc Institute, New Orleans. Went to California. Married, Charles W. Field. One daughter, Flo. Returned to New Orleans a widow; submitted short pieces to Times, and National Republican. In 1881, Mrs. E. H. Nicholson (q.v.) offered a position with the Picayune. Articles and letters enjoyed wide popularity. Travelled extensively, writing about her experiences. Joined Times-Democrat staff in 1894. Authored Catharine Cole’s Book (1897). Died, Chicago, December 20, 1898; interred New Orleans. Daughter also became a writer. P.D.A. Sources: May W. Mount, Some Notables of New Orleans (1896); obituary, Daily Picayune, December 21, 1898.
FIGARO, Eleanor, educator. Born, Lafayette, La., 1889. Education: local schools; St. Paul High School. At request of Msgr. Hubert Cramers, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, went to Lake Charles, 1908, to open first school for black Catholics in Southwest Louisiana. In May 1922, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament took charge of the school, but Figaro remained as a teacher, a position held for forty-two years. On fortieth anniversary as a teacher, 1948, she was honored by Pope Pius XII with the Papal Cross Pro Ecclelsia et Pontifice (For the Church and the Pontiff), at that time the highest church honor available to a woman. First black Catholic American woman to be decorated by a pope. Retired from teaching, 1950. Died April 13, 1953, interred in Lafayette. T.S. Sources: Archives of Sacred Heart Parish; Catholic Action of the South; Lake Charles American Press.
FILHIOL, Juan, colonial administrator, founder of Monroe, La. Born, September 21, 1740, Eymet, Périgord, France, to an aristocratic family. Married Françoise Poiret, March 15, 1782. Children: Jean Joseph (1784); Marie Barbe (1786); Edmond Landry Grammont (1789). Career: Sailed for Santo Domingo in 1763, but, disappointed, decided to travel to Philadelphia to join a French squadron bound for his homeland; he instead went to New Orleans. Subsequently joined Bernardo de Gálvez’s army and assisted in capture of Baton Rouge and British West Florida; promoted to captain and commandant of the Opelousas post, where he married; commissioned by Gov. Estevan Miró to establish a post on Ouachita River, and was granted a large concession nearby; originally founded the post at Ecore à Fabri (present-day Camden, Ark.), but moved it in 1785 to Prairie des Canots (present-day Monroe, La.); after watching the post (renamed Fort Miró) grow for fifteen years, he resigned his office in 1800. Died, September 28, 1821, at his plantation home in present-day West Monroe, La.; local lore maintains that he is interred beneath a local thoroughfare. S.K.B. Sources: J. Fair Hardin, Don Juan Filhiol and the Founding of Fort Miró, the Modern Monroe, Louisiana (1937); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana (1914); Ken Purcell, A Pictorial History of Monroe, La. (1983); Gladys De Villier, The Opelousas Post (1972); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana (1892; reprint ed., 1975); see also Shane K. Bernard, “A Biographical Sketch: Juan Filhiol,” Louisiana History 34 (1993).
FINK, Olaf J., educator, politician. Born, Algiers section of New Orleans, March 15, 1914; son of Carolina M. Lind and Charles P. Fink. Education: McDonogh #4, Algiers; S. J. Peters Boys High School of Commerce, New Orleans; Springhill College, Mobile, Ala., B. A., degree; Loyola University, New Orleans, M. A. degree. Married Doris Jean Smith. No children. Career: taught at Nicholls and Peters high schools; spent most of his teaching career at Behrman High School; was teaching at Karr Junior High School prior to retirement in May, 1972; taught in the New Orleans public schools for thirty-three years; was a state senator from Algiers’ Fifteenth Ward, 1956-1972; secretary of the Orleans Levee Board; sponsor of the Olaf Fink Golf Tournament for Teenagers at Brechtel Park, Algiers; labored to improve conditions for retardees as a member of the Board of the West Bank Sheltered Workshop for Vocational Rehabilation; director of the Cottage Life Department of Belle Chasse Institution; served three terms as president of the West Bank Association for Mentally Retarded Children. Member: Lions Club, Choctaw Carnival Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and American Legion. Died, New Orleans, March 26, 1973; interred Westlawn Memorial Park, Gretna. The special education center on the West Bank was renamed the Olaf Fink Center for Pre-Vocational Education in May 1974. J.B.C. Sources: Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, March 27, 1973.
FINLEY, Minnie L., educator, civic leader. Born, Birmingham, Ala., 1910. Education: B. A., Spelman College, Atlanta, Ga.; Master’s degrees from Xavier University, New Orleans, La., and New York University. Dedicated over forty-six years to education in New Orleans, including service as a teacher at Xavier University and Joseph S. Clark Senior High School; as a principal at Chester Elementary, Williams Elementary, and Bell Junior High Schools; and as area superintendent and director of secondary education for New Orleans public schools. Finley served on Mayor Ernest “Dutch” Morial’s transition team in 1978 and as a consultant for the Department of Recreation under the Morial administration. Finley served on the national board of directors of Girl Scouts U.S.A. and was the single person most responsible for establishing Scouting for African American girls in the New Orleans area. The New Orleans area Girl Scouts annually give an award for outstanding community service in Finley’s honor. She also volunteered with the Red Cross and the St. Joan of Arc religious community. Died, New Orleans, January 23, 1993; interred, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, La. J.D.W. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 26, 1993.
FISCHER, Charles Leonhardt, attorney, politician. Born, St. Francisville, La., 1840; son of Frederick Fischer and Catherine Clauss, natives of Esslingen, Würtemburg, Germany. Educated locally. Enlisted as private in Company D, Fourth Louisiana Infantry, C.S.A., May 25, 1861, captured 1864, paroled in Virginia, March 1865. Admitted to Louisiana bar, 1867(?); law partner of former Gov. Robert C. Wickliffe (q.v.) in St. Francisville, 1867-1888; judge, West Feliciana Parish Court, January and February, 1873; tax collector, West Feliciana Parish, 1873-1874; principal author of “Property Holders’ Protective Union” sub-committee report of corruption in Republican administration of parish affairs, 1875; as a leader of movement to overthrow carpetbag regime in West Feliciana, escaped assassination attempt in 1876; treasurer of West Feliciana Parish, 1876-1879; police juror, 1880-1884; assessor, 1884-1888. Member, Grace Episcopal Church, St. Francisville. Died, December 3, 1888; interred Grace Church Cemetery. E.K.D. Sources: “The Political Career of Gov. R. C. Wickliffe,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXV (1942); West Feliciana Parish Public Records; Oath Book, West Feliciana Parish; Andrew B Booth, comp., Louisiana Confederate Soldiers … (1920); Grace Church Register.
FISK, Abijah, businessman. Born, Waltham, Mass., December 2, 1785; son of Abijah Fisk and Alice Adams. After little formal education, became clerk, Boston, 1804; went into business, 1806; by 1820, amassed $200,000 but lost it during economic depression, 1822; entered sugar and coffee trade, Havana and Rio de Janeiro, 1823. Removed to New Orleans, 1830; bequeathed home (now 737 Canal St.) to city “on condition that it shall be applied to the keeping of a library” and remainder of $300,000 estate to children of brother Alvarez Fisk (q.v.). Died, New Orleans, December 11, 1845; interred Natchez City Cemetery, Natchez, Miss. F.M.J. Sources: Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); obituary, New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, December 29, 1845.
FISK, Alvarez, merchant, planter, philanthropist. Born, Waltham, Mass., January 19, 1784; son of Abijah Fisk and Alice Adams. Married Eliza Wilkins. Children: Stuart Wilkins, Alice M., Edward A., Isabelle. Practiced law, Natchez, Miss.; purchased several cotton plantations and entered cotton-commission business, 1820s; opened brokerage house, New Orleans; by 1840, most influential merchant-financier in Natchez; resided in New Orleans, 1847-death. Philanthropies included: financing establishment of Natchez’s first public school; donation of 6,000 books to city of New Orleans to bolster brother Abijah’s (q.v.) gift of a public library (known for many years as Fisk Free Library), 1847. Died, Araby Plantation, Madison Parish, La., November 16, 1853; interred Natchez City Cemetery, Natchez, Miss. F.M.J. Sources: Obituary, New Orleans Daily Picayune, November 22, 1853; Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); D. Clayton James, Antebellum Natchez (1968); Vieux Carré Survey.
FISKE, Minnie Maddern, actress, playwright, producer. Born, New Orleans, December 19, 1864; daughter of Tom Davey and Lizzie Maddern. Christened Marie Augusta Davey, but used name Minnie Maddern from infancy. Married (1) Legrand White, 1883, divorced, 1888. Married (2) Harrison Grey Fiske, March 19, 1890. Adopted one son, Bolie, 1922. One of the most famous American actresses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Compared to Sarah Bernhardt by contemporaries. First stage appearance at age of three in Richard III. Wrote and produced plays as well as being an actress. Often performed Shakespeare and Ibsen. In 1894 played Nora in A Doll’s House, the second performance of that play in New York. Fought the Theatrical Syndicate which tried to make the theater a commercial monopoly, was successful after twelve years. Active in animal protection groups, especially worked to save the egret. Continued in the theater until shortly before her death on February 14, 1932, at Hollis, Long Island. D.E.L. Sources: Faye E. Head, “The Theatrical Syndicate vs. the Child Labor Laws of Louisiana,” Louisiana Studies, XIII (1974); Archie Binns, Mrs. Fiske and the American Theatre (1955); New York Times, obituary, February 17, 1932.
FITZPATRICK, John, politician, mayor of New Orleans. Born, Fairfield, Vt., May 1, 1844; son of Irish immigrants, James Fitzpatrick and Catherine McGettrick. Brought to New Orleans when six months old, attended public schools until orphaned at early age. Married Matilde Gaerthner Guillemin, 1873. Children: John J. and Catherine M., plus raised two children from wife’s first marriage, Louise and Matilde. Active in local Democratic party: elected to state legislature, 1876; elected criminal sheriff, 1878; elected administrator of improvements (later commissioner of public works), served 1880-1888. Elected mayor on Regular ticket, served 1892-1896; successfully withstood “impeachment” attempt during “boodle council” scandal, 1894-1895. Member of Constitutional convention, 1898; elected to Louisiana house of representatives, 1898; appointed tax collector, First District, 1900-1919. President of Choctaw Club, 1898. Credited with founding the New Orleans Public Library and the “modern” sewerage and drainage systems. Member of dozens of civic, social, and charitable organizations, including the Irish League of New Orleans, Ancient Order of Hiberians, Irish Rifles, Elks, Fireman’s Charitable and Benevolent Association, New Orleans Library Board, St. Mary Orphan Asylum. Died, April 7, 1919; interred Greenwood Cemetery. B.E. Source: Author’s research.
FLANDERS, Benjamin Franklin, congressman, governor, mayor of New Orleans. Born, Bristol, N.H., January 26, 1816; the youngest of four sons of Joseph Flanders. Education: Dartmouth College, graduated 1842. Removed to New Orleans where he studied law in the office of Charles M. Emerson, a Dartmouth alumnus. Rather than pursuing a law practice, however, in early 1844, he accepted appointment as principal of a public school and the following year became a part owner and editor of a Whig newspaper, the New Orleans Tropic. Married Susan H. Sawyer, of Bristol, N.H., 1847. Children: three sons and three daughters. Served as Third Municipal District alderman, 1848-1852, the year he began a ten-year stint as secretary and treasurer of the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad Company. Flanders opposed secession and was forced into exile in January 1862 by a self-styled vigilante committee after he had aided some Union prisoners in New Orleans fresh from the Battle of Bull Run. He fled to the Mid-West and then went on to New York City, where he resided until after the fall of New Orleans to the Federals. Returning, he served as city treasurer from July to December and for some months headed a Commission on Relief. Elected to Congress as a Unionist, November 1862, and served for a few months in 1863 before being appointed supervising special agent of the Treasury Department for the Gulf Coast states, a position to which he was reappointed in 1866. In 1864, he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor on the Radical Unionists’ ticket. That year he also became president of the First National Bank of New Orleans. Flanders became a Republican during the war and supported congressional reconstruction afterwards. In June, 1867, he was appointed governor of the state by the military and served until January 1868. Later he served as mayor of New Orleans, 1870-1872, first by appointment and then by elelction, and assistant treasurer of the United States in New Orleans, 1873-1882. His last try for political office was an unsuccessful, token effort as the Republican nominee for state treasurer in 1888. Died in retirement on his country estate, near Youngsville, Lafayette Parish, La., March 13, 1896; interred Girod Street Cemetery, New Orleans. J.A.B. Sources: Benjamin Franklin Flanders Papers (LSU); Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950); National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1906); Jewell’s Crescent City Illustrated (1872); Diary and Correspondence of Salmon P. Chase (1903); Jessie A. Marshall, ed., The Private and Official Correspondence of General Benjamin F. Butler … (1917); New Orlaens Daily Picayune, March 14, 1896.
FLEISCHBEIN, Franz Joseph, also François Jacques Fleischbein, portrait, mythological and historical painter, teacher, and daguerreotypist and ambrotypist (1833-1868). Born, Godramstein, Germany, ca. 1805; son of Henry Fleischbein and Barbara Stumph. Educated in Munich, Germany, and with Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson in Paris, France. Married Marie Louise Tetu, also spelled Elise Tertou (ca. 1802-1895). Children: Charles (b. ca. 1837), Ernest (b. ca. 1839), Emma Elizabeth (b. ca. 1840), and Caroline (b. ca. 1843). Died, New Orleans, November 16, 1868; interred St. Louis Cemetery II. J.A.M. Sources: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987); New Orleans Daily Picayune, July 7, 1895; New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 4, 1976.
FLEMING, Jean Marie Auguste von Ummelin, businessman, politician. Born, St. Pierre, Martinique, February 23, 1847. Removed to the United States, 1849, residing first in Louisville, then Baton Rouge, then St. Martinville, La., 1851. Married, June 24, 1869, Julie Alice Broussard, daughter of Clairville Broussard and Alexandrine Bienvenu (1851-1931). Children: Corinne (1870-1924); Blanche (b. 1873); Paul J. (b. 1875); Anna (b. 1881); Thérèse (b. 1877); Alice (b. 1879) Pauline (b. 1883); Carmen (b. 1887); Patrick Henry (q.v.); and Lionel G. (b. 1890). A boss drayman, a drug clerk, a merchant, a hotel keeper, a warehouseman, a steamboat owner, twice commissioned justice of the peace, a boss carpenter, an undertaker, mayor for eight terms, chief of the fire department, a deputy clerk of court and later clerk of court, and a photographer. Died, St. Martinville, January 23, 1903; interred St. Martinville. D.S. Sources: Donald Hébert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols (1974-1984); Fleming family papers; The Parish of St. Martin (n.p.: n.d.).
FLEMING, Patrick Henry, physician. Born, St. Martinville, La., February 26, 1890; son of Jean Marie Auguste Fleming (q.v.) and Julie Alice Broussard. Education: local schools, one year at the University of Nashville; Tulane University, M. D., 1911. World War I service: first lieutenant, U. S. Medical Corps; went overseas with the Fifty-first Pioneer Infantry, 1918; participated in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives; was in the Army of Occupation in Germany from November 11, 1918, to February 26, 1919. Health officer of St. Martin Parish for four years; in 1919 appointed coroner. Married, June 5, 1919, Marie Ruth Martin, daughter of Robert Martin, lawyer and banker in St. Martinville, and Gabriel Berard. Children: Patricia Fleming, and Robert Martin Fleming, a district judge. Director of St. Martin Parish Health Unit, 1928-1943; mayor of St. Martinville, 1926-1930. Active in Boy Scouts work, Knights of Columbus, Rotary International, Volunteer Firemen, American Legion, St. Martin Parish Medical Society, Third Congressional District Medical Society, Louisiana State Medical Society, the Southern Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. Died, September 29, 1943; interred St. Michael’s Cemetery, St. Martinville. D.S. Sources: St. Martinville Weekly Messenger, obituary, October 1, 1943; Fleming family papers.
FLEMING, Raymond Hartwell, adjutant general of Louisiana. Born Waxahachie, Tex., July 5, 1889; son of Jesse H. Fleming and Viola Middleton. Education: local schools; Trinity University, San Antonio, B.A. degree. Removed to Louisiana, 1916; enlisted as private in First Field Artillery, Louisiana National Guard. Served on the Mexican border with the First Battalion Field Artillery (Washington Artillery). During World War I served with 141st Field Artillery. Served in France. After war reorganized and commanded Battery A, 141st Field Artillery of Louisiana National Guard. Between 1920 and 1928 promoted through the ranks from captain to brigadier general. Appointed by Gov. Huey P. Long (q.v.), July 18, 1928, state adjutant general. Supervised improvement to National Guard physical plants; launched drives for recruits and introduced innovative training programs. Ordered into federal service as state director of Louisiana Selective Service System, 1940. Continued to serve as adjutant general while directing the World War II Selective Service operation. After war undertook reorganization of National Guard. On September 30, 1946, assumed command of the Thirty-ninth Infantry Division of the National Guard of Louisiana and Arkansas. Promoted to rank of major general, May 9, 1947. Later became first chief of the Army Division of the National Guard Bureau, 1951-1952 and 1960-1964. Recipient of numerous military distinctions. In addition to his membership in the National Guard Association of the United States and Adjutants General Association, he was a director of National Guardman Publishing Co., the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Theta Xi Fraternity, Masonic Order, Sojourners, New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, advisory board of Salvation Army, and served as president of Young Men’s Business Club of New Orleans. Also president of Army and Navy Club of New Orleans. Married Elna V. Harrison, March 11, 1917. Children: Raymond, Jr. (died in action, World War II), and Doris. A Presbyterian. Died, November 23, 1974, New Orleans, La.; interred Hillcrest Burial Park, Waxahachie, Tex. TAG, LA Source: Military records, Jackson Barracks Library. Compiled by Mary B. Oalmann, military historian.
FLEMING, Walter Lynwood, academic. Born, near Brundige, Polk County, Ala., April 8, 1874; son of William LeRoy Fleming and Mary Love Edwards. Education: Brundige Academy; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College (later renamed Auburn Polytechnic Institute, and now Auburn University), B. S., with honors, 1896, and M. S., 1897; Columbia University, A. M., 1901; Ph. D., 1904. Military service in the Spanish-American War, 1898-1899. Instructor in History and English, Auburn, 1896-1898; assistant librarian, Auburn, 1897-1898; instructor in English, Auburn, 1899-1900; lecturer in History, Columbia University, 1901-1903; professor of History, West Virginia University, 1903-1907; professor of History, Louisiana State University, 1907-1917; named Holland N. McTyeire Professor of History, Vanderbilt University, 1917; named chairman, Department of History, Vanderbilt University, 1917; named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1923; chairman, Committee on Graduate Work. Student of George Petrie at Auburn, and William A. Dunning at Columbia University; a pioneer in the field of Reconstruction history. A prolific writer, Fleming wrote four original works of scholarship and edited six volumes, as well as composing numerous scholarly articles, book reviews, and contributions to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and multi-volume histories. His major works include Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905); Documentary History of Reconstruction, 2 vols. (1906-1907); and posthumously Louisiana State University (1936). Fleming’s pro-Southern, pro-white bias came under serious attack from several writers, notably W. E. B. Du Bois in his work, Black Reconstruction (1935). Most of Fleming’s writings were finished before 1913; waning productivity thereafter reflected heavy administrative duties at Louisiana State University and at Vanderbilt. An endowed lecture series, the Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History, inaugurated at Louisiana State University in 1937, commemorates his scholarship and his service at LSU. Married, September 17, 1902, Mary Wright Boyd, daughter of Ettie and David French Boyd, formerly president, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, and of LSU. Children: Esther, Mary Boyd, Eleanor, and William LeRoy. Suffered paralytic stroke, 1928; died of pneumonia, Nashville, August 3, 1932. P.C.L. Sources: William C. Binkley, “The Contribution of Walter Lynwood Fleming to Southern Scholarship,” Journal of Southern History, V (1939); Frankie C. Enzor, “Walter Lynwood Fleming,” Alabama Historical Quarterly, XX (1958); Fletcher M. Green, “Walter Lynwood Fleming,” Dictionary of American Biography, XXI; Fletcher M. Green, “Walter Lynwood Fleming: Historian of Reconstruction,” Journal of Southern History, II (1936); Edwin Mims, Chancellor Kirkland of Vanderbilt (Nashville, 1940); Wendell Stephenson, “Some Pioneer Alabama Historians: II. Walter L. Fleming,” Alabama Review, I (1948); Wendell Stephenson, The South Lives in History: Southern Historians and Their Legacy (1955); and vertical newspaper file, Louisiana Room, Hill Memorial Library, LSU, Baton Rouge.
FLETCHER, Joel Lafayette, third president of Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now University of Southwestern Louisiana. Born, Grant Parish, La., January 12, 1897; reared in Ruston, La. Education: graduated from Louisiana Industrial Institute (now Louisiana Tech), in agriculture, 1914; Louisiana State University, B. S. in Agriculture, 1918; Iowa State University, M. S., 1926; honorary degrees from Southwestern Presbyterian University, Marquette University, and Mercer University Married, 1919, Fannie McLees of Ruston. Children: Ellen, Lorraine, Florence, and Joel III. County agent of Union Parish, 1919. Appointed to SLI faculty, 1920; rapidly advanced to become head of department, director of agricultural and industrial planning, and dean of College of Agriculture, a post held until he became president of the Institute, November 16, 1940. During twenty-five years as president, university grew academically and in the physical plant. In 1960 successful in having Institute’s name changed to University of Southwestern Louisiana. Memberships: Commission on Higher Education for Southern Association of Colleges, National Education Association, Leaders Committee of the American Council on Education, the American Council on Education, Louisiana Employment Security Commission, Governor’s Committee on Highway Safety, Louisiana Library Commission, and others; president, Lafayette Chamber of Commerce; president, Lafayette Rotary Club; president, Louisiana Jersey Cattle Club; state chairman, 1959, National Foundation (March of Dimes); chairman, Presidents’ Council of State Colleges of Louisiana, 1952; vestryman, Episcopal Church of the Ascension. Numerous publications, among which are Parrish Fuller: Louisiana’s Favorite Hoosier Immigrant; “Louisiana Education Since Colonial Days,” Southwestern Louisiana Insitute (1948); and “The Acadians in Louisiana” (originally an address to the Cambridge Historical Society), October, 1947; weekly newspaper column, “Louisiana Education.” Died, Lafayette, La., April 25, 1972; interred Lafayette Memorial Park Cemetery. M.M. Sources: Joel L. Fletcher, “Collected Addresses” (mimeographed copies of speeches made while president of Southwestern); Joel L. Fletcher, “Human Resources along the Watershed” (talk at an annual banquet of soil conservation supervisors, Lafayette, La.), January 22, 1959; Joel Fletcher, My Grant Parish Home (195?); Joel Fletcher, Song of the Hills (Lafayette, La., 195?); Who’s Who in the South and Southwest (1952); Who’s Who in America, (1952-1953); Alma B. Stuller, “Joel Lafayette Fletcher” (M.A. thesis, University of Southwestern Louisiana, n.d.); Mario Mamalakis, news releases in files of the USL News Bureau; oral interviews with Frances Fletcher, sister; Mrs. O. L. Meadows, daughter; Ted Nevels, grandson; Mrs. C. Thad Montgomery, early faculty member and long-time friend; and Joseph Anthony Riehl, USL professor and academic vice president; Mario Mamalakis, “USL President Entering His 45th Year of Service to the University,” Lafayette Daily Advertiser, August 2, 1964.
FLINT, Timothy, missionary, geographer, historian. Born, near Reading Mass., July 11, 1780; son of William Flint and Martha Kimball. Education: Harvard College, graduated 1800. Married Abigail Hubbard, July 12, 1802. For twelve years pastored a church; then began extensive travels. Visited New Orleans, 1822; pastored a church and taught school at Covington, La., 1824. Settled in Alexandria, La., 1824, to preach and teach, retreating to the pine hills, now Pineville, in hot weather. He visited and described Natchitoches, Los Adayes, and Cantonment Jesup. Suffering ill health, he returned to Salem, Mass., 1825. Regaining health, returned to Alexandria, 1834, where he resumed writing. Among publications, probably best known is Recollections of the Last Ten Years, Passed in Occasional Residences and Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi…. His children were Micah Peabody (bap. 1803); Emeline Hubbard (bap. 1805); Ebenezer Hubbard (b. 1808); James Timothy (b. 1821); Martha Elizabeth (b. 1828). Again suffering ill health, returned to Salem, 1840. Died, Salem, Mass., August 16, 1840; interred Harmony Grove Cemetery. C.W. Sources: Dictionary of American Biography (1946); John Ervin Kirkpatrick, Timothy Flint: Pioneer, Missionary, Author, Editor, 1780-1840 (1911).
FLON, Manuel de, condé de La Cadena, intendant of Puebla (Mexico). Born, Pamplona, Navarre (Spain), 1746. Began career in the Indies as a captain of the Regiment of Navarre assigned to Havana. Joined the Gálvez expeditions of 1780-1781 and played an important role in the siege and capture of Pensacola by leading reinforcements from New Orleans. Married, February 1, 1782, Antoinette Marie Anne Joseph de Notre Dame de Mont Carmel, daughter of Gilbert de St. Maxent (q.v.), New Orleans merchant. His wife was the sister-in-law of Bernardo de Gálvez (q.v.), Luis de Unzaga (q.v.), and Juan Antonio de Riaño (q.v.). Her godfather was MartÃn Navarro (q.v.), intendant of Louisiana. This favorable marriage associated him with the powerful Gálvez family (Bernardo’s father MatÃas was viceroy of New Spain and his uncle José was first minister of the Indies). After Bernardo de Gálvez’s promotion to captain general of Cuba, Flon accompanied him to Havana as a lieutenant colonel and then moved to Mexico City when Bernardo (now condé de Gálvez) became viceroy. In 1785 he received a commission as governor of New Mexico but does not seem to have taken up the commission. Named first intendant of Puebla in 1786 following the introduction of the intendency system to New Spain. As intendant he introduced numerous reforms in Puebla including the paving and lighting of streets, flood control, a new market, the building of a botanical garden, and attempted to better conditions for the Indians. In several documents he mentions eight children although only four names are listed: Antonio, Miguel, MarÃa Merced, and Isabel. As commander of the second brigade of Puebla in 1810, he was dispatched by the viceroy to put down the Hidalgo Revolt. Although successful at the Battle of Aculco on November 3, 1810, later killed on January 17, 1811, at the Battle of Puente de Calderon. Son Antonio succeeded him as the second condé. B.C. Sources: J. J. Rubio Mañe, “Matrimonios de los Intendentes Flon y Riaño,” BoletÃn del Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), XV, No. 2l (1945); Horst Pietschman, “Dos Documentos Significativos para la Historia del Régimen de Intendencias en Nueva España,” BoletÃn del Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico), 2nd series, XII, nos. 3-4 (1971); James Julian Coleman, Jr., Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent (1968); D. A. Brading, Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico (1971); F. de Borja Medina Rojas, José de Ezpeleta. Governador de la Mobilia, 1780-1781 (1980); Hugh H. Hamill, Jr., The Hidalgo Revolt (1966); Christon I. Archer, The Army in Bourbon Mexico (1977); Doris M. Ladd, The Mexican Nobility at Independence (1976).
FLOURNOY, J. Howell, law-enforcement officer. Born, Greenwood, La., October 21, 1891. Education: Shreveport schools; business college. Military service: national guard; lieutenant, U. S. Army, World War I. Married Mary Bridges. One child: Georgia Lou. Deputy in sheriff’s department, Caddo Parish, La., 1913-1928; deputy tax collector, 1928-1940; Caddo Parish sheriff, 1940-1966. Organized Caddo Parish draft board, 1940; formed and trained internal security group in Shreveport during World War II. Headed Louisiana Sheriff’s Pension and Relief Fund, 1950-1966. Member: First Presbyterian Church and Broadmoor Presbyterian Church in Shreveport; American Legion, Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce, El Karubah Shrine. Died, Shreveport, December 14, 1966. S.S. Source: J. Howell Flournoy scrapbooks, Louisiana State University in Shreveport Archives.
FLOWER, Samuel, surgeon. Born, Reading, Pa., July 14, 1751; son of John and Mary Flower. Resident of Manchac, 1774-1782(?). Married, June 14, 1777, Mary Carpenter (b. 1761), daughter of Richard Carpenter, at Baton Rouge. Removed to Natchez District where he became royal surgeon in 1792; attended Governor Gayoso’s wife as only qualified surgeon in area 1796. Established plantation in Feliciana District, Spanish West Florida, 1790. Died 1814; interred Greenwood Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, La. E.K.D. Sources: May McBee, The Natchez Court Records (1979); West Feliciana Public Records; Jack D. L. Holmes, Gayoso: The Life of a Spanish Governor in the Mississippi Valley, 1789-1799 (1965); Butler Family Papers, LSU Archives.
FLOWER, Walter Chew, businessman, politician, mayor of New Orleans. Born, East Feliciana Parish, La., August 6, 1850; son of Richard Flower and Minerva A. Scott, of West Feliciana Parish. Education: Jackson, La., and New Orleans schools; Pass Christian College; Tulane University Law Department. Participant, Battle of Liberty Place, September 14, 1874. Married, 1885, Adele McCall of Ascension Parish. Children: Jessie Scott (b. 1888), Marion (b. 1889), Edward McCall (b. 1890), Adele (b. 1893). Business career: reporter New Orleans Daily Picayune; lawyer; cotton factor, Flower and (Branch M.) King. President, New Orleans Cotton Exchange, 1891-1892. Retired 1896. Active in reform politics; mayor New Orleans, 1896-1899. Administration achievements: professionalization of New Orleans Police Department; improved dock and port facilities; new city charter, 1896; creation of “Storyville,” a restricted vice district, 1897. Died, Covington, La., October 11, 1900; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. E.F.H. Sources: John S. Kendall, History of New Orleans (1922); Melvin G. Holli and Peter d’A. Jones, eds., Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (1981).
FLUKER, Robert W., farmer. Born, North Carolina, October 1, 1783; son of David Fluker. Married (1) Eliza Irwin; one child. Married (2) Susan Kendrick; fourteen children. Married (3) Eliza B. Lyons; no children. About 1811 migrated from Georgia to St. Helena Parish, La. Established himself at Fluker’s Bluff; a large landowner (1,539 acres), planter, and stockraiser. Fought in War of 1812. Died, July 18, 1864, on his farm; interred there. I.B.T. Source: Author’s research.
FOLCH, Vicente, administrator. Born, Reus, near Barcelona, Spain, March 8, 1754; son of Isabel de Juan and Felipe Folch. Education: studied mathematics and engineering at the Royal Military Academy of Barcelona. Married Maria de la Merced Bernardino Rodriguez Junco, 1784, in Havana, Cuba. Children: Stephen, Martin, Irene, and another daughter; one of his daughters married Maximiliano de St. Maxent of Louisiana. Commissioned a sub-lieutenant and served as an engineer in an infantry company of Catalonia; fought in the African campaigns of 1774-1775, and at the seige of Gibraltar, 1780; sailed to the West Indies, 1780; fought in the campaigns of Bernardo de Gálvez (q.v.) which drove the British from West Florida, 1780-1781; named interim commander of Mobile by Gálvez; promoted to rank of lieutenant, 1784, and captain, 1786; was inspector of vessels at Balize, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, 1787; was appointed commandant of Mobile by his uncle, Gov. Esteban Miró (q.v.), 1787; was commandant from June 20, 1787, to the spring of 1792; commissioned by the Spanish navy to explore Tampa Bay, Fla., 1793; patrolled the Mississippi River on Spanish galleys, 1793-1795; was commander of Fort San Fernando (now Memphis, Tenn.), September 1795 to July 1796; was civil and military commander of Pensacola, 1796-1811, with rank of lieutenant colonel; promoted to colonel, October 15, 1802; was appointed governor of West Florida, which included the post at Baton Rouge, in March 1804; was largely responsible for the failure of the initial revolt of the Kemper brothers at Baton Rouge in 1804, who sought to proclaim an independent state; accomplished the reconquest of Fort San Marcos (now St. Marks, Fla.); directed the construction and repair of fortifications at Mobile, Pensacola, and other Spanish forts; offered to surrender Mobile to the United States Army in January 1811, to protect it from American rebels; retracted the offer a month later but was accused of treason by Spanish authorities; transferred command of West Florida to his son-in-law St. Maxent, May 1811; sailed to Spain to face court martial, January 1812; was cleared of the charges and returned to Havana, November 8, 1812; was second in command to the captain general of Cuba and sub-inspector general of the troops; appointed to the Royal and Military Order of San Hermanegildo by the king; retired in 1822; promoted to rank of field marshall, 1825. Died, Havana, November 8, 1829. J.B.C. Sources: David Hart White, Vicente Folch, Governor in Spanish Florida, 1787-1811 (1981); Jack D. L. Holmes, “Three Early Memphis Commandants: Beauregard, Deville DeGoutin, and Folch,” West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, XVIII (1964).
FOLKES, Cheston, politician. Born, Fairview Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, La., September 27, 1863; son of Adville Atkins Folkes and Elizabeth Raeborn. Education: local schools. Married Jessie Davis, November 24, 1887. Elected to parish school board, 1904-1908; elected to Louisiana house of representatives, 1908-1920, 1924-1932, 1936-1940; his son, W. Davis Folkes served in house, 1944-1955, and senate, 1955-1968; member, Democratic State Central Committee; Grace Episcopal Church. Died June 9, 1941; interred Grace Church Cemetery, St. Francisville. E.K.D. Sources: Oath Books, West Feliciana Parish; St. Francisville Democrat, June 13, 1941; Silver Anniversary Edition, 1917; Grace Church Register.
FONTAINE, Jean-Baptiste Le Sueur, actor, journalist. Born, Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie Parish, Paris, France, 1741/1742; son of Claude Le Sueur and Marie-Thérèse Colon. By 1775, settled in Saint-Domingue; acted at Comédie du Cap-Français; named director, 1780; wrote at least one play, Siège d’Orléans, ou Jeanne d’Arc; also engaged in retail merchandising, operated bakery, owned rum distillery. Married Mlle. Nonancour, 1775; separated, ca. 1776; wife went to France, 1785; returned to Fontaine, ca. 1803. Subject fled Saint-Domingue after slave uprising, 1793; may have arrived first at Philadelphia; in New York City by early 1795; advertised services as translator and teacher of French. Removed to New Orleans, ca. 1795; performed leading roles and directed at New Orleans Theatre, ca. 1795-1800, 1806-death; published newspaper, Moniteur de la Louisiane, 1797-1811; supervised until publication ceased, July 2, 1814. Moniteur was first newspaper in Louisiana, in Gulf Coast region, and in Mississippi Valley. Died, New Orleans, July 4, 1814; interred St. Louis Cemetery I. F.M.J. Sources: René J. Le Gardeur, Jr., The First New Orleans Theatre, 1792-1803 (1963); Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIXe siècle (1932); Douglas C. McMurtrie, Early Printing in New Orleans, 1764-1810 (1929); Douglas C. McMurtrie, Louisiana Imprints, 1768-1810 (1942); Samuel Joseph Marino, “The French-Refugee Newspapers and Periodicals in the United States, 1789-1825” (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1962); obituary, Louisiana Gazette, July 5, 1814.
FONTENAY, Marie, see DEGRANDFORT, Manoel
FONTENOT, Canray, Creole musician and songwriter. Born, Anse aux Vaches, La., October 23, 1922; son of Adam and Ozemire Fontenot; brother of Addie Fontenot. Married Artille, 1945; children: John Cleveland, Linda, Joyce, Joanne, Edward, and Geneva. Learned music from his father, but chose the fiddle over his father’s accordion. Career: farmed rice for thirty years, and worked in a feed and grain store in Welsh, La. “Discovered” by folk music aficionados in the 1960s. Debuted, together with accordionist Alphonse “Bois-sec” Ardoin, at the Newport Folk Festival, 1966, then traveled the world, performing at dances and festivals. Received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, 1986; played a command performance for England’s Queen Elizabeth II, 1994. Recorded six albums, including Cajun Fiddle Styles Vol. 1, and, in conjunction with Bois-Sec Ardoin, La Musique Creole, both for the Arhoolie label. Died, July 29, 1995; interred Basile Cemetery. P.G. Sources: New Orleans Times Picayune, August 1, 1995; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, August 1, 1995; Ann Allen Savoy, Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People (1984).
FONTENOT, Isaac, cattleman, rancher, and politician. Born, Grand Lake, Calcasieu Parish, La., June 19, 1871; son of Paulin Fontenot and Philomene Pousson. Education: local schools. Deputy sheriff, 1890-1914, for Calcasieu Parish. Married, March 24, 1894, Amanda Arceneaux of Welsh, La., daughter of Francis Alexander Arceneaux, farmer and politician, and Odile Marie DeRouen. Children: Alma Marie (b. 1894), Alton Henry (b. 1896), Allen Walter (b. 1898), Della Lucille (b. 1901), Florence Philomene (b. 1905). Removed to Jennings, La., 1912. Active in Democratic party: chief deputy, sheriff’s department, 1914-1916, of newly created Jefferson Davis Parish; sheriff of that parish, 1916-1932. Outstanding rancher and cattleman, large landowner. Member, Catholic church. Died, Jennings, La., June 19, 1944; interred Catholic Cemetery, Lacassine, La. T.E.C. Sources: Jennings News, June 20, 1944; Franklin Hildebrand, As I Remember; Stories of Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana (1977); Fontenot family papers; Arceneaux family papers.
FONTENOT, Isom, musician (harmonica), singer. Born, Mamou, La., July 28, 1908. Featured in several television documentaries, including “Dedans le sud de la Louisiane” (Télévision Française) and “Le Son des Cajuns” (Radio Canada); participated in many folk festivals in the United States and Canada. Recorded by Harry Oster and Ralph Rinzler. Died, Mamou, La., April 7, 1972. B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.
FONTENOT, Joseph Larose, planter. Born, Fort Toulouse, Alabama country, 1755; son of Philip Fontenot and Marie Brignac. After 1763, emigrated with his family to the Grand Prairie of the Opelousas Post. Married, 1776, Magdelene Hayes, daughter of Nicholas Hayes and Margaret Floch. Children: Joseph, Jr., Marie Louise, Philip, Adelaide, Julianne, Modeste, Alexandre, Cyprien, Don Diego, Lucas, and Augustine. Wealthy landowner, cattleman, planter, and slaveowner. Died, the Grand Prairie of St. Landry Parish, October or November 1828; interred St. Landry Parish Cemetery. K.P.F. Sources: St. Landry Parish Probate #481; Jacqueline O. Vidrine et al., “The First Fontenot Families,” Louisiana Genealogical Register, XXII (1975); Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984).
FONTENOT, Rufus W., state and federal bureaucrat, military officer. Born, Crowley, La., 1888; son of Gus E. Fontenot, a longtime Acadia Parish clerk of court, and Rosa Burton. Married Viola Warner of New Orleans; two daughters: Christine and Dorothy. Attended Crowley public schools and Louisiana State University. Left L.S.U. in 1908 and pursued a business career for two years. Appointed clerk of the Banking and Currency Committee, United States House of Representatives, 1910. Subsequently served five years as private secretary to United States Senator Joseph E. Ransdell (q.v.). Federal collector of internal revenue, District of Louisiana, 1918-1921. Became a tax consultant and accountant in Shreveport, La., 1921; subsequently established the firm of Fontenot and Price. Managed Ransdell’s 1924 senatorial campaign in North Louisiana, 1924. Business manager for the San Antonio, Tex., public school system, 1929-1933. Federal collector of internal revenue for the District of Louisiana, 1933-1940; income tax audits conducted by Fontenot during the Great Depression resulted in the prosecution and conviction of several high-ranking state officials in the Louisiana Scandals of 1939-1940. Volunteered for military service in 1942. Commissioned major in the United States Army and assigned to the staff of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Wounded in action; spent five months in military hospitals. Conferee, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Washington, D. C., 1945-1946. Supervisor of accounts and collections in the states of Ohio and Michigan for the federal Internal Revenue Service, 1949-1951. State president and national vice president, American Veterans of World War II. Died, New Orleans, April 19, 1966; interred, Metairie Cemetery. C.A.B. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 20,1966; Henry E. Chambers, History of Louisiana (1925), 2:249.
FONTENOT, Ruth Robertson, artist, archivist, genealogical consultant. Born, Opelousas, La., March 30, 1914; daughter of William Alexander Robertson and Marie Céleste Dupré. Married Austin L. A. Fontenot, Jr., May 20, 1936, eight children. Attended Sophie Newcomb College, 1931-1933; B. A., cum laude, Southwestern Louisiana Institute (alumni directory lists her as Ruth Alexander Fontenot), 1935. Resided in Washington, La., at the De la Morandière House; later in Opelousas, La., at the Ringrose Plantation; at New Orleans’ Pontalba Apartments; in Franklin, La.; and at the Governor Mouton Mansion in Opelousas. Career achievements: edited the “History Edition” of the Opelousas Daily World, 1955, reprinted 1983; organized and helped establish the Jim Bowie Museum in Opelousas, 1958; assisted in establishing the Acadiana Tourism Center, the first of its kind in the Acadiana region, 1966; obtained State grant for the architectural survey of historic buildings in Washington, La., 1968; the drawings are in the Southwestern Archives and Manuscripts Collection, University of Southwestern Louisiana; official archivist of the St. Landry Catholic Church of Opelousas, La., translating the French and Spanish colonial records, 1951-1975; consultant of the Evangeline Economic and Planning District on a cultural and architectural survey of the Acadiana region for the Louisiana Department Of Historic Preservation, 1977-86; surveyed St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia, and St. Mary parishes. Died, Lafayette, La., February 12, 1995; interred Cedar Hill Cemetery, Washington, La. A.E.B. Sources: Vertical File, Louisiana Room, University of Southwestern Louisiana; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, February 14, 1995; personal research from Frederick Austin Fontenot.
FOOTE, Lucy Brown, librarian. Born, Centerville, La., July 27, 1893. Education: attended Silliman College, Clinton, La.; George Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn., B. S. degree; University of Illinois Library School, B. S. in Library Science. Recognized nationally as an authority on cataloging, with special expertise in state documents. Her monumental publication Official Publications of the State of Louisiana, 1803-1934, makes the state’s official papers among the best documented in the nation. Taught in public schools and was librarian at Bolton High School, Alexandria, before coming to Louisiana State University as documents librarian from 1924-1926. She was head cataloger 1927-1953; librarian, Louisiana Room, 1953 until her retirement in 1958. In 1980, the Lucy B. Foote Award was established in her honor by the Subject Specialist Section of the Louisiana Library Association. Died, October 18, 1973; interred Roselawn Memorial Park, Baton Rouge. H.C. Sources: Who’s Who in Library Service, 3rd ed (1955); Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, October 20, 1973; Margaret T. Lane and Grace C. Moore, comps., Lucy B. Foote, Librarian Extraordinaire (1983).
FORD, James Alfred “Jim”, archaeologist. Born, Water Valley, Miss., 1911. Upon graduation from high school, 1927, took a job investigating prehistoric Indian sites for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. This work, the basis of a significant publication in Louisiana culture history, launched Ford in what was to be a distinguished career in American archaeology. Formal college education began in the late 1920s at Mississippi College in Clinton; Louisiana State University, B.A., 1936; graduate studies at University of Michigan; Columbia University, Ph.D., 1946. College career interrupted many times by valuable field research, including expeditions to the Arctic, excavations at the Marksville, La., site and other WPA-sponsored excavations in Louisiana, and fieldwork in Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Colombia. After World War II and completion of graduate work, accepted a position at the American Museum of Natural History, remaining there until 1964, when he joined the Florida State Museum. His research during this time took him to sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Mexico, and Peru, and included his excavations at the Poverty Point site in Northeast Louisiana. President, Society for American Archaeology, 1963-1964. Ford’s formulation of a chronological sequence for Louisiana prehistory, based on a systematic ceramic typology, remains essentially unchanged today, and his diffusionist theories still cause debate. His lengthy list of publications, from 1932 until his death in 1968 (his last manuscript, an important synthesis, was published in 1969), attest to the significant contributions he made not only to Louisiana archaeology, but also to the prehistory of middle and South America, the Arctic, and the southeastern United States. D.W. Sources: Gordon R. Willey and Stephen Williams, “James Alfred Ford, 1911-1968,” American Antiquity, XXXIV (1969); Stephen Williams, comp., “A Bibliography of James Alfred Ford,” American Antiquity, XXXIV (1969).
FORD, John McWilliams, politician, mayor of Shreveport. Born, Shreveport, February 15, 1880; son of Dr. Thomas G. Ford and Alice McWilliams. Education: Shreveport schools; University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.; Eastman Business College of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Elected city alderman, 1908. Became a member of Caddo Parish Police Jury, 1914. Elected to state legislature in 1915. Shreveport mayor, 1916. Served as commissioner of finance, 1930-1965. Married, 1908, Mary Pearce, of Alabama, daughter of John T. Pearce and Susan Samford. He was a York and Scottish Rite Mason, Shriner, Elk, Rotary Club member. Died, July 7, 1965. P.L.M. Sources: J. Fair Hardin, Northwestern Louisiana … (1939); Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (1937).
FORNO, Henry, soldier. Born in Louisiana ca. 1798. Captain, commanded Washington Artillery, 1843-1846. Served in Mexican War. Civil War service: colonel, Fifth Louisiana Infantry Regiment; wounded at Manassas. Retired from active service, April 1864. Married. Served as chief of police, New Orleans, 1850s. Died, February 2, 1866. TAG, LA Sources: Military records, Jackson Barracks Library. Compiled by Mary B. Oalmann, Military Historian.
FORSHEY, Caleb Goldsmith, civil engineer and surveyor. Born, Virginia, July 18, 1812; son of John Forshey. Education: local schools Norwich, Ohio; Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1829-1833; U. S. Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., 1833-1836. Professor of Mathematics and Civil Engineering, Jefferson College, Washington, Miss., 1836. City engineer, Natchez, Miss., 1837-1838. Conducted paleontological and archaeological investigations in Missouri and Arkansas, 1839-1840. Chief surveyor, Concordia Parish, La., 1841-1843. Member, Louisiana delegation to national railroad convention held in Memphis, Tenn., 1849. Conducted hydrometric survey of the Mississippi Delta region for the state of Louisiana and U. S. Engineering Bureau, 1850-1853. Conducted route surveys for New Orleans and Opelousas Railroad; Lafayette and Lake Pontchartrain Railroad; and Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad. Established Texas Institute at Galveston, later moved to Rutersville, Tex. Civil War service: Served in Confederate Army as engineer and ordnance officer; designed and supervised construction of coastal defenses in Texas. After war removed to New Orleans and resumed work as civil engineer and surveyor. Employed as engineer, Louisiana Levee Company, 1871-1873. Testified before U. S. Congress regarding conditions and features of Mississippi Delta, 1874. Served as consultant to U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1875. Author of books and articles on various scientific topics for newspapers, magazines, and encyclopedias. Married (1), 1835, Margaret Monroe (d. 1838); no children. Married (2), August 31, 1843, Martha Williams of Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1850). One child, John (b. 1845). Married (3), 1854, Mary Williams (sister of second wife) of Cincinnati, Ohio (d. after 1881). Two surviving children: Caleb, Jr. (b. 1858 or 1859) and Elmore (b. 1859 or 1860). Died, New Orleans, 1881. M.V.C.S. Sources: Diaries of Caleb Goldsmith Forshey, Manuscript 47, Mississippi Valley Collection, Memphis State University Libraries.
FORSTAL, Nicolas, administrator, councillor, and judge. Born on Martinique, September 21, 1727; son of Nicolas Forstal, Sr., and Jane de Barry. Captain, New Orleans militia. Purchased a seat on the New Orleans cabildo in 1772. Member of the cabildo, 1772-1785, 1794-1802. Elected alcalde (judge), 1777, 1785, 1802. Mililtary commandant, New Iberia, 1785; Opelousas, 1787-1794. Military campaigns against the British at Fort Bute, Manchac, and Baton Rouge in 1779. Married Pélagia de La Chaise, daughter of Jacques de La Chaise and Marguérite Darensbourg. Children: Edouard Pierre Charles (b. 1768), Elisabeth Louise, Edmond (b. 1779), Félix MartÃn (b. 1780), Louis Edouard (b. 1802), Emerancia, and Mélanie. A judicial inquiry (residencia) of July 6, 1802, found him guilty of numerous offences against the crown, as well as lack of zeal, and insubordination. Along with fellow regidores (judges) of the cabildo Pedro de La Roche and Juan de Casteñado, was suspended from office, given a large fine, and ordered confined to the Presidio of San Juan. Forstal seems to have died sometime after 1805. B.C. Sources: Jack D. L. Holmes, Honor and Fidelity … (1965); John Harkins, “The Neglected Phase of Louisiana’s Colonial History, The New Orleans Cabildo, 1769-1803” (Ph. D. dissertation, Memphis State University, 1976); Herman Seebold, Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family Trees, II (1941); Spain. Archivo General de Indias. Papeles procedentes de Cuba, legajo 1659.
FORSYTH, Hewitt Laurie, engineer, genealogist. Born, New Orleans (Algiers), June 12, 1907; son of Hugh Laurel Forsyth (1882-1933) and Mary Cecilia Lawrence (1879-1969). Education: St. Henry’s School, Verrina High; Loyola University of New Orleans; Yale University. A well-known genealogist and founder of the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans and the first editor of New Orleans Genesis, January 1962 to January 1972. Travelled extensively, researched in Europe and the British Isles, as well as the United States. A member of the Magna Charta Barons; Society of the War of 1812; Founders of the City of New Orleans; Society of Genealogists of London, England; Augustine Society; Connecticut Society of Genealogists; Louisiana Historical Society; St. Bernard Historical Society; Genealogical and Historical Society of Louisiana; and many others. Married, February 27, 1940, Alice Magdalen Daly. Died, September 10, 1972; interred in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. A.D.F. Sources: Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans; Mrs. H. L. Forsyth.
FORTIER, Alcée, scholar, historian. Born, St. James Parish, La., June 5, 1856; son of Florent Fortier and Edwige Aime (daughter of Valcour Aime [q.v.]). Education: tutors and private schools; University of Virginia (did not graduate due to illness); studied law two years. Fluent in French, English, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish; master of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. Career: clerk in New Orleans bank; teacher, New Orleans City High School; principal, Preparatory Department of University of Louisiana, 1879; professor of Romance Languages, University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), 1880; dean, Graduate College, Tulane University, 1913. Lectured at the following universities: Tulane, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, California, Kansas, Colorado, Cincinnati, Chicago, Southern Art Union. Publications: Gabriel d’Ennerich (1886); Bits of Louisiana Folk-Lore (1888); Histoire de la Littérature Française (1893); Louisiana Studies (1894); Louisiana Folk-Tales(1894); Voyage en Europe (1895); Précis de l’Histoire de France(1899); History of Louisiana, 4 vols. (1904); History of Mexico (1907); Louisiana, Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (1914). He also wrote numerous articles for literary and historical magazines and journals and edited several French texts for American colleges. Married, October 22, 1881, Marie Lanauze, of New Orleans, daughter of Adolph Lanauze, merchant, and Henriette Feraud. Children who lived to adulthood: Joseph (b. 1883); James Joseph Alcée (q.v.), Frank (b. 1894), Gilbert (b. 1896), Jean Marie (b. 1886). Member, State Board of Education, 1888-1896; president, Civil Service Commission; president, board of curators, Louisiana State Museum, 1906-1911, 1913-1914; vice president, board of curators, State Museum, 1908-1911; honorary curator of history, State Museum, 1910-1914; president, Louisiana Historical Society, 1894-1912; president, l’Athénée Louisianais, 1894-1914; president, Modern Language Association; president, American Folklore Society, 1894-1895; president, Fédération de l’Alliance Française des Etats-Unis et Canada; president, Public School Alliance of New Orleans. Honors: honorary degrees as doctor of letters from University of Virginia, Washington and Lee University, and Laval University of Canada; presented with cross of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by government of France. Alcée Fortier High School in New Orleans named for him. Died, New Orleans, February 14, 1914; interred St. Louis Cemetery. C.C.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 17, 1943; Estelle M. Fortier Cochran, The Fortier Family and Allied Families (1963); Louisiana Historical Quarterly, LV, No. 1 (Winter-Spring, 1972); Fortier Collection, Louisiana State Archives and Records Service.
FORTIER, James Joseph Alcée, businessman, attorney. Born, New Orleans, July 15, 1890; son of Alcée Fortier (q.v.), scholar, and Marie Lanauze. Education: local schools, College of Immaculate Conception, 1901-1905; Tulane University, A. B., 1909; LL. B., 1912. Married (1), September 2, 1913, Marie R. Gelpi of New Orleans. Two children who lived to adulthood: Alcée James Joseph; Jacques Lanauze. Married (2), Isabel Solonas, of New Orleans, daughter of L.L. and Marie Solanas. One child: Jacqueline del Boxs. Admitted to bar, 1912; state representative, 1915-1921; member, 1921 state constitutional convention; president, Orleans Parish School Board, 1922-1926; chariman, State Insurance Commission, 1926-1928; president, Louisiana State Museum Board, 1934-1940, 1948-1952; curator, Louisiana State Museum, 1952-1961; president, Investor Finance Corporation; member, Academy of American History (president, 1939). Noted lecturer on historical and financial subjects. Died, New Orleans, September 5, 1961; interred New Orleans. C.C.C. Sources: Louisiana Historical Quarterly, LV, No. 1 (Winter-Spring, 1972); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, September 6, 1961; Fortier Collection, Louisiana State Archives and Records Service; Estelle M. Fortier Cochran, The Fortier Family and Alied Families (1965).
FORTIER, Miguel (Michel) II, merchant, planter. Born in Louisiana, 1750; son of Michel Fortier and Perrine Langlois. The son of a French officer, Michel served as a lieutenant in the New Orleans militia. Entered into partnership with Alexo Réaud in the early 1780s to form Réaud and Fortier Company, which rapidly became one of the leading exporters of skins and pelts to Bordeaux and of lumber products to Guarico and Port-au-Prince. Fortier maintained a large house on St. Ursula Street where he resided with his family. Married: Marie Rose Durel. Children: Michel III; Edmond (b. 1784); and Marie Félicité (b. 1780). His daughter’s son Valcour Aime (q.v.) became Louisiana’s richest planter in the nineteenth century. In 1803 French Prefect Clement Laussat (q.v.) appointed him to the short-lived French municipal council. Died, New Orleans, September 19, 1819. B.C. Sources: Census of 1778, Spain. Archivo General de Indias, Papeles procedentes de Cuba, legajo 191; Stanley Clisby Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (1931; reprint ed., 1971); Herman de Bachelle Seebold, Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family Trees, II (1941).
FOSTER, Abbey “Chinee”, drummer. Born, New Orleans, March 20, 1902. Ranked with the all-time great Crescent City drummers. Played as a teenager in Storyville, playing for Bébé Ridgley’s Tuxedo Orchestra. Associated with Buddy Petit from 1915 in Eagle Band through 1931. Recorded with Oscar “Papa” Celestin(q.v.), 1927. Led the band on the S. S. Madison called “Chinee’s Crazy Kattes”. Played with Fletcher Henderson’s band until hospitalized in 1931. Made comeback in 1961 in Preservation Hall and became a regular member of Ernest “Punch” Miller’s (q.v.) band. Wife, Sadie Goodson. Died, New Orleans, September 8, 1962; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery. H.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, September 11, 1962; Samuel Charters, Jazz, New Orleans, 1885-1963 (1963); Al Rose and Edmond Souchon, New Orleans Jazz: A Family Album, 3rd ed. (1984).
FOSTER, George Murphy “Pops”, jazz musician. Born, McCall, Ascension Parish, La., May 19, 1892; son of Charley and Annie Foster. Removed to New Orleans with his family. Learned how to play cello from his dad and sister but later switched to string bass. Around 1906 he began working in Rosseals Orchestra and then with Jack Carey at 101 Ranch. In 1908 he was with the Magnolia Orchestra, around which time he began working with Kid Ory (q.v.). He also worked in New Orleans with the Tuxedo, Eagle, Armand Piron, and King Oliver bands. In 1917 worked briefly with Fate Marable and joined him regularly on riverboats in the summer of 1918. Remained with Marable until 1921 and worked in St. Louis with Charlie Creath and Dewey Jackson. He then played in Ed Allen’s Whispering Gold Band before removing to Los Angeles to join Kid Ory around 1923. Later he worked with Mutt Carey and also played at various taxi-dance-halls in Los Angeles until 1925. He moved back to St. Louis, again working with Charlie Creath and Dewey Jackson. In 1929 he joined Luis Russell and worked with him and Louis Armstrong (q.v.) throughout the 1930s. In 1940 left Armstrong and worked briefly with Teddy Wilson before joining Happy Caldwell’s Happy Pals in New York. He then formed a duo with Norman Langlois. In 1945 he was with Sidney Bechet and during 1945-1946 he played regularly on Rudi Blesh’s “This is Jazz” radio series. In February, 1948 he toured France briefly with Mezz Mezzrow’s Band and then returned to play in Bob Wilber’s Band in Boston. In late 1952 he toured Europe with Jimmy Archey’s Band. He played regularly at Central Plaza in New York and briefly in New Orleans with Papa Celestin (q.v.) in 1954. In 1955-1956 he returned to Europe with Sam Price’s Blusicians and then moved to San Francisco. During the late 1950s and early 1960s he played with Earl Hines’ Small Band, with Eddie Smith Band in 1963, and with Elmer Snowden Trio from 1963-1964. In early 1966 he toured Europe with the New Orleans All-Stars but remained based in California, although he did widespread touring in the United States and Canada. Married (1), 1912, Bertha Foster; married (2), 1936, Alma Foster. Died, San Francisco, Calif., October 29, 1969. C.S.B. Sources: John Chilton, Who’s Who of Jazz: Storyville to Swing Street (1972); Hugues Panassie and Madeleine Gautier, Guide to Jazz (1956; reprint ed., 1973); Al Rose and Edmond Souchon, New Orleans Jazz: A Family Album, 3rd ed. (1978); Pops Foster: The Autobiography of a New Orleans Jazzman as Told to Tom Stoddard (1971).
FOSTER, Murphy James, attorney, state legislator, governor, United States senator. Born on a plantation near Franklin, La., January 12, 1849; son of Thomas Foster and Martha P. Murphy. Education: local school, attended Washington and Lee University; Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., graduated, 1870; University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), graduated, 1871; passed the bar examination that same year. Married (1), May 15, 1877, Florence Daisy Hine, daughter of T. D. Hine, Franklin merchant. Married (2), 1881, Rose Routh Ker, daughter of Capt. John Ker and Rose Routh of Ouida Plantation in West Feliciana Parish, La. Ten children, nine of whom reached maturity: Rose Routh (b. 1882), Elizabeth Ratliff (b. 1883), Lucy Price (b. 1885), Mary Lucy (b. 1886), Willia Ker (b. 1889), William Prescott (b. 1890), Louisiana Navarro (b. 1894), Martha DeMari (b. 1896), Murphy James (b. 1898), Sarah Ker (b. 1903). State senator, 1880-1892; in 1892 as the Democratic candidate with the assistance of the Farmer’s Alliance he was elected governor. In 1896 re-elected governor. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1900 and re-elected to succeed himself in 1907. Following his defeat for re-election in 1913 he was appointed collector of customs in New Orleans. Foster’s contributions as a state leader came as the result of his struggle to restore white supremacy in Louisiana, which culminated in the constitutional convention of 1898 that practically disfranchised Negroes. He also led the fight which succeeded in outlawing the Louisiana Lottery Co. As a national leader he rendered effective service to the people of his state through his unceasing efforts to protect the sugar growers, to obtain flood-control legislation, and to regulate railway rates. Died on his plantation near Franklin, June 12, 1921; interred Franklin Cemetery. S.R. Sources: Miriam G. Reeves, The Governors of Louisiana (1962); Roy Clashan, American Governors and Gulbernatorial Elections, 1775-1975 (1975); Letter from Cheryl A. Lewis, librarian, St. Mary Parish Library, Franklin, La., February 24, 1983.
FOSTER, Rufus Edward, jurist. Born Mathews County, Va., May 22, 1871; son of Gustavus and Catherine (Moore) Foster. Education: Soulé College, 1885-1888; Tulane University Law School, LL. B., 1895 (honorary LL. D., 1935). Married Blanche Ahrons, September 7, 1899. Children: Alice Catherine, Blanche Marian. Second lieutenant, Second Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, Spanish-American War from May 2, 1898, to April 1899. Adjutant general, staff of Brig. Gen. W. W. Gordon, Second Brigade, First Division Seventh Army Corps. Assistant U. S. Attorney, Eastern District Louisiana, 1905-1908; U. S. Attorney, 1908-1909. Judge, Eastern District of Louisiana, February 2, 1909; U. S. Circuit Court, Fifth Circuit, January 2, 1925. Professor of Law, Tulane University, 1912; dean College of Law, Tulane University, 1920-1927 (emeritus). Vice president, American Athletic Association Olympic Committee, 1924. Reemployment director for Louisiana under NRA. Vice-president American Bar Association, American Law Institute, American Bar Association, Louisiana Historical Society, S.A.R., Phi Delta Phi, Order of the Coif. Commander-in-Chief United Spanish War Veterans, 1940-1941. Republican, Episcopalian. Clubs: Boston, New Orleans Country Club. Died, August 23, 1941; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. B.F.M. Sources: Who’s Who, Series VIII, No. 3, March 1947; Foster family papers.
FOUCAULT, Denis-Nicolas, administrator. Born, Quebec, December 13, 1723; son of François Foucault, storekeeper of the royal warehouse at Quebec and member of New France’s Sovereign Council. Entered French bureaucratic service in New France before 1739; transferred to Rochefort, France, 1741; sailed to Canada and participated in the Isle Royale and Quebec campaigns, 1744; served in colonial bureaucracy of French India, 1745-1750; returned to France, 1750; named chief clerk in the naval bureau at Rochefort, 1757; breveted commissary of the Mobile post in French Louisiana, January 18, 1762; became provisional commissaire-ordonnateur (administrative chief) of Louisiana, June 1762, following the capture of Jean-Jacques-Blaise d’Abbadie (q.v.), the royal appointee who had been captured by British forces while en route to Louisiana; reorganized the colonial bureaucracy and initiated a major audit of colonial finances; upon D’Abbadie’s subsequent release and arrival at New Orleans in June 1763, subject assumed duties of comptroller; again became acting commissaire-ordonnateur upon D’Abbadie’s death in February 1765; assisted Charles Philippe Aubry (q.v.) in settling first large groups of Acadian immigrants, 1765; remained head of French administrative offices in New Orleans until 1769 despite arrival of colony’s first Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa (q.v.), March 1766; a reputed leader of October 1768 rebellion that drove Ulloa from Louisiana; following reoccupation of Louisiana by Spanish forces in August 1769, arrested and sent to France to face charges of sedition against the Spanish colonial regime; subsequently confined for eighteen months in the Bastille; ultimately exonerated of major charges and rehabilitated; promoted to rank of commissary general, January 1771 (promotion made retroactive to April 1, 1765); commissaire-ordonnateur at Pondichéry, India, 1772-1776; commissaire-ordonnateur of Ile de France, 1776-1782; retired from royal service, 1782; subsequently resided at Tours, France. Died, September 3, 1803. C.A.B. Sources: Marc de Villiers du Terrage, Les Dernières Années de la Louisiane françasis (1903); A. Baillardel and A. Prioult, eds., Le Chevalier de Pradel … (1928); Carl A. Brasseaux, Denis-Nicolas Foucault and the New Orleans Rebellion of 1768 (Ruston, La., 1987).
FOURNET, Jean (John) Baptiste, educator, politician, jurist. Born, St. Martinville, La., July 7, 1895; son of Marcelite Gauthier and Louis Michel Fournet. Education: local schools; Louisiana State Normal College (now Northwestern State University), B. A., 1913; Louisiana State University, LL. B., 1920. Married (1) Rose Dupuis, daughter of Fernand Dupuis and Louise Weber of Breaux Bridge, La., February 1, 1921. Children: Lela (b. 1923), John Dupuis (b. 1929). Married (2) Sylvia Ann Fournet, daughter of Gabriel Fournet and Eugenie Bienvenu, June 27, 1953. Veteran of World War I. After war, resumed studies at LSU. School teacher in Vernon, Jefferson Davis, and Pointe Coupée parishes; principal of Morganza High School. Practiced law in St. Martin, East Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Davis parishes, 1920-1928. Political career: active in Democratic party; with Huey Long (q.v.) in state capitol when Long was shot. Elected to house of representatives from Jefferson Davis Parish and served 1928-1932; speaker of the house, 1928-1932. Lieutenant governor of Louisiana, 1932-1935. Elected to Louisiana Supreme Court, 1935, and served 1935-1970; chief justice, 1949-1970. Honorary member, Order of the Coif; Beta Epsilon Chapter of the Gamma Eta Gamma Law Fraternity, LSU; Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity, Martin Chapter, Tulane University; honorary LL. D., LSU, 1956; Pi Lamba Beta, Pre-Law Fraternity; and Pi Gamma Mu, Social Science Fraternity, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Selected to serve as member of the executive council of the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States, 1958-1960. In September 1982 inducted into Hall of Fame of the Association of Former Members of the Louisiana Legislature. Removed to Jackson, Miss., 1978. Died, Jackson, Miss., June 3, 1984; interred St. Michael’s Cemetery, St. Martinville, La. M.R.S. Sources: Fournet Family Papers; Adele Voorhies Schoenfeld, “John Baptiste Fournet” (unpublished Louisiana History term paper).
FOWLER, Littleton, clergyman, missionary. Born, Smith County, Tenn., 1803; son of Clara (Wright) and Godfrey Fowler, Jr. Dedicated life to the ministry of the Methodist church; migrated to the border country between Texas and Louisiana in 1837 and preached in both states; known as a successful executive and evangelist; appointed superintendent of Methodism in the Texas Republic, and served as chaplain of the Texas senate; traveled through the Sabine River border area on horseback; founded several Methodist churches, including McMahan’s Chapel. Married Mrs. Missouri Lockwood Porter. Aided in the founding the San Augustine Academy. Died, 1847; interred beneath the altar of McMahan’s Chapel near the Louisiana border in San Augustine County, Texas. A.P.M. Sources: L. F. Woolworth, Littleton Fowler: A Saint of the Saddlebags (1936); First United Methodist Church, San Augustine, 1837-1976 (1976).
FOWLER, Trevor Thomas, portraitist. Born, Dublin, Ireland, 1800. Educated at the royal academies of Dublin and London, and in Paris, France. Exhibited in Dublin and London, and at the National Academy, New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy. Gained public attention in New Orleans with his portraits of William Henry Harrison and Henry Clay, contenders for the Whig presidential nomination in 1839. In New Orleans intermittently between 1840 and 1852. Also known to have worked in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi. Lived in Germantown and Philadelphia, Pa., 1854-1869. J.A.M. Sources: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987).
FOY, Prosper Florville, sculptor, proprietor of marble yard. Born, New Orleans, June 29, 1819; son of René Prosper Foy (q.v.), a French Napoleonic veteran, and Azelie or Héloise Aubry, a New Orleans free woman of color. Educated by private tutors and by his father; perhaps was also sent to France. Cohabitated with Louisa Whittaker of Mississippi after 1850; married 1885; one son, who died at birth. In 1836, Foy opened a marble cutting business. In the 1850s, he purchased a three-story building with adjoining marble yard on North Rampart Street, where he resided and worked until his death. Property was next door to St. Anthony’s Mortuary Chapel, across the street from the front gates of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, and convenient to both St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 and the Carondelet Canal. Received loads of marble via the canal and shipped signed tombs to Pensacola and Biloxi. In early years built tombs and carved decorative elements from the designs of highly regarded French architect J. N. B. DePouilly. Later became known for the beauty and quality of his own designs. Signed tombs both Florville and Florville Foy, with no discernible pattern. One of the most successful tomb builders and funerary sculptors in New Orleans through the 1880s; continued in business until his death. Also owned a large farm in the Broad Street area in the “back of town,” where he raised prize-winning livestock. His signed tombs, vaults, and memorials may be seen in all three St. Louis cemeteries of New Orleans. His large sculpture from the demolished Girod St. Cemetery, Child with Drum, is at the Louisiana State Museum. Died, a widower, New Orleans, March 16, 1903; interred, St. Louis Cemetery #3, New Orleans. P.B. Sources: Patricia Brady, “Mixed Palette: Free Artists of Color in Antebellum New Orleans,” in the International Review of African American Art (1995); author’s research notes.
FOY, René Prosper, sculptor, engraver, art teacher. Born a free man of color in Orléans, France, July 3, 1787. Lifelong relationship with a free women of color, Azelie Aubry (ca. 1795-1870); four daughters and one son, Prosper Florville (q.v.). Lived in Bordeaux, France and Saint-Domingue before arriving in New Orleans. Foy fought in the Napoleonic wars as well as at the Battle of New Orleans. First appears at New Orleans in advertisements as a sculptor in marble, stone, and plaster, 1807; later advertises that he could supply gravestones, sundial, chimney pieces, cornices, capitals, and medallions in either stucco or plaster, June, 1817. Traveled to Europe, October, 1817. Returned permanently to New Orleans by 1825, when he announced the opening of his studio where he worked as a marble cutter, engraver, sculptor, gilder, and maker of sun dials. Also taught civil, military, and naval architecture. Executed and repaired mausoleums, mantelpieces, bas-reliefs and the like, 1835. Appears to have retired from marble cutting by 1838. Acquired a plantation in St. James Parish and maintained a residence, out of which he conducted business, in New Orleans near the cemeteries. Also contributed articles and poems to New Orleans newspapers. Died, New Orleans, February 7, 1854. J.D.W. and P.B. Sources: Patricia Brady, “Free Men of Color as Tomb Builders in the Nineteenth Century,” included in Cross, Crozier, and Crucible (1993); Patricia Brady, gen. ed., Encyclopædia of New Orleans Artist, 1718-1918 (1987).
FRANCIS, Joseph Abel, Jr., clergyman, bishop, author, advocate of social justice. Born, Lafayette, La., September 30, 1923; son of Joseph Abel Francis, Sr., and Mabel Coco. Education: Saint Mary’s Seminary, Techny, Ill.; Master’s degree in education administration, Catholic University, Washington, D.C. Graduate Studies: Xavier University, New Orleans, and Loyola University, Los Angeles, Cal. Ordained for Society of the Divine Word Fathers, Bay Saint Louis, Miss., October 7, 1950. Served in Lafayette Diocese as a teacher at Holy Rosary Institute and as administrator of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 1952-1960. Taught in schools in Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and California. Founder and principal of Verbum Dei High School, Watts section of Los Angeles, 1964-1971. School was held in such high regard by community that it escaped the devastation of the 1965 civil disturbances in Watts. First African American priest in his religious community to serve as provincial superior of the Westem Province, Divine Word Fathers, 1967-1973; provincial superior of Southern province, 1973-1976. Named auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, N. J., and titular bishop of the see of Valliposita, May 4, 1976; making him the fourth black bishop in the United States. Ordained to the episcopacy, June 25, 1976. Lectured nationally and internationally on justice and peace. Episcopal advisor, International Liaison for the Lay Apostolate, 1977. He was the principal author of Brothers and Sisters to Us, the 1979 United States Bishops Pastoral on the sin of racism. Served as a member or chairman of numerous boards, including Black Priests’ Caucus, Conference of Major Superiors of Men, American Board of Catholic Missions, Archdiocesan Commission on Justice and Peace, Catholic Relief Services, Greater Newark Coalition, National Office of Black Catholics, United Negro College Fund, and the Campaign for Human Development. Recipient of numerous religious and civil honors and awards, including Thurgood Marshall Award, Seton Hall Law School, June 1, 1977; Paul Robeson Award, Bergen County Urban League, May 20, 1981; Brotherhood Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews, February 25, 1982; Second Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, Office of Black Catholic Affairs, Archdiocese of Newark January 19, 1986; President’s Award, National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and National Black Sisters Conference, July, 1988. Received twelve honorary degrees. Retired as auxiliary bishop of Newark, June 30, 1995. Died, September 1, 1997; interred, St. John the Evangelist Cemetery, Lafayette, La. B.A.C. Sources: Lafayette Daily Advertiser, September 7, 1997; Parish History Collection, Archives, Diocese of Lafayette; Chancellor’s Office, Archdiocese of Newark, Communications and Public Relations Dept., Newark, N. J., Star-Ledger, September 3, 1997; Newark, N. J.; Catholic Advocate, July 5, 1995.
FRANCISQUY, Jean-Baptiste, dance choreographer. Born, Bordeaux, France. Studied dance in France. Leading dancer of the Théâtre of Saint-Pierre, Martinique in 1788. Left the island, April 1789. In 1794, is found in Charleston, S. C., where he danced a benefit for the refugees from Saint Domingue. Danced in Charleston, 1796-1797; in Philadelphia 1798. In 1799 began dancing in New Orleans where he opened a dance academy in November 1804. Active as dancer and choreographer in New Orleans, 1806-1808. M.A. Source: René J. Le Gardeur, Jr., The First New Orleans Theatre, 1792-1803 (1963).
FRANKO, Nathan, violinist, conductor. Born, New Orleans, July 23, 1861. A child prodigy, he toured with Adelina Patti. Studied in Berlin with Joseph Joachim and August Wilhemj. Joined the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera; concertmaster, 1883-1905; first American conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, 1904-1907. Died, Amityville, N.Y., June 7, 1930. M.A. Sources: Charles Panzeri, Louisiana Composers (1972); Nicolas Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1984).
FRANKO, Sam. Violinist, composer. Born, New Orleans, January 20, 1857. Studied in Berlin with Joseph Joachim, Heinrich de Ahna and Eduard Rappoldi, and in Paris with Hubert Léonard and Henry Vieuxtemps. Joined the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in New York, 1880; concertmaster 1884-1891. Founded the New York String Quartet, 1881. Founded, 1894, the American Symphony Orchestra, with sixty-five native-born musicians to dispell the prejudice against American players. Conducted “Orchestral Concerts of Old Music” in New York, 1900-1909. Taught in Berlin, 1910-1915. Returned to New York, 1915; taught violin and was concertmaster for the touring Ballets Russes. Composed some music for the piano and the violin; did arrangements for the violin; edited classical music albums. His memoirs published posthumously as Chords and Discords (1938). Died, New York, May 6, 1937. M.A. Sources: Charles Panzeri, Louisiana Composers (1972); Nicolas Slonimsky, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1984); H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music (1986).
FRANTZ, Dolph G., journalist. Born, Brandon, Miss., September 6, 1886; son of Edward E. Frantz and Sudie Brown. Education: Millsaps College, B. A., 1904. Started with Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 1904; worked at Shreveport Times, 1905-1907, when he was appointed city auditor. City editor of Shreveport Journal in 1908. After serving as secretary of the mayoral campaign of J. Claiborne Foster; he returned to Shreveport Journal as city editor. Assistant secretary of the Louisiana State Fair, 1916-1918. Managing editor of Shreveport Journal, 1919-1942, editor, 1947-1953. Married (1), June 9, 1910, Elda Verne Weaver. Following her death he married (2), her sister, Dell Weaver Lawhorn, on November 2, 1935. Faculty member, Centenary College. Member, First Presbyterian Church, Rotary Club, Shriners, Caddo Parish Democratic Executive Committee, Norwella Boy Scout Council, Caddo Lodge No. 179, F. & A.M., Elks, American Red Cross, and Order of the Hoo Hoo. Died, July 6, 1953. P.L.M. Sources: J. Fair Hardin, Northwestern Louisiana … (1939); Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Buiders (1937); J. Ed Howe, comp., Shreveport Men and Women Builders (1931).
FRASCH, Herman, inventor. Born, Oberrot bei Gaildorf, Germany, December 25, 1851; son of Johannes and Heinriche Frasch. Left high school at age sixteen to emigrate to America. Arrived Philadelphia, Pa., 1868. Apprenticed at a pharmacy; opened own drug store and technical laboratory, 1874. Next year obtained first patent, for utilizing tin scrap. In 1877 patented an improved method of refining petroleum applicable to manufacture of paraffin wax, which was purchased by a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company. Removed to Cleveland, Ohio, to assume position as chemist in the Meriam and Morgan Paraffine Company. Continued activity in improving refining processes and other projects. Accepted a position with Imperial Oil, Ltd., in Canada. In 1885 was part owner of a small refinery at London, Ontario. By 1886 developed a “Frasch process” for desulphurizing the Canadian oil, eliminating the objectionable odor from the refined products, particularly kerosene. Standard Oil purchased the process to apply to their Ohio crude, then just coming into production, which also had a high sulphur content. He moved back to Cleveland to supervise improvements in the process and the installation of equipment in Standard refineries. In 1890 applied for a patent for sulphur mining, using superheated steam introduced under pressure into the underground deposit to melt the sulphur. The molten mineral could then be pumped to the surface by processes similar to those used in oil, water, and brine wells. Subsequently, the pumping process was replaced by the use of compressed air to force the liquid sulphur to the surface. The technical success of the process demonstrated at Sulphur, La., December, 1894. Inexpensive oil for the steam boilers from Spindletop (East Texas) and later Jennings, La., made it a commercial success after 1901. The Union Sulphur Company, now absorbed into Allied Chemical, was established in 1896, combining Frasch and the partners in his patents with the owners of the Sulphur salt dome property. Several companies had attempted to mine sulphur there unsuccessfully, for twenty years. Frasch made frequent visits to Sulphur to supervise operations before ill-health forced him to withdraw from active work in 1912. The Frasch process became the standard method of producing sulphur in the United States, primarily from salt domes along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and converted this country from an importing nation to the world leader in sulphur production. Frasch sulphur, until 1912 all of it from Louisiana, helped make this country’s chemical industry the largest and most advanced in the world. The mine at Sulphur produced over 9,400,000 tons of sulplhur from 1894 to 1924. Louisiana, and, later, Texas remain the center of the Frasch process sulphur production. Frasch also patented improved processes for mining and manufacturing salt, for making caustic soda, improving the flow of oil wells, making waxed paper, converting galena into white lead, refining linseed oil, a solution-mining technique for gold mining, as well as the sulphur and oil refining processes. He was awarded the Perkin Medal by his colleagues in the chemical profession in 1912. Married (1) Romalda Berkin, 1869. Children: George B. (b. 1873), Herman (b. 1875, died in infancy), and Freida (b. 1879). Married (2) Elizabeth Blee, 1890. Member of several clubs, professional organizations in Cleveland and New York City, and the Gentleman’s Driving Club of New Orleans. Herman Frasch Park in Sulphur, Louisiana, donated by Union Sulphur Company to the community. Frasch Elementary School, Sulphur, La., named for subject. Died May 1, 1914, Paris, France; interred Gaildorf, Germany. Body later transferred by family to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown, N. Y.. G.S.P. Sources: Wiliams Haynes, Brimstone: The Stone That Burns: The Story of the Frasch Sulphur Industry (1959); “Presentation Address” by C. F. Chandler and “Address of Acceptance” by Herman Frasch, Perkin Medal award, in The Journal of Industrial Chemistry, (February, 1912); Dictionary of American Biography, VI (1946).
FRAZAR, Lether Edward, academic, administrator, lieutenant governor. Born, DeRidÂder, La., December 1, 1904; son of Marvin Edward and Letha Perkins Frazar. Education: Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Southwestern Louisiana), history graduate, 1928; Louisiana State University, M. A. degree, 1932; Columbia University, New York, graduate student, 1941-1942. Married Lily Hooper, August 22, 1929. Children: Lily Ann and Brenda. High school principal: Longville, 1928-1931; Jackson, 1931-1933; Merryville, 1933-1938; president, SLI, 1938-1941. State representative, 1936-1940; author of state teacher retirement law and T. H. Harris scholarship foundation law; Office of Price Administration officer Washington, D. C., 1941-1942; Office of Price Administration state director, 1942-1944; dean of McNeese State College, 1944-1956; lieutenant governor, 1956-1960. Democrat. Member, Methodist church, Southern Regional Education Board, National Education Association, Blue Key, Pi Sigma, Alpha Sigma Phi, Masons, Shriners, and Kiwanis. Died, May 15, 1960; interred Woodlawn Cemetery, DeRidder. J.B.C. Sources: Who Was Who in America, 1961-1968; Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, obituary, May 16, 1960.
FRAZAR, Stanton Morrison, banker, museum director, television executive, civic leader. Born, De Ridder, La., September 24, 1932; son of John David Frazar and Ruth Morrison. Education: local schools, Centenary College, Shreveport. Removed to New Orleans, 1955; employed by Hibernia National Bank, 1955-1975, in various positions, the last as vice president of marketing. Director, Historic New Orleans Collection, 1975-1986; president, WYES-TV, 1986-1987. Married, August 28, 1965, Clayton Nairne of New Orleans, daughter of Clayton Nairne and Elizabeth Westerfield. Child: one daughter, Nairne Morrison Frazar. Governor’s delegate, La Salle Tricentennial Commission; member of the boards of Friends of the Cabildo (president), Preservation Resource Center (president), St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, Save Our Cemeteries, Louisiana Landmarks Society, Bring Our Streetcars Home (chairman, 150th Birthday Celebration), Gallier House (vice chairman), Tidewater Development Association (secretary-treasurer), Arts Council of New Orleans (exhibit chairman, Seldom Seen III), Bouligny Improvement Association (vice president), Greater New Orleans Science Fair (president), WYES-TV, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, Friends of the University of New Orleans Library, Criminal Courts Renaissance, Le Debut des Jeunes Filles de la Nouvelle Orléans, Louise S. McGehee School, and Contemporary Arts Center, of which he was co-founder; active in Mardi Gras organizations. Died, New Orleans, July 14, 1987; interred, De Ridder, La. F.M.J. Sources: The Story of Louisiana (1964); “‘Buddy’ Frazar, Head of WYES, Dies at 54,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 15, 1987; interview with Clayton Frazar, April 5, 1988.
FRAZIER, James Monroe, educator, administrator. Born in the hamlet of Blue Ridge, near Gibsland, La., January 24, 1879; third child and first son of Nelson and Dilsey Edwards Frazier. Education: high school training completed at Coleman Academy, a private boarding secondary school in Gibsland; Leland University, New Orleans, B. A., 1906; University of Iowa, M. A. in Education, 1937; post-graduate work, University of Chicago, 1924-1925; honorary degree from Leland College, Baker, La., 1938. Married (1) Eleanor Victorine Kyzer of New Orleans, 1906; married (2) Gladys Duncan, December 24, 1930. Children: James Monroe, Jr. (b. 1907); Harold Jaab (b. 1910); Leanor Victorine (b. 1913); Joyce Carmen (b. 1938). Positions: principal of Junction City Academy, Junction City, Ark., 1907; principal of the Negro school in Alexandria, 1908; teacher of the Summer Normal School for in-service teachers Baton Rouge, 1907-1922; principal of McKinley High School, 1910-1940, supervising principal of East Baton Rouge Parish Schools for thirty-three years, 1908-1941; president, Leland College, Baker, La., 1941-1952; president of the Louisiana Colored Teachers Association, 1918-1920; executive secretary of the Louisiana Colored Teachers Association, 1926-1928. The J. M. Frazier, Sr., Vocational Education Complex was named in his honor, June 1983. Baptist. Thirty-second Degree Mason. Died, May 3, 1956, Baton Rouge. C.T. Sources: “Presenting Dr. James Monroe Frazier, Supervising Principal of the Baton Rouge Colored School System,” Sepia Socialite, 5th ed. (1942); Letter, Joyce Frazier Hardaway to Carole R. Taylor, April 16, 1983.
FREDERICK, Rivers, surgeon. Born, New Roads, La., May 22, 1874; son of Armentine and George Scott Frederick. Education: Straight and New Orleans universities (now Dillard); University of Illinois, M. D., 1897. Married (1) Adele Bouis. Married (2) Eloise Clark. Children: Rivers II, Pearl, and Lelita. Practiced medicine in New Orleans, Central America, and the West Indies; was associate professor of Surgery, Flint Medical School, New Orleans; chief surgeon, Sara Goodridge Hospital, New Orleans; surgeon, Southern Pacific Railroad, 1913-1932; conducted clinics at Goodhope Sanitarium, Lafayette, La., for ten years; chief of surgery, Flint-Goodridge Hospital, medical unit of Dillard University, 1932-1953; helped organize the New Orleans chapters of the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; a founder and later president, Louisiana Life Insurance (now Universal Life); initiated founding of New Orleans Insurance Council; a founder of the United Negro College Fund; received a certificate of recognition from the National Urban League, 1947; recipient of the first Dillard Alumni Award, 1951; first Negro selected for membership in the Societa Tosca-Umbra di Italia at the assembly of the International College of Surgeons, Florence, Italy, 1951; received a citation for meritorious service on the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Flint-Goodridge Hospital, 1952; also received a token-of-appreciation loving cup from the New Orleans Medical and Surgery Society, a distinguished service award from the National Medical Association, an award of merit from the National Cancer Society, and an achievement award from Phi Beta Sigma. Member, New Orleans Tuberculosis Association, United States Committee in support of the World Medical Association, and the Louisiana Educational Association. Died, New Orleans, September 2, 1954; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery. Rivers Frederick Junior High School opened September 27, 1954. J.B.C. Sources: Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, September 3, 1954.
FREDERICK, Sidney, dentist, orthodonist, civic leader. Born, Arnaudville, La., November 12, 1918; son of Antoine “Bill” Frederick and Ethel Plouet. Married Irene Savoie, daughter of Wilfred Savoie, Sr., and Rose Mary Miller, June 20, 1943; children: Gay (Mrs. William R. Rothe) and Dawn Frederick. Graduated as valedictorian from Cecilia High School and held his high school 440 yards track record for twenty years. Attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge from 1935 to 1936, majoring in predentistry; graduated magna cum laude from Loyola School of Dentistry, New Orleans, La., 1940, the youngest student to graduate in the school’s history; graduated from Dewey School of Orthodontics, New York, 1946. Commissioned with the rank of lieutenant junior grade, 1940, and spent six years in the hospital division of the United States Public Health Services. He did an internship at the United States Marine Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana; served as chief dental officer at the United States Marine Hospital in Mobile, Ala., and also chief dental officer at the United States Public Hospital and Federal Drug Prison in Lexington, Kentucky. Also served a tour of duty at the United States Public Health Services Dispensary in Washington, D.C., and additionally was in the regular corps for four years via competitive exams. In 1946, practiced dentistry in Lafayette and for many years one day a week in New Iberia, Opelousas, and Arnaudville to bring orthodontics to these neighboring rural communities. He led the first fluoridation attempt in Lafayette. Dr. H. Trinley Dean, known as the “Father of Fluoridation” and first director of the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR), was a patient and good friend of Dr. Frederick. Years before it was made known to the public, Dr. Dean introduced Dr. Frederick to the fluoridation phenomenon. The successful results of these studies led to the fluoridation of water supplies as we know it today. Member: American Dental Association; the Louisiana Dental Association in which he served as second vice-president; the Louisiana Orthodontic Association; Southwest Association of Orthodontics; American Association of Orthodontics; the European Orthodontic Society; the Pierre Fauchard Academy; and the International College of Dentists. Awarded a fellowship in the International College of Dentists and a Fellowship in the Louisiana Dental Association. Received several honors and awards for his professional achievements, including the C. Edmund Kell’s Odontological Society Award in 1940; the New Orleans Dental Conference Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Scientific Contribution 1984 table clinic program; the A. P. Westfall Memorial Award for the outstanding table clinic, 1982 and 1985; American Association of Orthodontists Certificate of Recognition, 1985; Southwest Dental Association Award for Excellence in Research of Oral Facial Anatomy, 1987; the Louisiana Dental Association Distinguished Service Award, 1991; Omicron Kappa Upsilon and Theta Beta Biological National Honor Society. An active Rotarian; a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary Foundation. In Rotary, he hosted numerous foreign visitors and guided them on tours throughout South Louisiana’s Acadian country. A member of the Lafayette Town House and Southwest Mardi Gras Association. A North American big game hunter and an expert marksman, Fredrick worked very closely with local law enforcement agencies to expand and improve firearms training and proficiency. Actively supported the preservation of Louisiana’s Acadian history and culture and donated seventy-six acres of cypress-tupelo swampland to the Nature Conservancy to use as a nature preserve; also donated an Acadian house to the city of Arnaudville for a museum. In his fifty-year practice of dentistry and orthodontics, Fredrick’s greatest accomplishment was his discovery of the destructive force of the little-known buccinator muscle to the gum tissue of the teeth and development of the “Frederick Procedure” whereby the buccinator muscle can be surgically altered allowing the bone, gum and tissue to regenerate itself. In 1991, his research work was published in The Australian Orthodontic Journal, and cited in the textbook, Evaluation Diagnosis and treatment of Occlusal Problems. Gave numerous lectures and table clinics on his research at dental forums throughout the United States and overseas. Produced videotapes on his anatominical research and surgical procedure. His life’s goal was to influence and expand the study of anatomy in the curricula of dental schools. Known as a very generous man, Fredrick provided free orthodontic treatment for the needy. For many years he devoted time to dental research without grants, funding the projects himself. A Roman Catholic; member of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church; member, the Knights of Columbus. Died, Lafayette, La., April 15, 1997; interred, St. Peter Cemetery, Carencro, La. I.S.F. Sources: Lafayette Daily Advertiser, April 17, 1997; Robert A. Hesse, American College of Dentists “Nomination for Fellowship,” November 2, 1992; family papers.
FREDERICKS, Albert Asa, politician, educator. Born, Clear Lake, Natchitoches Parish, La., February 22, 1891; son of Nolbery Fredericks and Emily Cannon. Education: local schools; Louisiana State Normal College (now Northwestern State University) at Natchitoches, teaching certificate, 1912; Louisiana State University, B. S., 1917; and M. S., 1925. Principal of two-room school at Sharp, Rapides Parish, 1912-1913; teacher at Gorum, Natchitoches Parish, 1913-1914; county agent, Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, East and West Feliciana parishes, 1917; state dairy agent, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, 1918; director of Rural Education, Louisiana State Normal College, 1919-1934; president, Louisiana State Normal College, 1934-1941; state senator, 1932-1948; member: State Board of Education, 1948-1966; executive secretary to Gov. Earl Long, 1948-1950 and 1959-1960; State Commissioner of Public Welfare, 1950-1952; special agent, Kansas City Southern Railway, 1946-1973. Married, August 22, 1922, Majorie Jackson May of Natchitoches, La., daughter of Thomas Wilson May of Cherry Valley, Ark., and Georgie Ware Jackson. One child: Emily May (b. 1927). Active in Democratic party; appointed by Gov. John J. McKeithen to Louisiana Educational Television Authority and by President Lyndon B. Johnson to National Council on Aging. Member and vestryman, Trinity Episcopal Church, Natchitoches, La. Died, October 22, 1975; interred American Cemetery, Natchitoches, La. W.A. Source: Author’s research.
FREELAND, Paul Butterfield, genealogist, historian. Born, Crowley, La., September 15, 1904; son of Charles J. Freeland, Sr., and Almyra Butterfield. Education: Crowley High School, 1921; Davison College, N. C., B. A., 1925; Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va., B. D., 1928; post-graduate study, New College, Edinburgh, Scotland. Was pastor of Presbyterian churches in Opelousas and Covington, also at Duncan, Okla. Served as secretary of Overseas Relief for Presbyterian church; was on board of Presbyterian Historical Foundation at Montreat, N. C. At his death he left his stamp collection which sold for $2 million, to four Presbyterian churches. One-fourth of this amount, or $500,000, was used to construct a library annex at Montreat which was dedicated August 15, 1982, and named the Paul B. Freeland Hall. He was author of The First Presbyterian Church of Crowley, La., 1890-1965, and co-author of Acadia Parish, Louisiana: A History to 1900. His vast collection of photographs and memorabilia of his home area deposited in the archives of Acadia Parish Library, Crowley. Died, November 1, 1976; interred Crowley Protestant Cemetery. M.A.F. Sources: Ashville Citizen Times, August 15, 1982; Montreat, N. C., Historical Foundation News; Barton Freeland, Sr.; Ethel Freeland Darden; Crowley Post-Signal, November 2, 1976.
FREEMAN, Alfred Bird, businessman, civic leader. Born, Dalton, Ga., January 13, 1881; son of Charles Benjamin Freeman and Rosa Norissa Bird. Left school at age sixteen to support widowed mother. Worked for Southern Railway; removed to New Orleans, 1906, to become secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 1906-1943; president, 1943-1947; chairman of the board, 1947-1957. Organized the New Orleans Tidewater Development Association, 1944, also served as president. Member, Tulane board of administrators, 1944-1955, elected vice-president emeritus, 1955. President: Louisiana Manufacturer’s Association, YMCA, Rotary Club. Director: New Orleans Public Service, Inc.; Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; National Coca-Cola Co.; Wesson Oil and Snowdrift Co. Appointed to the dock board by Gov. Sam H. Jones (q.v.), 1940. Member: board, Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital; Sewerage and Water Board; advisory committee, YWCA; Chamber of Commerce of the New Orleans Area; Boston Club, New Orleans Country Club. Received: Times-Picayune Loving Cup, 1956. Rex, 1932. Married (1) Ella Moore West, October 23, 1902; (2) Domencia Massina Mallard, June 29, 1945. Three children: Mary Ella, Rosa, and Richard W. (q.v.) Died, New Orleans, November 3, 1957; interred Metairie Cemetery. Tulane School of Business renamed A. B. Freeman School of Business in his honor, 1984. P.D.A. Sources: Obituary, New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 4, 1957; Who’s Who in America, v. 29 (1956-1957).
FREEMAN, George, businessman. Born, Shreveport, FebruÂary 27, 1880. Education: Thatcher Institute, Shreveport; University of Pennsylvania, B. S. in Engineering. Officer with Hirsch and Leman Stationery, Shreveport, and Victoria Lumber Company, Shreveport. Married, 1911, Sarah Sebastian, of Shreveport. Children: George, Jr. [III] (b. 1912), Bettie (b. 1914), David (b. 1919). Board member, 1907-1954, and president, 1916-1937, of the Louisiana State Fair Association, Shreveport; executive director, 1930-1946, and executive secretary, 1946-1953, of the Community Chest, Shreveport; board of directors, Pines Sanitarium, Shreveport; board of directors, Salvation Army, Shreveport; president, Louisiana Conference of Social Welfare, 1948. Member: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Shreveport; Shreveport Chamber of Commerce; Shreveport Rotary Club; Shreveport YMCA; Shreveport Carnival Association; Shreveport Boy Scouts. Died, Shreveport, June 8, 1954; interred Forest Park Cemetery. A.S.T. Sources: Lilla McLure and J. Ed. Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (1937); J. Ed Howe, comp., Shreveport Men and Women Builders (1931); George Freeman, Jr. Papers, Louisiana State University-Shreveport Archives; Louisiana State Fair Association Papers, LSU-S Archives; obituary, Shreveport Times, June 9, 1954; Shreveport Journal, June 9, 1954.
FREEMAN, Richard West, businessman, civic leader. Born, New Orleans, January 4, 1913; son of Alfred Bird Freeman (q.v.) and Ella Moore West. Education: Isidore Newman School; Culver Military Academy; Tulane University, 1934. Salesman, Milwaukee Coca-Cola Bottling Co.; executive, Coca-Cola Bottling companies in Wisconsin and Chicago. Returned to New Orleans, 1946; succeeded father as president of Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Ltd., 1947-1970; chairman of the board, 1970-1983, vice-chairman, 1983-1985. Director: Hibernia National Bank; Wesson Oil and Snowdrift Co.; Maison Blanche; New Orleans Public Service, Inc.; and Middle South Utilities, Inc. U. S. Army, 1942-1946, major; commander, 381st Port Battalion. Advisory director, Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation; board of trustees, YMCA, Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation. Board member, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Boy Scouts of America, United Fund of Greater New Orleans, Tulane University. Trustee, St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church. Member: International House, Louisiana, Boston, Pickwick, Stratford, New Orleans Country, and Southern Yacht clubs. Received: Monte M. Lemann Award of the Louisiana Civil Service League, Tulane University Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, 1975; Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice and St. Gregory Medal; YMCA Humanitarian of the Year. Rex, 1959. Married Montine McDaniel, October 15, 1936. Children: Richard W., Jr.; Louis M.; Tina. Died, January 23, 1985; interred Metairie Cemetery. P.D.A. Sources: Obituary, New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 24, 1985; “Richard W. Freeman Wins ’77 Loving Cup,” Times-Picayune, August 20, 1978; Who’s Who in America, v. 35 (1968-1969).
FREEMAN, Theophilus, slave dealer. Born in Georgia. Arrived New Orleans, 1840-1841; set up slave yard on Moreau St., between Esplanade and Peace streets, later at 163 Gravier Street under name of Goodin & Co. Bought Solomon Northup from Washington, D. C., trader and sold him to William Ford of Avoyelles Parish in 1841. Falsified ages of slaves to make them appear younger, also separated young children from their mothers, contrary to Louisiana law, and whipped or kicked slaves in his yard. Lived as though married with a mulatto laundress Sarah Conner, an ex-slave who purchased her freedom from Freeman for $700 on July 12, 1841. Conner accompanied him on several trips to New York and Philadelphia. Declared insolvent January 18, 1844. Total assets $137,991.73, debts $186,698.72. Creditors claimed he only freed Sarah to transact business in her name to avoid his creditors seizing his property (which included plantations in Lafourche and Concordia parishes, and a plantation in Georgia as well as the slave yard). They further claimed Sarah’s emancipation was simulated and therefore void and wanted to seize and sell her as one of Freeman’s assets. Sarah successfully sued for her freedom in the First District Court of New Orleans on May 13, 1846. Creditors further claimed he had hidden some of his slaves in New Orleans, Concordia, Carroll and Madison parishes, and withdrawn $10,000 from Goodin & Co. and given it to someone to keep for him to avoid seizure. Arrested several times in 1845 because it was feared he would leave the state. Litigation concerning Freeman’s financial affairs continued until 1861 when interrupted by the Civil War, during which Freeman left New Orleans. J.K.S. Sources: Union Bank of Maryland v. Freeman, 3 Rob. (La.) 485 #4938, New Orleans, January 1843; Mielke v. Freeman, 5 Rob. (La. 524 #5238, New Orleans, June 1843; Freeman v. Profilet, Unreported Louisiana Supreme Court Case #5829, New Orleans, May 1845; Romer v. Woods, 6 La. Ann. 29 #1846, New Orleans, January 1851; Freeman v. His Creditors, 3 La. Ann. 669 #948, New Orleans, November 1848; Bank of Kentucky v. Conner, 4 La. Ann. 365 #1315, New Orleans, May 1849; Dunbar v. Conner, Unreported Louisiana Supreme Court Case #1700, New Orleans, May 1850, January 1851; Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, eds. Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon (1968); Pitts and Clarke, New Orleans Directory for 1842; New Orleans City Directory, 1866.
FREEMAN, Thomas, geographer, civil engineer, naturalist, explorer. Born, Ireland, date unknown; emigrated to the United States in 1784. Very little is known of his early life. He may have been employed as a land surveyor in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., previous to securing appointment as a member of Andrew Ellicott’s survey of the international boundary between the United States and Spanish Florida in 1797-1798. After being dismissed by Ellicott, Freeman was hired by Gen. James Wilkinson (q.v.) to supervise construction of Fort Adams. His activities between 1800 and 1805 are poorly documented, but on April 14, 1804, President Thomas Jefferson appointed him to the command of an expedition to explore the Red and Arkansas rivers; accompanied by botanist Peter Custis and a small military escort, Freeman departed New Orleans in April, 1806, and reached a point approximately 200 miles above Natchitoches, La., where he was forced to turn back by a superior Spanish military force on July 29. After returning from the Red River expedition, Freeman spent the remainder of 1806 and part of 1807 in Natchez, Miss., planning an expedition to the Arkansas River with William Dunbar (q.v.), but the project was cancelled. Afterward, he was employed by the General Land Office to map the limits of the tribal lands ceded by the Chickasaw Treaty, and later laid out the boundary between Tennessee and Alabama. In 1811 he was appointed surveyor of public lands south of Tennessee. Died, Huntsville, Ala., November 8, 1821. R.C.V. Sources: Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, National Archives; Dan L. Flores, ed., Jefferson & Southwestern Exploration. The Freeman & Custis Accounts of the Red River Expedition of 1806 (Norman, 1984).
FRENCH, Benjamin Franklin, historian. Born Richmond, Va., June 8, 1799. Educated in the classics and law. Removed to Louisiana, 1830. Engaged in planting and other commercial enterprises. Travelled extensively in Europe and translated for publication numerous French and Spanish documents relating to the colonial period in Louisiana. Authored numerous magazine and newspaper articles and books: Biographica Americana (1825); Memoirs of Eminent Female Writers (1827); Beauties of Byron, Scott and Moore, 2 vols. (1828); Historical Collections of Louisiana, 6 vols. (1846-1858); History of the Rise and Progress of the Iron Trade of the United States, 1621-1857 (1858); Historical Annals of North America (1861); Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida (1869). Purchased collection of New Orleans Commercial (subscription) Library Society and opened it to the public, 1842. Sold his extensive library in 1847 to Alvarez Fisk (q.v.) who presented it to the city of New Orleans as the Fisk Free Library, predecessor of the New Orleans Public Library. Removed to New York, 1850. Unmarried. Member: Louisiana Historical Society; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Antiquarian Society; Academy of Natural Sciences of New Jersey; New York Historical Society; Massachusetts Historical Society; Historical Society of New York; honorary member of New Jersey and Connecticut Historical societies. Died, New York City, May 30, 1877. C.B.H. Sources: Rossiter Johnson, ed., Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, IV (1904); Cyclopaedia of American Literature, II (1875); South in the Building of the Nation , XI (1909).
FRENCH, Henry David, railroad conductor, state legislator. Born, Mobile, Ala., December 1, 1866; son of Jannette Eliza Howard and Joseph French. Removed to New Orleans with family in 1872 and resided in Algiers. Employed by Southern Pacific as railroad conductor. Married, April 24, 1889, Matilda Sutherland. Children: Mrs. Henry C. Lochte, Mrs. Norman Brownlee, Mrs. Noel Parmentel, and M. Behrman French. Served as a state representative from the Fifteenth Ward, 1904-1910; served on three committees: capital and labor, railroads, and city of New Orleans. Endorsed compulsory school attendance act for city schools of New Orleans in 1910. Died, September 30, 1930. E.C.F. & J.B.C. Sources: Official Journal, House of Representatives, 1904, 1906, 1910; New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, October 1, 1930.
FRENCH, Lucy Virginia Smith, journalist, poet, novelist. Born, Accomac County, Va., March 16, 1825; daughter of Mease W. and Elizabeth Parker Smith. Educated at Mrs. Hannah’s School in Washington, Pa., where she went to live with her maternal grandmother after her mother’s death. In 1848, she and her sister returned to live with their father, but both left within a year because of unhappiness with his remarriage. Both taught for a time in Memphis, Tenn., and the author began her writing career by sending poems and articles to the Louisville Journal and other newspapers and magazines. She wrote under her own name and as “L’Enconnue.” Became editor of the Southern Ladies’ Book in 1852. Married John Hopkins French in 1853, after he had become interested in her through her poetry, especially the poem “The Lost Louisiana.” One child: Mrs. P. D. Benham. She wrote for and edited newspapers and magazines in several Southern states, Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana. She was the author of two novels, one play, and several collections of poetry and legends. She recently has become known to modern readers because of her championing of women’s causes. In her novel My Roses: The Romance of a June Day (1872), she has a woman speak of “woman’s faith in women” and has her dare to be outcast by society in order to help other women, who are prostitutes. Her poetry, somewhat sentimental in expression, is often quite original in subject matter and theme. Wind Whispers (1856) was her first collection to be published. Mexico is the setting for a five-act tragedy in blank verse, Istalilxo: The Lady of Tula (1856). In 1867 there appeared a collection written chiefly in verse, Legends of the South. An additional work, Darlingtonia, was published in 1879. Died in McMinnville, Tenn., March 31, 1881. D.H.B. Sources: Mary T. Tardy, ed., The Living Female Writers of the South (1872); J. W. Davidson, The Living Writers of the South (1869); National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1897); American Authors, 1600-1900 (1960); Library of Southern Literature, XV (1907); American Women Writers, II (1980).
FRERET, James, architect, engineer. Born 1838; son of James P. Freret and Livie D’Arensbourg. Education: New Orleans schools; Springhill College, Mobile; Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. Married Aline Allain, daughter of François Allain, October 8, 1862. Nine children. Upon outbreak of Civil War ran Union blockade and enlisted in Confederate Army. Wounded while engaged in defense works at Port Hudson. After war, resumed work in architecture. Associated for short time with older cousin, William A. Freret. Among his projects were New Orleans Board of Trade Building, the Moresque Building, numerous court houses, churches, and school buildings in Louisiana, several Catholic institutional buildings, buildings at Springhill College, also several fine residences in New Orleans, some of which still stand. The gold plated altar in Jesuit’s Church on Baronne Street in New Orleans was designed by Freret and executed in France. Won first prize at Paris Exposition of 1876. Died, 1897. J.W.F. Sources: Goodspeed, comp., Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, (1892); H. Mortimer Favrot papers; Mary Louise Christovich et al., New Orleans Architecture, Vol. II: The American Sector (1972); Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers, Microfilm International, Ann Arbor, Mich.
FRERET, William, businessman, mayor of New Orleans. Born, New Orleans, 1804; son of James Freret and Marie Eugénie Rillieux. Received an engineering education in England. Married, 1826, Fanny, daughter of British consul George Salkeld and Nancy Howell. Children: William Alfred (q.v.), Frederick George (b. 1838), Francis (b. 1834), James (b. 1836). William and his brother James Peter operated a cotton press on St. Charles St. between Poydras and Gravier. This was the first large industry in the American sector of the city. Elected mayor of New Orleans, 1840, as a representative of the Native American Party. Defeated in 1842 by Denis Prieur (q.v.), who resigned after serving eight months. Freret was reelected and served until 1844. Probably his most important action while mayor was his strong support for the establishment of public schools in 1841. President Zachary Taylor (q.v.) appointed him Collector of the Port in 1850. Died, June 14, 1864. J.W.F. Sources: Freret papers; John Chase, Frenchmen, Desire, Goodchildren (1949); Archives, City of New Orleans; John S. Kendall, History of New Orleans (1922); New Orleans Daily Picayune, May 12, 1840; New Orleans Daily True Delta, 1864; New Orleans Times, June 15, 1864.
FRERET, William Alfred, architect. Born, New Orleans, January 19, 1833; son of William Freret (q.v.) and Fanny Salkeld. Received engineering education in England, and began the practice of architecture at an early age. In 1857 supervised construction of a Jewish synagogue; Washington Artillery Hall, 1858. In 1859 designed ten major buildings in New Orleans, including two cast-iron-front buildings. Married Caroline Lewis of Woodville, Miss., December 23, 1865. Children: Caroline Salkeld, Grace Tarleton, and William Alfred. After the Civil War, resumed practice of architecture. Designed the reconstruction of the old state capitol in Baton Rouge which had been completely gutted by fire during Federal occupation. Between 1870-1890 designed McDonogh Public Schools No. 5 through No. 20. Appointed supervising architect of the Treasury Department of the United States. Designed courthouses, post offices, and other federal buidings of the United States. Died, New Orleans, December 5, 1911. J.W.F. Sources: Freret papers; New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 8, 1857; August 2, 1857; January 19, 1859; August 21, 23, 1859; New Orleans Delta Crescent, September 12, 1859; Mary Louise Christovich et al., New Orleans Architecture, Vol. II, The American Sector (1972); Records of Confederate Soldiers from Louisiana, microfilm, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Plans in New Orleans Public Library; The National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.
FREY, Frederick Charles, soldier, educator. Born in a log cabin near Amite, La., November 8, 1891; son of Henry Jacob Frey and Nancy McCarroll. Education: Amite High School; Louisiana State University, B. S. degree, 1921; University of Minnesota, Ph. D., 1929. Recipient of Social Science Research Council Fellowship, 1928. Louisiana National Guard service: 1908-1916, Company I, Tangipahoa Scouts, First Louisiana Infantry, rose through the ranks from private to first sergeant and, at latter rank, served under Gen. John J. Pershing in 1916 on the Mexican border as part of the National Guard mobilization ordered by President Woodrow Wilson to halt the raids of the Mexican bandit, Pancho Villa. World War I service: commissioned first lieutenant, November 1, 1917, and discharged with the rank of major, March 7, 1919. Married, September 6, 1918, Willie May Jones of Franklinton, La., daughter of Dr. William Johnson Jones and Mary Penelope Gallaher. Children: Mary Gallaher (b. 1924), Jean (b. 1927), Frederick, Jr. (b. 1930), Joan (b. 1932). Teacher and coach: Havana, La. (Tangipahoa Parish), one-room school, grades 1-8, 1912-1913, Franklinton High School, 1913-1916; Baton Rouge High School, 1921-1922; Young Men’s Christian Association Field Officer: Italy, 1919; Louisiana State University: instructor, track coach, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, 1922-1962. Founding chairman, Department of Sociology, 1929-1938, Dean of Men, 1930-1932, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, 1931-1941, Dean of the University, 1939-1949 and 1951-1952, acting president, 1947. Membership: American Sociological Association and chairman of its Rural Sociology Section; president and founder of the Southern Sociological Society. Pioneered research efforts in the area of race relations with fellow sociologists P. A. Sorokin and F. Franklin Frazier and offered the first course in race relations at a Southern university. Member: Louisiana Coordinating Council for Higher Education, 1969-1974, Louisiana Board of Regents, 1975-1980. Member: University Methodist Church. Died, Baton Rouge, September 5, 1980; interred Roselawn Cemetery. W.A. Source: Author’s research.
FREYHAN, Julius, merchant. Born Breslau, Germany, ca. 1834. Arrived in U. S., 1851, and in East Feliciana Parish, La., 1856; became U. S. citizen, May 28, 1859. Mustered as non-combatant musician in Company D, Fourth Louisiana Infantry, May 25, 1861; served until 1863 when captured; paroled 1865. Married Sarah Wolf of New Orleans. Four daughters. Built post-war cotton factorage and mercantile conglomerate in Bayou Sara and St. Francisville. Removed to New Orleans, 1888. Member, Cotton Exchange; president, Lane Cotton Mills. Royal Arch Mason. Philanthropies included West Feliciana Parish public school, Temple Sinai, and Hebrew Rest, St. Francisville; Audubon Park, New Orleans. Died October 11, 1904; interred New Orleans. E.K.D. Sources: West Feliciana Parish Public Records; St. Francisville True Democrat, October 15, 1904; Silver Anniversary Edition, 1917.
FRIEND, Ida Weis, civic leader. Born, Natchez, Miss., June 30, 1868; daughter of Caroline Mayer and Julius Weis. Education: local schools. Married Joseph E. Friend, 1890. Four children: Bunny, Julius, Lillian, and Caroline. President of the following organizations: New Orleans Home for Incurables, National Council of Jewish Women, 1926-1932, Presidents’ Co-Operative Club, Congress of Mothers (forerunner of the Parent-Teacher Association), Federation of Women’s Clubs, New Orleans Consumers League, New Orleans Women’s Chapter of B’nai B’rith, Tulane Lyceum Association, Audio-Visual League, Voters’ Registration League, New Orleans Travelers Aid Society. A founder of the Lyceum Association, New Orelans Symphony Orchestra, New Orleans Home for Incurables, and Spring Fiesta. Member of the Louisiana constitutional convention, 1921; delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 1920. During World War I, served as treasurer of the Women’s Council for National Defense; served as chairman of the National Commission on the Cause and Cure of War, 1933. Awarded the Times-Picayune Loving Cup, 1946; the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority “First Lady of the Year” Award, 1946; The Quota Club Award, 1947. Died, New Orleans, September 22, 1963. C.C.K. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, September 23, 1963; Joseph E. Friend family papers.
FRIEND, Robert C., clergyman. Born, McHenry, Ill., 1897; son of Frank and Anna May Friend. Ordained to the priesthood at Wichita, Kan.; served in Oregon for three years before coming to the Alexandria diocese where he served as assistant pastor, St. Rita’s Church, Alexandria, La. Pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Zwolle, La., 1944-1971. St. Joseph pastorate included St. Ann’s Mission, Ebarb, St. Catherine’s and Round Lake missions. Received the title of very reverend monsignor, September 30, 1963; named honorary prelate of His Holiness Pope Paul VI, with the title of right reverend monsignor, May 20, 1972. With a knowledge of architecture and building, completed a tremendous building program at St. Joseph’s. Retired August 31, 1975, to Toledo Bend Lake. Died, October 22, 1977; interred St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery, Zwolle, La. J.H.P. Sources: The History of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Zwolle, Louisiana; Special Centennial Section of The Sabine Index, April 1981; also October 27, 1977 issue.
FRILEY, William Christopher, clergyman, educator. Born, Yazoo County, Miss., July 12, 1845; son of Douglas Friley. Education: Mississippi College, graduated 1871. Pastor, Yazoo City, Miss., 1871-1874; Trenton, La., 1876-1878; Monroe, 1877-1878; Bryan, Tex., 1894-1898, 1901-1903; Huntsville, Tex., 1903-1909. State evangelist, Mississippi Baptist Convention, 1875, Louisiana Baptist Convention, 1878-1884. Founded First Baptist Church in Monroe, Natchitoches, Opelousas, Columbia, Harrisonburg. Editor, Baptist Chronicle. Founder and first president, Ruston College, 1884-1889; Abilene Baptist College (now Hardin-Simmons University), 1892-1894. Second president, Louisiana College, 1909-1910. Married Ellen Douglas of Holmes County, Miss., February 12, 1874. Children: Charles Edwin (1877), president of Iowa State College (1936-1953); Henry Douglas; John; Oscar; Willie Hall; Mary Augusta; Mittie Kay; Ruth. Upon retirement from Louisiana College, returned to Texas. Died, Franklin, Tex., 1911. L.S.* Sources: Oscar Hoffmeyer, Jr., Louisiana College–75 Years: A Pictorial History (1981); Walter G. Mangham, Jr., The Church That Would Not Die: A History of First Baptist Church, Monroe, Louisiana (1979); George W. Lasher, The Ministerial Directory of the Baptist Churches (1899); William E. Paxton, A History of the Baptists of Louisiana from the Earliest Times to the Present (1888).
FROMENTIN, Eligius, clergyman, attorney, U. S. senator, jurist. Born, France; pursued classical studies; ordained a Catholic priest; exercised his ministry at Etamps, France. Fled France during the Reign of Terror and immigrated to the United States, settling in Pennsylvania. Removed to Maryland, where he taught school; studied law. Subsequently left the church and removed to Louisiana; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New Orleans; clerk to house of representatives of Orleans Territory, 1807-1811; secretary of the state constitutional convention, 1812; secretary of the state senate, 1812-1813; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1813, to March 3, 1819; appointed judge of the criminal court of New Orleans in 1821; appointed United States judge for West Florida and for that part of East Florida westward of the cape, May 18, 1821, but soon resigned; resumed the practice of law in New Orleans. His wife, Elizabeth, died on October 5, he on October 6, 1822, of yellow fever. J.B.C. Source: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949Â (1950); New Orleans, Louisiana Courier, obituary, October 11, 1822.
FRUGÉ, Atlas, Cajun musician. Born at Eunice, Louisiana, July 15, 1924; son of Artémon Frugé and Odine Courville. Grandson of notable musicians Mr. and Mrs. Napoleon Frugé. Married Bernella Aucoin; five children: Wanda, Mitchel, Shelby, Mark, and Olive. Atlas Frugé was a self-taught musician. Began playing the Cajun accordion at the age of ten. Subsequently learned to play fiddle, guitar, and steel guitar. Began to perform professionally in 1939. Around 1940, Frugé joined J. B. Fuselier’s Cajun and “hillbilly” band, which played a role in the resurgence of Cajun music after World War II. Later played with the following notable Cajun musicians: Lawrence Walker, Nathan Abshire, Andrew Cormier, Paul Dugas, Cleven Fontenot, Wavely LeJeune, Tray LeJeune, Sidney Brown, Buford Galley, Isaac Leger, Irvin LeJeune, Allen Thibodeaux, Eunice Dartez, Joe Bonsall, August Broussard, Nathan Menard, and Jesse Légé. Recorded “Pine Grove Blues” with Nathan Abshire and “Memories in My Heart” with Jesse Légé. Played music professionally fifty-one years after launching his career in 1939. Received the “Le Cajun” Award, 1990. Admitted to the Cajun Musicians Hall of Fame, Lake Arthur, La., 1979; Belizaire’s Hall of Fame, Crowley, La., 1989; the Cajun French Music Association Hall of Fame at Lake Charles, 1990. Also honored at Cajun Musicians Day, 1979; and as a Pioneer of Cajun Music, 1987. Died at Lake Charles, October 18, 1990; interred Consolata Cemetery, Lake Charles. J.H.B. Source: Westlake-Moss Bluff News, January 24, 1990; CFMA Hall of Fame, Lake Charles, Louisiana; interview with Bernella Frugé.
FRUGÉ, J. Cleveland, jurist, civic leader, genealogist. Born near Basile, La., October 17, 1900; son of Augustin Frugé and Alice Reed. Married (1) Georgianna Tate (d. 1963) of Eunice, La., June 30, 1919; married (2) Heloise Ann Boudreaux of Baton Rouge, August 17, 1964. Children of the first marriage: Jack C. and James F. Attended grammar school in the Basile area; St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, La.; St. Paul’s College, Covington, La.; and Loyola University (New Orleans). Received a law degree from Loyola University, 1922. Established a legal practice at Mamou, Evangeline Parish, La., 1922; moved law office to Ville Platte, Evangeline Parish, La., 1923. Practiced law at Ville Platte, 1923-35. Served as state representative, 1928-30; district attorney, Thirteenth Judicial District, 1930-35. Appointed judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District, 1935; subsequently served six consecutive terms as district judge (1936-60). First president, Louisiana District Judges Association, 1946. Elected without opposition to the newly created Third Circuit Court of Appeals, 1960; served as presiding judge, 1970-75. Retired from the bench, 1975. During the course of his long career as a jurist, Frugé received three temporary appointments to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, replacing retiring justices; five temporary appointments to various district courts; and a temporary assignment to the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court. Chaired the committee that recommended creation of the Judicial Council of the Supreme Court of Louisiana; subsequently served as secretary of the Judicial Council. Received the Herbert Lincoln Harley Award of the Louisiana State Bar Association, 1973. Legal publications include three editions of Biographies of Louisiana Judges (1956, 1961, and 1971). Member, Thirteenth Judicial and Louisiana State Bar Associations. Active in the Boy Scouts of America; president, the Evangeline Area Council and the Evangeline District; member, National Advisory Board, Boy Scouts of America; recipient of scouting’s prestigious Silver Beaver Award. Served two terms as president of the Ville Platte Rotary Club; president, Evangeline Parish Red Cross. Served two-terms as chairman of the Evangeline Parish United Givers Fund drive. Fourth-degree, Knight of Columbus; served twice as grand knight of Evangeline Council 1754. President, Lafayette Diocese Laymen’s Retreat League. Honors: Plaque of Merit, Louisiana District Judges Association (1963); Cross of the Order of Fleur de Lis, Knights of Columbus; Knight of the Order of St. Gregory; listed in Who’s Who in America in the South and Southwest and in American Catholic Who’s Who. Became a prominent Louisiana genealogist in later life. Published The Frugés of Fakaitaic: A Genealogical manuscript of the Origin of the Frugé Family and Selected Collateral Lines (1970); An Acadian Pedigree: Family Genealogy of Valence Boudreaux, 1873-1940, and Eve Bergeron, 1879-1945, of Bayou Lafourche (1972); Landry-Gassie: Another Louisiana Family Genealogy (1975); died, Mamou, November 10, 1991. C.A.B. Sources: “Prominent Jurist, Civic Leader Judge J. Cleveland Fruge Dies,” vertical file, Dupré Library, University of Southwestern Louisiana; J. Cleveland Frugé, comp., Biographies of Louisiana Judges (1971).
FULTON, Alexander, merchant, planter, politician, founder of Alexandria, La. Date of birth unknown. Native of Washington, Pa. Came to Alexandria area ca. 1790, a partner of William Miller in land speculations; brought a cargo of merchandise and erected the first store in Rapides Parish, La., on the banks of Red River. Appointed coroner of Rapides, May 4, 1805, by Governor Claiborne (q.v.). Became postmaster at Rapides, 1807. In 1805 laid out the town of Alexandria and named it for himself. Married, 1793, Mary Henrietta Wells (b. 1778), daughter of Samuel Levi Wells I and Dorcas Huie. Children: Samuel, Eliza, William, Benjamin, Marcus, and Courtney Ann. Died, probably in 1818; probably interred in Rapides Cemetery, Pineville. Grave unmarked. S.E. & J.B.C. Sources: George Mason Graham Stafford, The Wells Family and Allied Families (1969; reprint ed., 1976); George Mason Graham Stafford, Three Pioneer Families of Rapides Parish (1946); Clarence Edwin Carter, comp. and ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States, IX (1940).
FUQUA, Henry Luce, businessman, politician. Born, Baton Rouge, November 8, 1865; son of James Overton and Jeanette Fowles Fuqua. Education: local schools, Magruder’s Institute (Baton Rouge), Louisiana State University. Married Laura Matta of Baton Rouge, June 24, 1890. Children: Matta and Henry L., Jr. Democrat. Assistant to construction engineers, Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad; clerk and travelling salesman, Baton Rouge hardware business, 1883-1922, including founding and managing Fuqua Hardware Company, 1892-1916; Louisiana State Prison warden, 1916-1924; governor, 1924-1926. Fuqua’s term of office was marked by his interest in levee and road construction and his determined struggle against the Ku Klux Klan. Died in office, October 11, 1926; interred Magnolia Cemetery, Baton Rouge, remains later removed to Roselawn Cemetery, Baton Rouge. J.P.S. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 12-13, 1926; Miriam G. Reeves, The Governors of Louisiana (1962); Robert Sobel and John Raimo, eds., Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, II, Iowa-Missouri (1978).
FUSELIER, Gustave Etienne, merchant. Born, Chataignier, La., August 30, 1854; son of Etienne Louis Fuselier and Celine Henry Mary McCauley. Married (1), December 17, 1872, Felicianne Aguillard, daughter of François Melzier Aguillard and Eliza Miller. Children: Hiram (b. 1873), Valentine (b. 1875), Armas (b. 1877), Armand (b. 1877), Adam (b. 1879), Adraste (b. 1880), Armogène (b. 1882). Operated general store near Bayou Malet. Married (2), August 23, 1888, Marie Louise Courville, daughter of Alexandre Ozalinn Courville and Marie Louise Taylor. Eight children: Alphen (b. 1890), Avis (b. 1892), Marie (b. 1893), Alfred (b. 1897), Jeanne, Bessie, Mable, James. Removed to Eunice, La., area, 1894, purchased land for C. C. Duson (q.v.), developer, and assisted in platting the town; first resident and first merchant of Eunice. Member: Eunice city council (mayor pro-tem, 1895); board of directors State Bank; St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. Removed to Beaumont, Tex., 1924. Returned to Eunice, 1938. Died, Eunice, March 26, 1940; interred St. Paul’s Cemetery. J.L.F. Sources: Emma Philastre, The True Story of Eunice, Louisiana (1973); Eunice New Era, obituary, March 29, 1940; Opelousas Daily World, July 29, 1982.
FUSELIER, Laurent, farmer, civic leader. Born near Chataignier, La., December 15, 1885; son of Ulger Fuselier and Louise Manuel. Education: Forest Hill Academy. Married, December 4, 1906, Eva Fontenot, of Duralde Community, Evangeline Parish, La., daughter of J. B. L. A. Fontenot and Amelia Lafleur. Children: Amelia, Alexon, Alcius, Lillie, Walter, Laura, Ita Ruth, and Rosemary. Active in Democratic party; member Evangeline Parish Democratic Committee; member, Roman Catholic church, Duralde School Board, and board of directors of the Peoples Lumber Company, Inc. Died, Eunice, La., September 21, 1960; interred St. Paul’s Cemetery. K.P.F. Sources: Eunice News, September 23, 1960; Evangeline Parish Probate #3082, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Vol. 2, p. 6, #22; St. Landry Parish Charter Book #1, p. 461, #114753, September 24, 1928.
FUSELIER, Sidney Goldman, clergyman, domestic prelate, prothonotary apostolic. “Père Fus,” as he is known to his parishioners, was born in Eunice, La., on July 30, 1901; son of François Fuselier and Marcelline Guillory. He attended St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Eunice until he was fourteen years of age; he then entered the Passionist novitiate in Chicago. Ordained a Catholic priest in the Religious Congregation of Passionists at Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2, 1927. At the time of his ordination, he assumed the religious name Paul M. Fuselier. From 1928 to 1930, he attended the International Pontifical University “Angelicum” in Rome, Italy. He earned a Master’s degree and a doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1929 and 1930 respectively. Fuselier subsequently returned to the United States and taught theology in Passionist seminaries for two years. Responding to the need for French-speaking missionaries, he spent most of his career in Louisiana’s three dioceses, but extending also to many other parts of the United States, where French was used for sermons or confessions. On December 24, 1936, he was incardinated in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, and he served briefly as administrator of St. Anne Catholic Church in Mamou, La., before being appointed the first pastor of St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, Kinder, La., in 1937. While pastor of St. Philip Neri Church, he built a rectory, a parish hall, and two chapels. In 1942, he became the first resident chaplain of the newly completed Catholic Student Center on the campus of Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette. In 1949 he was elevated to monsignor, and in 1950, he was appointed pastor of St. Mary Magdalen Parish, Abbeville, La. He was also dean of the Abbeville Deanery which at that time included the church parishes in the civil parish of Vermilion. During his pastorate in Abbeville he made improvements to the church and built Mount Carmel School. In 1959 he retired for health reasons and took up residence in Fort Myers, Fla. He was honored in Abbeville with special masses and receptions for the fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries of his ordination. Between 1959 and 1990, Msgr. Fusilier made generous donations to the Diocese of Lafayette for seminary fellowships and educational scholarships for Catholic schools. Died March 22, 1990; interred in Abbeville. Monsignor Paul M. Fusilier’s bequest to the Diocese of Lafayette made possible renovations at Immaculata Center. A.J.M. Sources: Abbeville Meridional, October 15, 1955; Acadiana Catholic, April 1990; March 1992; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, November 22, 1957.
FUSELIER DE LA CLAIRE, Gabriel, merchant, administrator. Born, Lyons, France, August 27, 1722; son of Pierre Fuselier and Ludevine Chaufoureau. Arrived in New Orleans, 1748; referred to as a merchant, 1763. Married (1), March 2, 1764, in New Orleans, Jeanne Roman (d. 1770), daughter of Jacques Roman and Marie Joseph Daigle. Children: Agricole and Ludevine. Married (2), April 30, 1771, Helen Soileau, daughter of Noel Soileau (q.v.)and Marie Joseph Richaume. Children: Gabriel, Hélène, Joséphine, Louis Variel, Charles, Charles Auguste Deutry, Eugénie, Etienne Verjure, Amélie Aurore, Honoré la Claire, Brigitte, Euphémie. Named civil and military commandant for the Opelousas District, 1769. Served until July, 1774. Thereafter, retired to plantation on Bayou Teche. Wrote his will on August 5, 1788, preparing to leave for France in 1789 to attend to family business. May have died soon after signing documents in Bordeaux, October 10, 1789. News of his death reached Louisiana, March, 1790. His widow survived until 1816. J.O.V. Sources: Civil and ecclesiastical records, Louisiana and Lyons, France; civil records, Natchez, Miss.; archives, Department de la Gironde, France; Attakapas Gazette, VII (1972).
FUSILIER, J. B., musician (violin) and bandleader (The Merrymakers). Born, Oberlin, La., April 17, 1901. Merrymakers popular during “string band era” (1930s and 1940s); recorded from 1930s through 1950s, including such Cajun music standards as “The Lake Arthur Waltz,” “Chère Bassette,” “Chère Tout-toute” and “Pense à moi”; accompanied many Cajun musicians, including Iry Lejeune (q.v.). Died, 1976. B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.