Dictionary of Louisiana Biography – A

Dictionary A

AARON, Grace Tarleton, author. Born, Patterson, La., February 10, 1893; daughter of Dr. Thomas W. Tarleton and Louise Wilson. Education: Patterson High School, Mrs. Blake’s Private School, New Orleans. Married Morris Aaron, resident of Natchitoches Parish, La., April 1918. First poems published in 1930. Contributed to numerous newspapers and poetry journals. Member: American Legion, Shreveport Poetry Society, and D.A.R. Third winner of Short Story Contest of the Louisiana Federated Women’s Clubs, 1935. Her book Cane River and Other Poems (1967) posthumously published by the Lesche Club of Natchitoches. R.R.A. Source: Author’s research.

AARON, J. Donald, attorney, jurist. Born, Natchitoches, La., November 1, 1909; son of Louise Gallion and Julius Aaron. Education: graduated, at age 14, from Louisiana State Normal School in Natchitoches in 1923; attended Normal State College (now Northwestern State University), Natchitoches, 1924-1926. Married Faye Debellevue, March 21, 1933. Children: Donald, Jr., a Fifteenth Judicial District judge; Dr. Shirley Aaron; Mrs. Charles (Frances) Milburn. Worked for the Texas Company in Shreveport, and Port Arthur, Tex.; attended night school in East Texas College of Law in Beaumont, Tex.; admitted to the Texas bar in 1934 and practiced in Port Arthur; returned to Louisiana to attend Tulane Law School; admitted to the bar and began practice in Crowley, La. Served as assistant district attorney in 1942; judge, Fifteenth Judicial District, 1960-1963; resumed Crowley practice. Member, Trinity Episcopal Church, served on the vestry for many years as an elected member, senior warden, and chancellor. Hobbies: fishing, dominoes, and cooking. Died July 18, 1986; interred Woodlawn Cemetery, Crowley. J.B.C. Source: Crowley Post Signal, obituary, July 18, 1986.

ABBADIE, John Francis, missionary. Born on French slopes of the Pyrenees, December 15, 1804. Education: attended college in Auch and seminary at Tarbes. August 1826 entered Society of Jesus at Montrouge. Christmas Eve 1836, departed Le Havre with Bishop Blanc (q.v.), six other Jesuits, five Ursulines, and three religious of the Sacred Heart. Assigned to missionary work in Assumption Parish, La.; vice-president of newly opened St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, La., January 1838; considerable opposition to the college from anti-clericals especially in Lafayette, La., but the townspeople of Grand Coteau protected the Jesuits from the vigilantes. 1848 on, engaged in pastoral work in Louisiana mostly in Grand Coteau. Heroic in several yellow-fever epidemics and tireless in travelling by buggy and horseback all over Southwest Louisiana to minister to scattered Catholics. Died, 1890.  L.A.N. Source: Woodstock Letters, XXIV (1895), 16-36.

ABDALLA, Edward, businessman, civic leader. Born, Opelousas, La., November 11, 1908; son of George and Jasmine Hasham Abdalla. Education: local schools; Gulfport (Miss.) Military Academy, graduated 1927. Married Irma Belle Poché. Children: Carolyn Ann, Edward IV. Career: worked in father’s store in Opelousas; opened Abdalla’s, a Lafayette clothing store, in 1933. World War II veteran. Instituted Home and Trade Show which established the New Hope Center for retarded children. Sponsored annual 4-H Club banquet for more than thirty years and “Policeman of the Month” award. Served as chairman of Boy and Girl Scouts’ drives. Originated the annual Christmas parade; reigned as King Gabriel XXIX in the city’s carnival; received the 1964 Lafayette Civic Cup Award; president, Abdalla’s Lafayette, Inc. Member: American Legion, Knights of Columbus, Sideline Club, Chamber of Commerce, Retail Merchants’ Committee, Young Men’s Business Club. Died, Lafayette, La., April 4, 1987; interred Calvary Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Lafayette Daily Advertiser, obituary, April 5, 1987; Ellis Arthur Davis, ed., The Historical Encyclopedia of Louisiana ([1937?]).

ABELL, Edmund, attorney, jurist. Born, Kentucky, ca. 1811. Removed to New Orleans, 1847, established law practice. In 1852 joined California gold rush but returned to New Orleans, 1855, and resumed law practice. As Civil War approached, became an outspoken Democrat and Unionist. Elected to constitutional convention of 1864 but differed with many provisions of draft constitution and refused to sign it. Ran for Congress, 1864, as Democrat, but defeated. Shortly thereafter appointed by Federal authorities judge, First District Criminal Court. Outside of court argued for compensation for slaveowners in areas not covered by Emancipation Proclamation. Became involved in events in 1866 designed to revise constitution. Declared a reconvening of convention to be illegal and “acting on his instructions, the grand jury took steps to find indictments against any and all members of the convention that might assemble.” Removed from office by Gen. Philip Sheridan (q.v.), March 22, 1867, who referred to the judge as an “obnoxious official.” Under provisions of 1868 constitution, re-elected judge of First District Criminal Court and served in that capacity until retiring in 1879. Married, wife’s name unknown; children’s names unknown, but survived only by four grandchildren. Died, New Orleans, August 9, 1884. G.R.C. Sources: Alcée Fortier, ed. and comp., Louisiana, 3 vols. (1914); New Orleans Daily Picayune, August 10, 1884.

ABNEY, Asbury A., politician, civic leader. Born, South Carolina, 1819. Removed to Bossier Parish, La. Married, 1844, Catherine McDade, native of Alabama. Political career: president, Bossier Parish Police Jury, 1849; clerk of court, Bossier Parish, 1858-1860; state representative, 1861-1864; state senator, 1865-1866. Co-owner of the Bossier Times, 1859-1860. Master of the Bellevue Masonic Lodge 1853-1857, 1866. Died, Bossier Parish, 1866.  C.A.B. Sources: Walter Prichard, ed., “A Tourist’s Description of Louisiana in 1860,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXI (1938); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana (1890).

ABRAMS, Morris Newton, educator. Born, Winnfield, La., November 30, 1919; son of Charles Abrams and Cora Sowers. Education: public schools of Sikes; Louisiana State University, B.S., 1940; M.S., 1947; Ph. D., 1950. Married, February 1, 1941, Minnie Louise DeLee of Clinton, La. Children: Carolyn Sue Reece (b. 1942); Marcia Diane Cox (b. 1951); Doris Celeste Hay (b. 1952); Candice Louise Thibodeaux (b. 1957). Began teaching career at Friendship High School, Bienville Parish, 1940, and Winnfield High School, 1940-1944. Served with Third Armored Division of the U. S. Army in World War II. Associate professor of Agricultural Education, Texas A & M College, 1950-1955; superintendent of schools, Winn Parish, 1955-1956; professor of Vocational Agricultural Education, Louisiana State University, 1956-1960; director, School of Vocational Education, 1960-1962; dean, Louisiana State University at Alexandria, 1962-1975. Awarded Honorary Lone Star Farmer degree by Texas Association of Future Farmers of America, 1953; Honorary State Farmer degree by Louisiana Association of FFA, 1958. Member: American Vocational Association, National Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association, Louisiana Vocational Association, Louisiana Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association, Louisiana Teachers Association, Phi Delta Kappa, Alpha Zeta, and Alpha Tau Alpha. Died, Clinton, December 11, 1975; interred Clear Creek Methodist Church Cemetery. A.D.J. Sources: Alexandria Daily Town Talk, December 18, 1961; obituary, December 11, 1975.

ABRAMS, Ray, academic, author. Born, Convent, La., December 8, 1889; daughter of Nettie Levy and Sam Abrams. Education: completed grade school, high school, and normal school, 1894-1907; Tulane University, B. A., 1917; M. A., 1926; took summer courses in commercial education at the University of California and Columbia University. Never married. Entered the New Orleans public school system 1907; taught at McDonogh, Dimitry, Laurel, and Rogers schools; appointed principal of Gentilly School, 1914; transferred to Samuel J. Peters Primary School, 1915; planned and helped organize Peter’s Commercial High, the first high school with an all commerce curriculum; in 1924, became the city’s first woman principal of the all-boy, all-male faculty high school; found jobs for 80 percent of her students before they graduated from the school which began with 90 and grew to 1200 students. Received a citation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt for serving as his representative, in 1935, to an educational conference in Switzerland and as a United States delegate to the international convention on commercial education in Czechoslovakia. Became principal of Maybin School for Veterans, a post-graduate school of commerce, in 1936; conceived and inaugurated the Import-Export Institute at Maybin. Wrote Business Behavior, a textbook (1937); also wrote articles on commerce education; spent forty-one years in the New Orleans school system. Member: an officer in the National Council of Commercial Education, the National Commercial Teachers Federation, and the Southern Business Educational Association; held honorary memberships in Delta Pi Epsilon and Pi Omega Pi. Died, New Orleans, February 2, 1949; interred Chevra Mikveh Israel Cemetery. The Ray Abrams School was dedicated to her memory, December 14, 1958. J.B.C. Sources: Robert Meyers, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, February 3, 1949.

ABRAMSON, Marion Pfeifer, civic leader, founder of WYES, educational TV station in New Orleans. Born, New York City, August 29, 1905; daughter of Leon Pfeifer and Bertha Cahn. Reared in New Orleans, her family’s home. Education: Isidore Newman School; Sophie Newcomb College (editor of school newspaper); studied Physiological Chemistry at Tulane Medical School without credit. Married, June 1925, Louis Abramson, Jr. One child, Lucie Lee. Interest in education had as first beneficiaries the Tulane football team. Ghost-wrote newspaper columns for end Jerry Dalrymple (“My End of It”) and for back Don Zimmerman (“Back Talk”). After World War II became a member of national board of American Association of University Women; later president of New Orleans chapter. Began planning in the 1950s an educational television station for New Orleans. Project brought to fruition on October 23, 1957, when station WYES opened.  Chaired board of directors of station. Served on Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee, 1946. Member: Independent Women’s Organization. Elected, 1959, Parish Democratic Executive Committeewoman for Ward 14, New Orleans. Named, 1959, as semifinalist for a Lane Bryant Annual Award for community service. Marion Pfeifer Abramson High School named for her. Died, New Orleans, November 30, 1965. E.N. Sources: Marion Pfeifer Abramson, “The Experiment” (©1973); New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 1, 1965; New Orleans States-Item, December 1, 1965; Ruth Sullivan, “Vanishing American is Do-Nothing Wife,” New Orleans States, September 28, 1949; Cheri Chandler, “Meet Madame President: A.A.U.W. Keeps Her Busy,” New Orleans Item, n.d. (1949?); Robert Myer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975). Thanks to Lucie Lee Abramsom Wing, to Mrs. Monroe Labouisse, to Dr. Fred Cole, and to the staff of the Marion Pfeifer Abramson School, and to the late Louis Abramson, Jr.

ABSHIRE, Leufroy, alleged slave thief. Born, Lafayette Parish, La., October 7, 1822; son of Abraham Abshire and Marguerite Touchet.  Married Marie Louise Barras, daughter of Vincent Barras and Gertrude Thibodeaux, March 6, 1843. One child, Leufroy, born March 3, 1861. In 1859, was found to be harboring fugitive slaves at his Coulee Kinney residence (Vermilion Parish); as a result, was banished from South Louisiana by vigilantes. His notoriety as a supposed slave thief led to the formation of several vigilante committees in Vermilion Parish. He returned to Vermilion Parish by March 1861.  C.A.B. Sources: Alexandre Barde, “The Vigilance Committee of Vermilion Parish,” Attakapas Gazette, X (1975); Donald J. Hebert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984).

ABSHIRE, Nathan, Cajun musician (accordion).  Born, near Gueydan, Vermilion Parish, La., June 27, 1913. Recorded extensively from the 1930s through the 1970s, including many original compositions like “Pinegrove Blues,” “Service Blues,” “French Blues,” and “La Vie d’un musicien”; instrumental in Cajun music revival after World War II; active on the national folk festival circuit, including performances at the Chicago Folk Festival, the National Folk Festival (Wolftrap Farm), the Newport Folk Festival, the Mariposa Folk Festival (Toronto), and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife (Washington), as well as President Richard Nixon’s inaugural celebration. Subject of several television documentaries, including “The Good Times Are Killing Me” (PBS), “Le Son des Cajuns” (CBC), and “Dedans le sud de la Louisiane” (Télévision Française). Died, Basile, La., May 13, 1981. B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.

ACKLEN, Joseph H., attorney, planter, congressman. Born, Nashville, Tenn., May 20, 1850. Education: private tutors; attended Burlington Military College, near Burlington, N.J., 1864-1865; graduated from two foreign universities (Ecole de Neuilly, Paris, and Swiss University, Vevay); returned to the United States and was graduated from Lebanon Law School, Lebanon, Tenn., 1871. Commenced the practice of law in Nashville and later practiced in Memphis, Tenn. Abandoned the practice of law and removed to Louisiana to superintend his sugar plantations near Pattersonville (now Patterson), St. Mary Parish, La.  Married Louise Comeaux. Child: Ada Pearl (b. 1876). Colonel in the Louisiana militia in 1876; successfully contested as a Democrat the election of Chester B. Darrall (q.v.) to Congress and served from Febru­ary 20, 1878, to March 3, 1881; was not a candidate for renomination, 1880. Resumed the practice of law at Franklin, La.; declined to accept the position of judge of the federal district court of Louisiana tendered by President Hayes in 1880; unsuccessful congressional candidate for election in 1882.  Returned to Nashville. Died, Nashville, September 28, 1938; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950); Donald J. Hebert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984).

ADAMS, Charles P., academic. Born, Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish, La., July 21, 1873; son of Edward and Mariah Adams. Education: private tutor, Tuskegee, Ala. Married, 1904, Martha Adams of Tuskegee, daughter of Lewis Adams, tradesman and educator, largely responsible for the establishment of Tuskegee Institute, and Sally Green. Six children: Fidelia (b. 1905), Charles, Jr. (b. 1907), Theresa (b. 1909), Edward (b. 1910), Henry (b. 1912), Ralph (b. 1916). Founder, 1901, Colored Industrial and Agricultural School; president until 1936. Obtained support from Senator Huey Long (q.v.) in converting status of school from parish to state (Grambling College). Campus building, Grambling street; Alumni Association’s Memorial Park, Grambling State University; high school in Allen Parish, Oberlin, La.; Alumni Chapter, Allen Parish; Archival Memorial Repository, History Department Grambling State University, named for subject. Honorary LL. D. from Tuskegee, 1934; president of Louisiana Education Association, Inc. (LCTA), 1933. Supporter of both Baptist and Methodist denominations. Died, June 27, 1961; interred New Rocky Valley Cemetery, Grambling, La. M.T.B. Sources: Obituary, June 30, 1961; personal interview, Fidelia Adams Johnson, June 2, 28, 1982; Charles P. Adams, “The Story of My Life’s Work.”

ADAMS, Henry, entrepreneur, political activist, leader of black emigrationist/colonizationist movement in post-Civil War Louisiana. Born a slave, Newton County, Ga., March 16, 1843. Self-educated. Married slave woman Malinda, the property of a different owner. Children: Lucy, Rena, Josephine, and Henry. Removed with his master’s family to Louisiana-Texas border, 1850; separated from wife and children. Following death of his owner, became property of Nancy Emily Adams, whose surname he assumed. In April, 1865, at the time of his emancipation, resided in De Soto Parish (near Logansport). Following emancipation, roamed countryside as peddler. Enlisted in U. S. Army, September 10, 1866; served in Eighteenth Volunteers and in Twenty-fifth Infantry at Shreveport, Greenville, and Ft. Jackson; rose to rank of quartermaster sergeant. Tour of duty ended mid-September, 1869. Returned to Caddo Parish to work as rail-splitter and plantation manager for a corporate-owned plantation near Shreveport. Functioned also as “faith healer,” and assisted freedmen with reading legal documents and accounts. Acquired property. Active in area politics as president of Shreveport Republican Club, 1874; organized blacks, recommending opposition to white intimidation of freedmen. Fired from job for political activity; worked briefly as undercover agent for Seventh Cavalry investigating terrorist activity of White League. Despairing under continuing white intimidation and “bulldozing” tactics, subject shifted to black emigrationist position, assuming leadership of “Colonization Council” seeking federal aid in removal of blacks to North or, failing that, back to Africa; organized “National Colored Colonization Society” based in Shreveport, 1877. Claimed to have enrolled 98,000 blacks on emigration lists. Testified in 1878 (in New Orleans) before Senate committee investigating white chicanery and violence in elections of that year; fear for his life precluded return to Shreveport area. Work for emigration continued in New Orleans, with both the Kansas Exodus Movement (the “Exoduster” movement) and with the American Colonization Society (supporting black emigration to Liberia), sustaining himself with odd jobs and part-time employment in the Customs House and the U. S. Mint. Subject was last heard from in 1884. His whereabouts after that are unknown, as are the date and circumstances of his death. J.H.D. Sources: U. S. Congress, Senate, “Report and Testimony of the Select Committee of the U. S. Senate to Investigate the Causes of the Removal of the Negroes from the Southern States to the Northern States,” 3 vols., Forty-second Congress, second session, Senate Report 693 (Washington, 1880), II, 110-200; New Orleans Southwestern Christian Advocate, June 20, 1878; Nell Irving Painter, The Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction (1977).

ADAMS, Martha Norman, educator. Born in Alabama, December 6, 1878; one of sixteen children born to Lewis Adams, and Sarah “Sallie” Green Adams. Educated at Tuskegee Institute under Booker T. Washington. Married Charles Philip Adams (q.v.) (founder of Grambling State University), 1901. Children: Fidelia Olin, Charles Jr., Theresa Bernice, Edward Haygood, Henry Victor, and Ralph Lewis. Career: Martha Norman Adams went to Grambling, La., after Charles P. Adams wrote Mrs. Booker T. Washington requesting a domestic science teacher. Mrs. Washington sent Martha Adams. The relationship between Charles Adams and the domestic science teacher was harmonious, and they later married. The school opened in January 1902, with four students and three teachers: Charles P. Adams, the principal; Martha Adams; and A. C. Wilcher, one of Charles’s former Tuskegee classmates. She developed the domestic science program, which later became the Home Economics Department. As educational pioneers, she and her husband worked tenaciously and assiduously in their commitment for educational excellence and the continued viability of the developing institution. The school went from an institution operating on private funds, to a quasi-public school in 1912, to a parish-supported school in 1918, to the sixth college operated and controlled by the Louisiana State Board of Education in 1928. Mrs. Adams retired in the early 1930s. She was the second person inducted into Grambling State University’s Hall of Fame. The Adams’ last residence, built in the 1930s, was placed on the National Register of Historic places, in 1996. Died, February 12, 1956; interred at Rocky Valley Cemetery, Grambling, La. D.D.C. Sources: Doris Dorcas Carter, “Charles P. Adams and Grambling College” (1971); the Gramblinite, September 23, 1993; May 17, 1996; obituary, Charles P. Adams, June 30, 1961.

ADAMS, Wallace Holly, attorney. Born, Minden, La., July 2, 1880; son of William Henry Adams and Aurelia Taylor. Education: local schools, Minden; Louisiana Industrial Institute, Ruston (now Louisiana Tech University), B. I. degree, 1902; Louisiana State University Law School, LL. B., 1909. Removed to Jennings, La. 1902-1907, stenographer for First National Bank; worked with Jennings-Heywood Oil Syndicate; established an insurance agency.  Married Lillian Elizabeth Unroe, April 3, 1924, Jennings, daughter of James Buchanan Unroe and Anna Maria March. 1913-1942, law partner: James Oliver Modisette; the first two judges of Thirty-first Judicial District Court, Minos D. Miller, Jr., and Walter C. Peters. Participated in securing selection of Jennings as parish seat after Jefferson Davis Parish was established, 1912. Counsel for, and organizer of, many private and public corporations. Charter member, Jennings Rotary Club. Member, Jennings Masonic Lodge, Eastern Star, Grand Consistory of Louisiana, Thirty-second Degree AASRM, Kappa Sigma Fraternity, Elks Lodge, First Baptist Church. Died, Jennings, December 28, 1975; interred Greenwood Cemetery.  K.E.O. Sources: Jennings Daily News, July 3, 1970; September 29, 30, 1970; October 1, 5, 1970; obituary, December 29, 1975; 31st Judicial District Court, Jefferson Davis Parish, proceedings, October 1, 1970; Adams Family Papers; History, First Baptist Church, Jennings.

ADRION, Mrs. Ed., see RICHARDS, Adele.

AIME, François Valcour, planter, philanthropist. Born, St. Charles Parish, 1798; son of François Aime and Marie Félicité Julie Fortier. Married, January 4, 1819, Joséphine Roman, daughter of Jacques Etienne Roman and Marie Louise Patin, and sister of Gov. A. B. Roman (q.v.). Children: Edwige (b. 1819, mother of Alcée Fortier [q.v.]); Joséphine (b. 1821); Félicité Emma (b. 1823); Félicie (b. 1825); Gabriel (b. 1826). Experimented with sugar refining (credited with being first to refine Louisiana sugar), ranks with Etienne Boré (q.v.) in history of sugar industry; adopted Archibald process, Rillieux apparatus and experimented with new types of boiling kettles—diary is chronicle of experiments; studied methods of refining in Cuba and Europe, 1845-1847. Founded St. James Church, St. James, La.; purchased Jefferson College for Marist Fathers to run, and for education of his children; founded St. James Parish plantation known for its expansive and exotic gardens, called Le Petit Versailles. Died, Le Petit Versailles, December 31, 1867; interred St. James Catholic Church Cemetery. C.C.C. Sources: Estelle M. Fortier Cochran, The Fortier Family and Allied Families (1963); Lillian C. Bourgeois, Cabanocey (1957); New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 30, 1957, April 16, 1961; Progress, July 7, 1939; Alcée Fortier, Louisiana (1909); Louisiana Historical Quarterly, LIV, no. 1 (Winter-Spring, 1972); Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. I; National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. XXI; Fortier Collection, Louisiana State Archives and Records Service.

AINSWORTH, Robert A., Jr., attorney, state senator, judge, United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Born, Gulfport, Miss., May 10, 1910; son of Robert A. Ainsworth and Katherine Ursch. Attended St. Aloysius High School, graduated from Jesuit High School (1928) and Loyola University Law School (1932). Married Elizabeth Stern, 1934. Children: Robert A. Ainswortlh III, Elizabeth Ainsworth and Leslie Ainsworth. Practiced criminal law in New Orleans beginning in 1932. Served in the United States Army during World War II as a lieutenant. Returned to New Orleans in 1942 to support the city’s anti-Old Regular reform movement as the city manager for Sam Jones’s (q.v.) successful campaign for governor; managed DeLesseps S. Morrison’s (q.v.) successful run for mayor of New Orleans and Hale Boggs’ successful return bid to Congress, 1946. Elected to the Louisiana Senate representing uptown New Orleans, 1949; served eleven years, was president pro-tem of the senate from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1961; director of the International House from 1951 to 1958 and founder of the Louisiana Legislative Council in 1952; managed Hale Boggs’ unsuccessful 1952 gubernatorial bid; appointed by Pres. John F. Kennedy as a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 1961; appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the Fifth United States Circuit Court of Appeals, 1966; served until his death. Died, New Orleans, December 22, 1981. G.B. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 22, 1981, December 23, 1981; Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, June 29, 1952; Edward Haas, DeLesseps S. Morrison and the Image of Reform (1974); Liva Baker, The Second Battle of New Orleans: The Hundred-Year Struggle To Integrate The Schools (1996); DeLesseps S. Morrison Papers, Special Collections, the Howard-Ti1ton Memorial Library, Tulane University; the Hale Boggs Papers, also at Tulane University.

ALAUX, Alexander, artist. Born, Commercy, France, 1851. Education: Académie Royale des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium; student of Bernard (q.v.), Ciceri (q.v.), and Philastre while in New Orleans. Noted printer of portraits, miniatures and historical pieces. Works in collections of Gallery of Leopold II, Brussels; Museum of Arlon, Belgium; Museum of Richmond; and Louisiana State Museum. Was awarded four silver medals at New Orleans Fair Exposition, 1869, and gold medal from King Leopold II of Belgium. Died, 1932. C.A.B. Sources: Martin and Margaret Wiesendanger, 19th Century Louisiana Painters and Paintings from the Collection of W. E. Groves (1971); Ben Earl Looney, “Historical Sketch of Art in Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XVIII (1935).

ALBERT, A. E. P., minister, doctor, educator, editor. Born a mulatto in St. Charles Parish, ca. 1853. Married twice; seven children, six by the first wife. Moved to New Orleans at an early age, where he received a “rudimentary education.” Moved to Atlanta, where he undertook advanced studies before returning to New Orleans. Education: Bachelor’s degree, Straight University, New Orleans; two doctorates of divinity, Straight University and Rust University, Holly Springs, Miss.; medical degree, Flint Medical School, New Orleans. Albert was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), 1873; he held several posts before being appointed to a presiding elder position; he then served as assistant editor and subsequently editor in chief (ca. 1892), a position he held for seven years, of the Southwestern Christian Advocate. He was the first African American to be elected to a general office in the Methodist Episcopal Church. After actively returning to the pulpit, Albert was one again made a presiding elder. Albert was a teacher and principal of Gilbert Academy at Baldwin, La. for a few years. He was also on the board of trustees of New Orleans University for many years and it was at his suggestion that the university established a medical school for blacks, in New Orleans; Albert was subsequently one of the first graduates of the newly formed medical school. Albert gradually withdrew from active participation in the Methodist Episcopal church and dedicated more time to his medical practice; he was the physician for several New Orleans benevolent organizations. At his death Albert was a professor of medicine at Flint Medical School. Died, New Orleans, September 6, 1910. J.D.W. Sources: New Orleans Daily Picayune, September 7, 1910; Seventy Years of Service: New Orleans University (1935).

ALBERTI, Antoine Paul, politician. Born, Buras, La., 1858. Married, Josephine Pelas. Eight children, including Ernest Richard (q.v.). Prominent merchant at Sunrise, Plaquemines Parish. Employed at U. S. Quarantine Station for many years, late nineteenth century. Active in Democratic party; “redeemer” candidate for clerk of court, 1896; clerk of court, Plaquemines Parish, 1896-1909. Died, March 1, 1909; interred Pelas Family Cemetery, Nairn, La. C.A.B. Sources: Henry E. Chambers, A History of Louisiana, 3 vols. (1925); Ellis Arthur Davis, ed., The Historical Encyclopedia of Louisiana, 2 vols. (1937?); New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 5, 1909.

ALBERTI, Ernest Richard, politician. Born, Sunrise, La., December 25, 1885. Son of Antoine Paul Alberti (q.v.) and Josephine (Pelas) Alberti. Education: local schools, Holy Cross College of New Orleans. Married, November 1916, Kate Bernard, daughter of Joseph Bernard, a Venice merchant and president of Plaquemines Parish Police Jury. One child, Bernard Ernest (b. 1924). Political career, deputy clerk of court, 1904-1908, clerk of court, Plaquemines Parish, 1908-1916; sheriff, Plaquemines Parish 1916-1932. Died, Empire, Plaquemines Parish, February 15, 1932. C.A.B. Sources: Ellis Arthur Davis, ed., The Historical Encyclopedia of Louisiana, 2 vols. (1937?); Henry E. Chambers, ed., A History of Louisiana, 3 vols. (1925).

ALCIATORE, Roy Louis, restauranteur. Born, New Orleans, December 19, 1802; son of Jules Louis Alciatore and Marie Althea Roy; grandson of Antoine Alciatore, who founded, in 1840, Antoine’s Restaurant, formerly Pension Alciatore in the French Quarter. Education: local schools; attended Tulane University. Married, April 9, 1932, Mary Pearl Duggan, daughter of Dr. T. A. Duggan and Lida McIllvaine. One daughter: Yvonne Elaine (b. 1937). Served as apprentice restaurant worker under father, 1920-1923; continued studies in French restaurants, 1923-1930; proprietor and manager of Antoine’s Restaurant for forty-two years. Avid ham radio operator, owned one of the most powerful stations in the New Orleans area. Member: board of commissioners, New Orleans Public Belt Railroad; board of directors, New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau; board of curators, Louisiana State Museum, 1937-1941; The New Orleans and the River Region Chamber of Commerce; Louisiana Restaurant Association, president, 1937; Wine and Food Society of London; Les Amis D’Escoffier Société; New Orleans Sous Commanderie de Bordeaux; Gourmet Society of New York; La Société des Escargots Orléanais; International Mission Radio Association; Young Men’s Business Club; Southern Yacht Club; New Orleans Athletic Club; Bienville Club; Mardi Gras carnival organizations. Founder, New Orleans chapter, Confrérie du Tastevin (October 23, 1940); decorated, Grand Officer de la Confrérie du Tastevin (Nuits-Saint-Georges, France); recipient, Chevalier du Mérite Touristique, France; recipient, Chevalier du Mérite Commercial, France; recipient, Mr. Gourmet of 1966, Society of Bacchus. Member: Catholic church; active in Manresa House of Retreats and Holy Name Society. Died, New Orleans, September 29, 1972, interred Metairie Cemetery. B.R.O. Sources: Louisiana Today (1939); obituary, New Orleans Clarion Herald, October 5, 1972; New Orleans Item, April 13, 1937; New Orleans Item-Tribune, December 11, 1938; New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 31, 1966; obituary, September 30, 1972; June 6, 1973; Roy F. Guste, Jr., The Restaurants of New Orleans (1982); Who Was Who in America with World Notables (1981).

ALDEN, E. H., missionary. Among the first males in the state to formally plead the cause of women’s rights. As an agent of the post-Civil War American Missionary Association, Alden deplored the economic conditions under which the AMA’s women school teachers were forced to work. He advocated doubling their salaries, petitioned the association’s officers, and corresponded with Northern officials. T.F.R. Source: Joe M. Richardson, Christian Reconstruction (1986).

ALDEN, Mary Maguire (stage name, Mary Alden), stage and screen actress. Born, New Orleans, La., June 18, 1883. Appeared in seventy-one motion pictures between 1914 and 1935, including Birth of a Nation. Died, Woodland Hills, Calif., July 2, 1946. C.A.B. Sources: Evelyn Mack Truitt, ed., Who Was Who on Screen:: Illustrated Edition (1984); Internet Movie Database, World Wide Web, December 26, 1997.

ALDEN, Philo, law enforcement official. Political career: unsuccessful candidate for sheriff, Bossier Parish, La., November 1857; elected sheriff, Bossier Parish, November 1859; reelected 1861; served as sheriff throughout the Civil War; appointed sheriff, Bossier Parish, July 1865, by Gov. James Madison Wells (q.v.); elected sheriff, Bossier Parish, May 1866. Arrested, September 8, 1865, by Federal provost marshal. Bossier Parish Bar Association met to protest this action and appealed to President Johnson for his release; liberated shortly thereafter and provost marshal suspended from duty. Military career: corporal, militia company, Bossier Parish, 1861. Died, November 6, 1866, Bossier Parish. C.A.B. Sources: Walter Prichard, ed., “A Tourist’s Description of Louisiana in 1860,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXI (1938); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana (1890).

ALEXANDER, William A., clergyman. Born, Clarksville, Tenn., August 19, 1896. Education: Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarksville; Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Taught and coached at Blue Ridge School, Henderson, N.C. Ordained by Memphis Presbytery, 1920. Married Elizabeth Owen of Brownsville, Tenn. Children: two daughters. Served churches in Brownsville; Central Presbyterian Church in Mobile; Highland Park in Dallas; South Highland in Birmingham; First Presbyterian of Charlotte, N. C.; First Presbyterian, Shreveport, 1945-1953. Served as moderator of the Synod of Alabama, 1941; moderator of the Synod of Louisiana, 1949; and moderator of the General Assembly, 1952. Died, February 20, 1956. W.D.L. Source: E. C. Scott, Ministerial Directory of the Presbyterian Church. U. S. (1950; 1967).

ALEXANDER, William McFaddin, clergyman. Born, Union, W. Va., November 7, 1861; son of Michael Caperton Alexander and Sarah (McFadden) Alexander.  Education: Washington and Lee, graduated 1884; Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, 1887; graduate work Bost School of Oratory. Married Ceneilla Bower, Bainbridge, Ga., June 24, 1891. One daughter, Mrs. Matthew McClure. Pastorates: Bainbridge, Ga., 1887-1890; Alabama Street Church, Memphis, 1890-1899; Prytania Street Church, New Orleans, 1899-1940. Honorary degrees: D.D., Southwestern Presbyterian University, 1898; D. D., Washington and Lee, 1898; LL. D., University of Georgia, 1911. Longtime member of board of Southwestern Presbyterian University, helped move from Clarksville, Tenn., to Memphis. Served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 1915, highest office in the denomination. Died, New Orleans, March 29, 1944; interred Cypress Grove Cemetery. W.D.L. Sources: E. C. Scott, Ministerial Directory of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (1950); Louis Voss, Presbyterianism in New Orleans (1931); Waller Raymond Cooper, Southwestern at Memphis (1949); Penrose St. Amant, History of the Presbyterian Church in Louisiana (1961); New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 30, 1944.

ALIGUOT, Marie Jeanne, founder, Sisters of the Holy Family. Born, France, ca. 1783. Arrived in New Orleans, December 6, 1832. Devoted her time, wealth and self to reduce the oppressed conditions of black people, especially the slaves. Became a part of Sister St. Mathé’s “school for colored children,” took over the management of school in 1834. Purchased, 1834, buildings that formerly housed Collège d’Orléans on St. Claude Street. Established, 1836, a religious community, Sisters of the Holy Family. Died, New Orleans, April 12, 1863. F.J. Source: Sr. Audrey Marie Detiege, Henriette DeLille, Free Woman of Color:  Foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family (1976).

ALLAIN, Hélène d’Aquin, author. Born, Jamaica, 1833, where her family had fled from the Saint-Domingue revolution in 1791. Arrived New Orleans, 1836. Educated in New Orleans and Paris. 1858, married Dr. Frederick Allain who died soon after of yellow fever. Spent the rest of her life in France. Wrote Souvenirs d’Amérique et de France, par une Créole (1883); New York et Paris, par Nihila (1884). Died, St. Germain, France, January 1927. M.A. Source: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIXe siècle … (1932).

ALLAIN, Théophile T., businessman, politician. Born, West Baton Rouge Parish, La., 1846; son of Sosthène Allain and one of his slaves, “a pretty brown woman.” He traveled extensively in Europe and America with his father and received private tutoring, studied with Professor Abadie in New Orleans, and beginning in 1868, at a private school in New Brunswick, N. J. Married Aline Coleman. Six children. As a young man, Allain acquired a grocery business in West Baton Rouge Parish, and opened a school for newly freed blacks. He was also owner of a plantation in Iberville Parish reportedly consisting of 790 acres. Active in the Republican party: served in the state house of representatives, 1872-1876, state senate, 1876-1880, and again in the house of representatives, 1881-1890. Along with P. B. S. Pinchback (q.v.) and T. B. Stamps co-sponsored provision in the 1879 Louisiana constitutional convention establishing an “institution of higher learning for persons of color.” This institution was chartered by the state legislature as Southern University in 1880. Allain served as vice-president of the board of trustees for many years. Left Louisiana around the turn of the century and went to Chicago where he worked for the Illinois Fish and Conservation Commission. Returned to Louisiana several years before his death. Member: Berry Lodge No. 2, Masonic Lodge, New Orleans. Died, New Orleans, June, 1921; interred St. Joseph Church Cemetery, Baton Rouge, La. C.V. Sources: William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1891); John W. Blassingame, Black New Orleans (1973); Charles Vincent, Black Legislators in Louisiana during Reconstruction (1976); Baton Rouge State-Times, June 18, 1921.

ALLEN, Asa Leonard, educator, attorney, congressman. Born near Winnfield, La., January 5, 1891; son of Asa L. Allen and Sophronia Perkins; brother of Gov. O. K. Allen. (q.v.) Education: local schools; Louisiana State University, A. B., 1914. Married Lottie Mae Thompson, 1915. Children: Harwell L. Allen (a district judge) and Lyndon Blaine Allen.  Taught in schools of Grant Parish, 1914-1917; superintendent of Winn Parish schools, 1917-1922. Studied law, admitted to bar, 1922; practiced law in Winnfield; city attorney, Winnfield. Served as a Democrat, Congress, 1937-1952. Retired to Winnfield. A Baptist (served as vice-president of Louisiana Baptist Convention), Scottish Rite Mason, and Shriner. Died, Winnfield, La., January 5, 1969; interred Winnfield Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, June 6, 1969; New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 26, 1951; Congressional Directory, 75th Congress, 1st Session; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950).

ALLEN, Henry Watkins, Confederate governor of Louisiana. Born, Prince Edward County, Va., April 29, 1820; son of Dr. Thomas and Ann Watkins Allen. Attended a neighborhood school. Moved to Lexington, Mo., after death of mother in 1830; spent twelve months as a store clerk; attended Marion College for two years. Ran away from home in 1837 and settled in Grand Gulf, Miss., where he taught school and studied law; was licensed to practice law in Mississippi on May 25, 1841. Early in 1842 joined Sam Houston’s Army of the Republic of Texas; returned to Mississippi after six months. Married, 1842, Salome Crane (d. 1851) of Rodney, Miss. Elected to the state legislature in 1845.  Removed to Louisiana, 1852; settled in West Baton Rouge Parish where he planted sugarcane on his estate, Allendale. Journeyed throughout the South in 1853; wrote letters, under the pseudonym Guy Mannering, to the Baton Rouge Comet describing the land and its people; The Guy Mannering Letters of Henry Watkins Allen published in 1985. Studied law at Harvard, 1854. Elected to the state legislature, 1854, and served in the last half of the decade before the Civil War. Traveled in Europe, 1859, and wrote Travels of a Sugar Planter (1861). Enlisted as a private in the Delta Rifles at the beginning of the Civil War; elected lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Louisiana Regiment; commander at Ship Island, Miss.; in March 1862 became colonel of the regiment and joined Beauregard (q.v.) in Tennessee; wounded at Shiloh, April 6, 1862; wounded again at Baton Rouge August 5, 1862; commissioned brigadier general, September 1863, and ordered to Shreveport, La. Elected governor and inaugurated in Shreveport, January 25, 1864; remained in office until June 2, 1865; instrumental in getting the cotton tax paid in kind to the Confederate government; opened a route through Texas to Mexico by which cotton was exported and medicine, clothing, and other necessities were brought into the state; perhaps the most successful administrator in the Confederacy. Left Louisiana for Mexico, June 1865; even in exile his name was proposed for governor of Louisiana; edited an English-language newspaper, Mexican Times, in Mexico City. Died there April 22, 1866; body brought to New Orleans for interment; reinterred with military honors in Baton Rouge, La., July 4, 1885, beneath a monument erected in his memory on the Old State Capitol grounds.  J.B.C. Sources: Vincent H. Cassidy and Amos E. Simpson, Henry Watkins Allen of Louisiana (1964); Emilia Gay Griffith Means, ed., The Guy Mannering Letters of Henry Watkins Allen: A Journey Through the South in 1853 (1985); Miriam G. Reeves, The Governors of Louisiana (1972).

ALLEN, Nathaniel Sykes, architect, musician. Born, Ellicott City, Md., August 7, 1829; son of William Allen and Ciscelia Burris Rhodes. Educated in Baltimore. Civil War service: Company A, Fourteenth Texas Infantry from Marshall, Tex. Promoted to rank of major for gallantry. Among the original members of Gen. LeRoy Stafford Camp No. 3, U.C.V. From Marshall, Tex. he removed to Shreveport in 1870 and became city’s most prominent architect. Built numerous important structures in Shreveport, including first post office and Line Avenue School. Married Martha Carrollton (d. 1906), December 23, 1852. Children: William (b. 1853), Kate (b. 1855), Benjamin (b. 1856), May (b. 1859), Charles (b. 1860), Edwina (b. 1862), Mattie (b. 1866). Considered musical authority as composer, conductor and soloist. Painted pictures. Prominent member of the Odd Fellows, and Red Men. Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Died, July 5, 1922. P.L.M. Source: N. S. Allen Papers. Louisiana State University-Shreveport Archives.

ALLEN, Oscar Kelly, businessman, politician, governor. Born, Winnfield, La., August 8, 1882; son of Asa Levi Allen and Sophronia Perkins. Brother of Congressman Asa L. Allen (q.v.). Education: local public school; Springfield Normal School and Business College, Springfield, Mo.; Trinity University, Waxahachie, Tex., 1908. Taught at the Winn Parish School, 1898; also taught in Mineral Springs and Pleasant Hill, La.; Trinity University, 1908; served as assistant registrar at the latter. Sawmill owner and manager in Winnfield, 1906; farmer, 1908; railroad builder, 1912; mercantile and oil business, 1918. Married, December 4, 1912, Florence Scott Love of Paris, Tex. Children: Joyce Love (Mrs. Frederick J. Stare), Oscar Kelly, Jr. (b. 1915), and Asa Benton (b. 1925). Active in Democratic party; assessor, Winn Parish, 1916-1920; clerk, Winn Parish Police Jury, 1924-1927; member, Louisiana senate, 1928-1932; floor leader for Long faction; chairman, state highway commission, 1928-1932; governor of Louisiana, 1932-1936; leader of the “Huey Long machine” after Long’s assassination; U. S. senator-elect, 1936, elected with unprecedented 200,000 vote plurality. Member: Baptist church. Died, Baton Rouge, January 28, 1936. W.D.P. Sources: Congressional Quarterly, Guide to U. S. Elections (n.d.); Roy R. Glashan, American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978 (1979); Miriam G. Reeves, Governors of Louisiana (1980); Robert Sobel and John Raimo, Biographical Directory of the Governors of the U.S., (1978); New York Times, January 29, 1936.

ALLEN, William Green, physician. Born, Tupelo, Miss., September 1, 1884; son of Mr. and Mrs. James Houston Allen. Education: graduate of Memphis Medical College, Tennessee. Returned to Converse, La., to practice medicine; owned and operated Converse Drug Store, using rooms in the rear as medical offices; founded Allen Sanitarium in Converse, 1922, the first hospital in Sabine Parish; prominent in the field of medicine throughhout a wide area of Northwest Louisiana. Married Mary Ann Bufkin, June 26, 1906. Children: Travis Allen, Pauline Allen Walden, Annice Allen Tolbert, Mildred Allen Murdock, Alma Allen Dees. Member, Baptist church; a 32nd Degree Mason; member of El Karuba Shriner Temple, Shreveport, La. Died, December 6, 1947; interred Oak Grove Cemetery. J.H.P. Source: Sabine Index, Centennial Edition, September 6, 1979.

ALLIOTT, Paul, physician, historian. French doctor who came from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans, ca. 1795. Arrested March 18, 1803, and accused of practicing medicine without a license; pleaded ignorance of such a requirement; had been accused of attempting to incite a Negro insurrection; stated that pro-French, anti-Spanish elements of the colony were the agitators; jailed in New Orleans for two weeks. He and wife and child deported to France; arrived at Lorient, July, 1803, and was imprisoned; began writing his memoirs, entitled Historical and Political Reflections on Louisiana, which depicted the colony in unflattering terms at the end of the Spanish regime; his comments on the ignorance of surgeons, death statistics, burial procedures, and the attitudes of mulattoes toward their black mothers were decidedly biased; released from prison by the French and arrived in New York City, April 1804; wrote to President Thomas Jefferson on April 14, 1804, requesting authorization to prosecute his debtors in New Orleans; included the manuscript of his memoirs which was dedicated to the president. The original text of the manuscript, housed in the Library of Congress, was translated by and included in James Alexander Robertson’s book, Louisiana Under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States, 1785-1807.  J.B.C. Sources: John Duffy, ed., The Rudolph Matas History of Medicine in Louisiana, 2 vols. (1958); Donald E. Everett, “Free Persons of Color in Colonial Louisiana,” Louisiana History, VII (1966); Jack D. L. Holmes, “The Abortive Slave Revolt at Pointe Coupée Louisiana, 1795,” Louisiana History, IX (1970).

ALMONESTER Y ROXAS, Andrés, colonial official, entrepreneur, philanthropist. Born, Mayrena, Spain, 1725. Widower before coming to Louisiana with Alejandro O’Reilly (q.v.), 1769; soon became alférez real (royal standard-bearer for public ceremonies); alcalde (justice of the peace); member of the cabildo (governing body of the province); and from 1783, holder of the highly profitable post of escribano or notary public. As colonel, had ambitions to become brigadier; never engaged in combat. His fortune grew rapidly through a series of slave purchases and sales, along with real estate transactions and profitable leases. Acquired at public auction in 1784 a “plantation known by the name of Metairie, land on [sic] this city [New Orleans] live stock and slaves” for 13,842 pesos. In effect, became owner of most of “Old Metairie”, all the while possessing valuable property along both St. Peter and St. Anne streets, or half of perimeter of Place d’Armes (future Jackson Square) in heart of Vieux Carré. At age 60, married Louise de la Ronde whose own age local writers variably give as 16 or 29 years at the time; union allied Almonester to Pontalba, Marigny, De Lino de Chalmet[te], Cruzat, Broutin, and other notable Creole families. Couple had two children: Micaëla, future builder of Pontalba buildings on her father’s Jackson Square property; and Andrea (d. 1799). Alleged to have profited by raising rent of tenants deprived of housing due to disastrous fire of 1788. Nevertheless, benefactions include: construction of Ursuline Nuns’ chapel at Condé (Chartres) and Ursulines streets; erection of first St. Louis Cathedral and its presbytère intended as priests’ residence but never used as such (now Louisiana State Museum); Royal Hospital of St. Charles and its oratory, which he endowed; and hospital for lepers. Dubbed Knight of Charles III, September 8, 1796; died suddenly April 26, 1798; interred first in churchyard, then under St. Louis Cathedral from which remains were removed during reconstruction, 1849-1850, but cere­monious­ly reinterred in a crypt of rebuilt cathedral, November 10, 1852. Memorialized by large marble tablet, incised with salient details of life, and imbedded in Cathedral side aisle floor. Almonester (spelled Almonaster) Avenue, New Orleans, named for subject. H.C.B. Sources: Leonard V. Huber, Jackson Square Through the Years (1982); Leonard Huber and Samuel Wilson, Jr., The Basilica on Jackson Square: The History of the St. Louis Cathedral … (1972); Henry C. Bezou, Metairie: A Tongue of Land to Pasture … (1973); Louisiana Historical Quarterly; numerous brochures, monographs, magazine and newspaper articles, as well as notarial, diocesan and Ursuline Convent archives, New Orleans.

ALPHA, Oscar L., journalist. Born, Franklin, La., October 1857; son of Caroline C. Campbell and Independence Alpha, a typesetter, journalist, cooper, and wheelwright in Franklin. Married (1) Lela French. Two daughters. Married (2) Rose Esther Harrison, of Franklin, August 26, 1886. One daughter and one son. Learned journalism as an apprentice on the Franklin Enterprise, 1875-1879; managed the St. Mary Herald, 1879-1888, publisher until 1889, when the paper was sold; purchased the Acadia Sentinel of Rayne, La., February 16, 1890; established the Attakapas Vindicator, a weekly, politically Democratic newspaper, in Lafayette, La., March 27, 1890; removed to Franklin in 1891 and continued to publish the Attakapas Vindicator; became associated with the Sugar Belt Vindicator which was published by the Sugar Belt Protective Tariff League Publishing Co., Ltd.; late in 1898 was editor of the Vindicator News, a result of the merger of the Sugar Belt Vindicator and the Weekly News; in April of 1900 was the sole editor and publisher of the Weekly Watchman; purchased the Vindicator News in 1902 and merged it with the Weekly Watchman; built his own newspaper plant in 1908 and continued publishing until a few months before his death in August 1923; interred Franklin Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Florence Blackburn and Fay G. Brown, eds., Franklin Through the Years (1972); Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984); William Henry Perrin, ed., Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical (1891).

AMANS, Jacques Guillaume Lucien, portraitist. Born, Maestricht, The Netherlands, 1801. Educated in France. Exhibited: Paris Salon, 1831-1837. Arrived in Louisiana with portraitist Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, ca. 1836. Opened Royal Street studio in New Orleans, 1837; bought Trinity Plantation, Ascension Parish. Married, March 18, 1844, Marguerite Azoline Landreaux of St. Charles Parish, La., daughter of Pierre Landreaux, politician and sugar planter, and Claudine Picou. Moved studio to 110 Bourbon Street, 1845. To avoid yellow fever, spent summer with Bringier family on Houmas Plantation and painted their portraits, 1846. Executed portrait of Zachary Taylor (q.v.) in Baton Rouge, 1848. Returned to France; settled on La Cour Levy property near Versailles, 1856. Portrait of New Orleans street vendor exhibited at Creole Exhibit in New Orleans, 1885-1886. Died, Paris, January 10, 1888. Bequeathed Trinity and La Cour Levy to sisters in Brussels, Belgium. J.L.S. Sources: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987); M. L. Tucker, “Jacques G. L. Amans, Portrait Painter in Louisiana, 1836-1856,” M. A. thesis, Tulane University, 1970; Historic New Orleans Collection, Hermitage Foundation Papers, Bringier Family Genealogy.

AMATO, Pasquale, opera singer and teacher. Born, Naples, Italy, March 21, 1878. Made operatic debut as Germont in La Traviata, Naples, 1900, then sang throughout Italy. Debut at Covent Garden, London, 1904, then sang under Toscanini at La Scala, Milan, 1907-1908. Leading baritone, Metropolitan Opera, New York, 1908-1921. Sang often with his fellow Neapolitan Caruso, most notably as Jack Rance in the world premiere of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West in 1910. Also created title role of Damrosch’s Cyrano de Bergerac and Napoleon in Giordano’s Madame Sans-Gêne. Recorded extensively, especially for the Victor Company between 1911-1915. Regarded as one of the great singers of the “Golden Age of Opera.” Became the head of the Voice and Opera departments at Louisiana State University in 1935, where his productions attracted wide attention. Lived and taught in Baton Rouge until his death. Died, Jackson Heights, New York, August 12, 1942, while visiting friends. L.I.W. Sources: David Ewen, Encyclopedia of the Opera (1955); P. Kenyon and C. Williams, “Pasquale Amato,” Record Collector, XXI (1973); obituaries: New York Times, August 13, 1942; New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 14, 1942; Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980).

AMES, Roger Post, physician. Born, New Orleans, April 6, 1870; son of Frederick Ames and Josephine Pegues. Education: local schools; Tulane University, M. D., 1890. Served in Spanish-American War. A member of Walter Reed’s Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba. Entered U. S. Public Health Services and stationed in Guatemala. Married, June 28, 1905, Jessie Daniel, Laredo, Tex., daughter of James Malcolm Daniel and Laura Leonard. Children: Frederick (b. 1907) and Mary (b. 1913), both physicians, and Lulu (b. 1915) business woman. Thirty-third Degree Mason. Awarded the Walter Reed Congressional Medal, 1959, which was given to the library of Tulane University. Died of malignant malaria in Guatemala, November 14, 1914; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. M.D.A.† Source: Author’s research.

AMISS, J. Al, constable, sheriff. Born, Baton Rouge, April 27, 1929. Educated at Baton Rouge High School; Louisiana State University; law enforcement training, Sam Houston University and Institute of Police Administration and Technology, Orlando, Florida. Married Joy Dromgoole, 1955. Children: John Thiel, Sally, Clair, and Bonnie Joe. Elected Democratic committeeman, 1956. Appointed deputy city constable of Baton Rouge, 1959. Elected city constable, 1964. Elected East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff in 1972; reelected twice, serving until just before his death. Died, Baton Rouge, February 6, 1983. J.D.W. Sources: Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, February 7, 9, 1983.

AMMONS, Cliff, businessman, politician. Born, Negreet, La., February 17, 1918; son of Mr. and Mrs. O. L. Ammons. Education: Negreet High School, graduated 1935; Louisiana State University, B. S. degree; Stephen F. Austin University, master’s degree.  Married Ethel Matherne of Houma, La., April 5, 1940. Children: Dianna, Suzanne, Robert, Kenneth, Larry. Operated a dairy, 1940-1944; worked with Veterans Farm Assistance Program, 1945-1947; taught in public schools of Sabine Parish, 1947-1967, as agriculture teacher at Many High School. Founded Merritt Mountain Church Park on Toledo Lake; instrumental in forming the Sabine Housing Authority; built Sportsman’s Paradise Peaceful Valley, Terra II, Lakeland, Beaver Village subdivisions on Toledo Lake. Charter member, Sabine Parish Chamber of Commerce; established Ammons Airport on Toledo Lake. Served in state house of representatives; instrumental in the passage of constitutional amendment permitting the use of state funds to build Toledo Lake in 1965. Died, July 28, 1981; interred Merritt Mountain Church Park on Toledo Lake. J.H.P. Source: Sabine Index, July 30, 1981.

ANDERSON, Dédé, civic and religious leader. Born, near Scott, La., September 8, 1859. Black community leader in western Lafayette Parish; successful farmer and landowner; religious leader; donated land for St. Benedict the Moor Church; founded early private country school for blacks; was instrumental in establishment of Anderson public school for blacks. Married to Nocial Richard. Died, June 30, 1957, near Scott, La. B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.

ANDERSON, Edna Hartwell, businesswoman. Born, Wallisville, Tex., July 12, 1878; daughter of William S. Hartwell and Bertha Doegner. Education: Wallisville and Galveston, Tex., schools. Removed to Vinton, La., 1892; school teacher, 1893-1894. Married, February 23, 1897, Edward S. Anderson, of Westlake, La. Children: Bertie (b. 1900), Gus (b. 1902), Aileen (b. 1904). Grocery store owner, 1917-1945; dress shop owner, 1948-1964. Member: Baptist church, charter member Westlake First Baptist. Died, Westlake, June 27, 1966; interred Magnolia Cemetery. G.S.P. Sources: Westlake Westlaker, June 23, 1976; Anderson Family Papers.

ANDERSON, Thomas C., planter, politician. Born, Virginia, 1821. Removed to Louisiana as a young man, clerked for a short time in New Orleans mercantile house before establishing his own store in Washington, La. Several years prior to the Civil War, he became a prosperous sugar planter, accumulating by 1860 over 3,500 acres of land valued at $100,000 and sixty-three slaves. A Whig in politics, he served in the antebellum state legislature, represented his senatorial district in the 1852 state constitutional convention and his parish as a delegate to the 1860 state Constitutional Union party convention at Baton Rouge. Although he originally opposed secession, he supported the Confederacy and briefly served in its army. After war, again served in state senate, 1865-1866 and 1868-1877, and while often classified as a Democrat, considered himself an “independent conservative.” Despite claims to conservatism, seems to have had a close relationship with two state Republican administrations. Accused of using his influence to gain a state subsidy for a navigation company in which he held a personal financial interest. Named, 1874, to board of control of Louisiana Agricultural and Mechanical College. And from 1870 to 1877, a member of the state’s controversial election returning board. His role in the manipulation of returns for the Republican party in the 1876 election earned him a two-year prison term. His imprisonment, however, lasted only two months and he was almost immediately appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes as the acting collector of customs at New Orleans, a highly lucrative post, and a few months later received the post of special deputy collector of customs of the port. After 1877, identified with the Republican party and in the 1880s became a member of the party’s state executive committee. J.A.B. Sources: Manuscript Census Returns, St. Landry Parish, 1860; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics, 1877-1900 (1969); Howard James Jones, “The Members of the Louisiana Legislature of 1868; “Images of ‘Radical Reconstruction’ Leadership, Ph.D. dissertation, Washington State University, 1975; William Edward Highsmith, “Louisiana During Reconstruction,” Ph. D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1953.

ANDING, Susan Evangeline Walker, civic leader. Born, Opelousas, La., March 16, 1878; daughter of Samuel R. Walker and Mary Elizabeth Boagni. Education: local schools; St. Mary’s Academy, San Antonio, Tex.; and Sacred Heart Academy, Grand Coteau, La. Married Allen Astor Anding. Children: five daughters and one son. Represented five governors—Hall, Pleasant, Parker, Fuqua, and Huey Long—at national “Good Highways” conventions; first female director on board of United States Good Road Association; director of Old Spanish Trail Association; a member of state park commission. Instrumental in the establishment of Evangeline State Park (now Longfellow-Evangeline State Commemorative Area), St. Martinville, Louisiana’s first state park. A leader in the woman’s suffrage movement; member of the League of Women Voters; state chairperson of the blood bank for the Louisiana American Legion. Died, Opelousas, La., February 19, 1948; interred St. Landry Catholic Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 20, 1948; Opelousas Clarion-News, February 26, 1948; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, February 21, 1948.

ANDREPONT, Yves, farmer, merchant, notary public, state representative, and clerk of court, Saint Landry Parish. Born, Plaisance, La., August 7, 1870; son of Cléophas Andrepont and Corinne Mouillé. Educated in local schools. Married (1) Marie Eva Vidrine, daughter of Alein Vidrine and Estelle Andrepont, at Opelousas, La., September 6, 1887. Children: Maria Blanche (b. 1888), Rosa (b. 1890), Félicité (b. 1891), Lawrence “Pete” (b. 1892), Marie Eva Vidrine died May 2, 1893. Married (2) Estelle Anna Vidrine, daughter of Alein Vidrine and Estelle Andrepont, September 30, 1893. Children: Joseph Oscar (b. 1894), Mary Stella (b. 1897), and Mary Eva (b. 1900), Victor (b. 1904); adopted child. Career: merchant, farmer, and ginner Plaisance area; state representative, 1900-1904; clerk of court, 1904-1912. Later became owner of the Saint Landry Parish, Opelousas Clarion newspaper, with Lawrence A. “Pete” Andrepont, his son, as publisher. Died, April 27, 1942; interred, Saint Landry Roman Catholic Cemetery, Opelousas, Louisiana. K.P.F. Sources: Donald J. Hébert, Southwest Louisiana Records, (1974-1996); Estate of Marie E. Vidrine, November 5, 1894, #5329; Official Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana, 1900 & 1902; interviews with members of the Andrepont family, Baton Rouge, La.; interviews with members of the Bordelon family, Opelousas, La.; Oath and Bond Books, Saint Landry Parish Clerk of Court’s Office, Opelousas, La.

ANDRY, Laure, author, educator. Born, Bordeaux, France, September 6, 1829. At age 17 came to New Orleans with her parents (mother, Louise-Delphine Commagère, was from New Orleans). Married, October 6, 1849, Jean-Octave Andry, a planter’s son who died shortly after the Civil War. Left with five small children, earned a living by teaching and writing. Wrote Histoire de la Louisiane racontée aux enfants (1882).  Died July 29, 1882.  M.A. Source: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIXe siècle … (1932).

ANDRY, Louis Antoine (Luis), engineer, soldier, royal surveyor. Born, probably in Paris. In 1765 led large group of Acadian exiles to select a settlement site, in the area of present-day St. Martinville, La., then to subdivide and map the region.  Possibly drew plans, 1766, for the first church in the Attakapas District. Drew plans for the conversion of a New Orleans warehouse on Dumaine Street, as a temporary replacement for the then deteriorating St. Louis Church. Reputed by Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez (q.v.) to be the only person capable of drawing exact maps in the colony. Married Marie-Jeanne La Pierre (baptized 1732, New Orleans, d. ca. 1818). Children: four sons, five daughters. Daughter, Rosalie, married José Villavaso, royal treasurer and postmaster of Spanish Louisiana. Andry was killed in 1778 or 1779 with one of his sons when their ship was attacked by hostile Indians in the Bay of San Bernardo, Tex. J.T.M. Sources: John Walton Caughey, Bernardo de Gálvez in Louisiana, 1776-1783 (1972); Samuel Wilson, Jr., “Religious Architecture in French Colonial Louisiana,” Winterthur Portfolio 8 (1973). Catalogo de Documentos del Archivo General de Indias … Audiencia de Santo Domingo … Epoca Española de Luisiana (1968); New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 15, 1946; additional information courtesy Maxime S. Lawrence.

ANDRY, Manuel, planter, soldier, politician. Born ca. 1757. Received, in W. C. C. Claiborne’s estimation, “a good education.” Married Sophie Glapion. Two known children: Manuel, fils, and H. Andry. Commandant of St. John the Baptist Parish, 1805; refused reappointment ca. September 9, 1805; named coroner of the County of the German Coast, June 12, 1805; commissioned major, Fifth Regiment, Louisiana Militia, August 12, 1805; promoted to rank of colonel, April 21, 1809; resigned commission, ca. December 24, 1811; appointed justice of the peace, St. John the Baptist Parish, June 12, 1805; reappointed June 30, 1807; member, house of representatives, Territory of Orleans, 1806-1810; nominated for appointment to the legislative council, Territory of Orleans, March 4, 1810. Largest slave uprising in history of United States began on his plantation, near present-day La Place, La., January 8, 1811. Andry’s son, Manuel, fils, was first victim of servile insurrection. Though wounded in assault on his home, elder Andry, colonel in the local militia, organized the initial white effort to subdue the rebels and issued a call for military assistance from Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne (q.v.). Reinforce­ments dispatched immediately and by the evening of January 11, 1811, Andry was able to report that all resistance had been crushed. Died, New Orleans, December 18, 1839; interred New Orleans. C.A.B. Sources: James H. Dormon, “The Persistent Specter: Slave Rebellion in Territorial Louisiana,” Louisiana History, XVIII (1977); Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the United States, IX (1940); Dunbar Rowland, ed., Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, 1801-1816, 6 vols. (1916); Martin M. Gurtler III, “Death Notices Published in the L’Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans,” New Orleans Genesis, II, No. 5 (January, 1963); Glenn R. Conrad, ed., Saint-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands: Abstracts of the Civil Records of St. John the Baptist Parish, with Genealogy and Index, 1753-1803 (1972); New Orleans Bee, December 20, 1839.

ANGELLE, Drauzin, farmer, politician. Born in the Fifth Ward, St. Martin Parish, La., December 25, 1871; son of Jean-Baptiste Angelle and Arthémise Dupuis. Married (1) Aminth Guidry. One child: Mozella. Married (2) Agnes Guidry, March 27, 1894. Children: Laurence (Mrs. Jake Hamilton); Robert (q.v.); Rose (Mrs. Homer LeBlanc); Aminthe; Anna; Agnes; Edith; Alice. Constable of Fifth Ward, St. Martin Parish, 1914-1924; chief deputy sheriff, St. Martin Parish, 1924-1958; organizer of “The Old Faction”; the “Father of the Fifth Ward.” Died, December 19, 1958; interred St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Cecilia, La. J. C. Source: Author’s research.

ANGELLE, James Burton, Sr., politician, businessman, and civic leader. Born, Cecilia, La., July 26, 1924; son of Mr. and Mrs. Will Angelle. Married Shirley Dauterive; children: Burton, Jr., Glenn, Brian, Scott, Sharon, Brenda, Julie, Nanette, and Cathy. Attended elementary and secondary schools in the Cecilia area. Served in the United States Navy during World War II. B.S., Agriculture, Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Southwestern Louisiana), 1949. Assistant county agent, Natchitoches Parish, La., 1949. Manager, Dauterive Motor Company of Breaux Bridge, La., 1949-1956. President, Angelle and Dauterive Ford Company (later Angelle Ford Company), 1956-1984. Political career: member, St. Martin Parish Police Jury, 1952-1960; state representative, 1964-1973; secretary, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, 1973-1980, 1984-1988. Recipient, Governor’s State Conservation Achievement Program, Award, 1973. Member: Knights of Columbus (grand knight, 1964), Woodmen of the World, American Legion, St. Bernard Elementary School Board, Breaux Bridge Volunteer Fire Company, Breaux Bridge Lions Club, St. Martin Parish Cattleman’s Association, Farm Bureau, Young Men’s Business Club, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Died, Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center, Lafayette, La., August 27, 1997; interred, St. Bernard Cemetery No. 2, Breaux Bridge. C.A.B. Sources: Lafayette Daily Advertiser, August 28, 1997; information provided by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

ANGELLE, Robert Joseph “Bob,” businessman, politician. Born, Cecilia, La., August 26, 1896; son of Drauzin Angelle (q.v.) and Agnes Guidry. Education: Cecilia and Breaux Bridge, La., public schools; attended Southwest Louisiana Institute (now University of Southwestern Louisiana). Married, July 8, 1919, Breaux Bridge, Madge Germaine Begnaud (b. 1899), daughter of P. L. Begnaud and Germaine Richard. Children: Agnes Mavis (Mrs. Warren Finley [b. 1921]); Gloria Germaine (Mrs. Louis Kern [b. 1923]); Joyce Alice (Mrs. Fernand Doucet, Jr. [b.. 1925]). Commission agent for Standard Oil Company, 1921-1932; operated Acadian Lumber Company, 1936-1973; organizer and first president of the Breaux Bridge Sugar Co-op; licensed building contractor; operator of dairy farms, 1944; organizer and first president, Breaux Bridge Bank and Trust Company; served as mayor, 1923, councilman of Breaux Bridge; member, St. Martin Parish Democratic Committee; state representative, 1934-1964; speaker of the Louisiana house of representatives, 1956-1960 (sponsored a bill which made Breaux Bridge the “Crawfish Capital of the World”); member of the Louisiana State Board of Liquidation, 1959; member, Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival Association, 1960-1979; charter member of Breaux Bridge Lions Club. Member, St. Bernard’s Catholic Church of Breaux Bridge; a Knight of Columbus. Died, December 22, 1979, interred St. Bernard’s Cemetery, Breaux Bridge. J.C. Sources: Family papers and interviews; “Ragin Cajun,” U.S.L. Alumni News, VIII, no. 3 (August 1978); Memoirs of Robert Angelle, published 1978; “Tribute: Robert Angelle,” St. Martinville Teche News, August 17, 1961. Lafayette Daily Advertiser, January 7, 1979.

ANGERS, Robert John, journalist, businessman, politician. Born, Abbeville, La. October 20, 1919, son of Robert Junius Angers and Anna Mae Nunez. Married Geraldine Isabelle Beaullieu, daughter of Gerald A. Beaullieu, Sr., and Laurice Hebert Beaullieu, Jeanerette, La., August 30, 1941. Children: Robert Gerald, Judith Ann, Trent Michael, Stephen Brion, Winston Thomas, John Matthew, Glen Williams, Jefferson Mark, and a son who died at birth. Graduate of St. Peter’s College, New Iberia. B. A. degree, Louisiana State University School of Journalism, 1940. A graduate, United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1949. Major, 24th Infantry Regiment, United States Army, World War II. Received Combat Infantryman’s Badge and Bronze Star. Editor, Abbeville Progress, 1940. Advertising manager, Weekly Iberian and New Iberia Enterprise, 1945. Co-owner with father and brother Allen, Angers Real Estate Agency, New Iberia, 1946-1950. Publisher, Franklin Banner-Tribune, 1950-1965. Banner-Tribune converted from a weekly to a daily and won 150 state and national press association awards during that time. Founding partner and vice-president, Angers, Bowen, and Associates public relations firm in Lafayette, Louisiana, 1961. Sold interest to Kenneth Bowen, 1962. Editorial writer, and columnist, Lafayette Daily Advertiser, 1966-1968. Founder, Jeanerette Weekly Journal, 1964-1965; Southwest Louisiana Capitalist, 1963; and Acadiana Profile magazine, 1968. Editor and publisher, Acadiana Profile, 1968-1985. Son Trent became editor and publisher, 1985. Business editor, Lafayette Daily Advertiser, 1985-1988. Editor, Latin American Report magazine, New Orleans, 1967-68. Founder, Acadian News Agency, which syndicated his public affairs editorials to Louisiana newspapers, 1967. Sold to son Trent, 1970. Founder, Angers Journalism International (ANJOURI). A Democrat until 1960, when he joined the Republican party. Republican candidate for United States House of Representatives, 3rd Congressional District, 1964, garnering approximately forty percent of the vote. Delegate, Republican National Convention, 1968. Left Republican Party and registered as an Independent, 1974. Member, Sigma Delta Chi, Scabbard and Blade, New Iberia Port Commission, St. Pius Catholic Church of Lafayette, New Iberia Kiwanis Club, Franklin Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs, and Lafayette Rotary Club, which endowed a Paul Harris Fellowship in his name. Founding Secretary, Louisiana Intracoastal Seaway Association. Charter member, Caribbean-American Freedom League. Worked with Cuban exile groups beginning in 1959. Director, Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival, Louisiana Printers and Stationers Association, and Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. President, Louisiana Press Association, International Conference of Weekly Editors, Franklin Chamber of Commerce (1953) and Louisiana Jaycees (1949). Founder and first president, The International Relations Association of Acadiana (TIRAA), 1977, and the International Good Neighbor Council. Third district vice-president, Louisiana Chamber of Commerce. Recipient of Jaycee Outstanding Young Man of New Iberia Award, 1946; George Washington Honor Medal, Freedoms Foundation; President’s Award, Louisiana Press Association; First Place Award, National Editorial Foundation; International Good Neighbor Council Special Good Neighbor Award; TIRAA Outstanding Citizen of Acadiana Award, 1980; Lafayette Board of Realtors Good News Award, 1988; Acadian Home Builders Association Certificate of Appreciation; Louisiana Farm Bureau Special Press Award, 1988; University of Southwestern Louisiana School of Journalism Distinguished Service to Journalism Award; and other honors and awards. A tireless and unselfish promoter of good government, the Acadiana region, and free enterprise. Died, M. D. Anderson Medical Center, Houston, Texas, October 13, 1988; interred Lafayette Memorial Park, Lafayette, Louisiana. A.Y.B. Sources: Lafayette Daily Advertiser, January 29, 1980, October 14-15, 1988; “Bob Angers Résumé,” March 2, 1979 and January 15, 1980 (in possession of Mrs. Robert Angers); Who’s Who in the South and Southwest (1954 and 1956); Daily Iberian, January 29, 1980.

ANTOINE, Caesar Carpetier, soldier, politician, businessman, editor. Born, New Orleans, 1836, son of a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans; mother a native of the West Indies and the daughter of an African chief. Spent childhood in New Orleans and attended private schools; fluent in French and English. After graduating entered one of the few occupations open to Negroes in the antebellum South—the barber trade. After Federal troops captured Baton Rouge, 1862, he organized a colored company known subsequently as Company I, Seventh Louisiana Colored Regiment (Corps d’Afrique). As captain of the company he served in minor engagements until end of Civil War. Removed to Shreveport, established a family grocery business, but his native shrewdness and general community support impelled him to enter politics. Elected a delegate to the Louisiana constitutional convention of 1867-1868. Advocated an extensive bill of rights, tax reforms, and a petition to Congress requesting the extension of the Freedmen’s Bureau. State senator from Caddo Parish, 1868-1872, assigned to the senate committees on commerce and manufactures, and education. As a friend of public education he led in the fight for state support of education. He was later appointed to the school board of Caddo Parish, 1875. Perhaps his biggest triumph in politics was his election as lieutenant governor of Louisiana, 1872. Thus he holds the distinction of being one of three Negroes elected to this position in Louisiana (the others being Oscar J. Dunn [q.v.] and P.B.S. Pinchback [q.v.]). Renominated, 1876, for the position of lieutenant-governor on the Republican ticket with Stephen B. Packard (q.v.) as governor. During Reconstruction he invested in railroad and lottery stocks, and raised race horses. President, in 1880, of the Cosmopolitan Life Insurance Company, a co-partner with Pinchback in both a cotton factorage, and the New Orleans Louisianian, a semiweekly from December 25, 1870, to April 27, 1872. Little is known about him after 1887 except that he was vice president of the New Orleans Comité des Citoyens, which included Rodolphe L. Desdunes (q.v.). Formed in 1890 by free people of color, it worked to wage legal battle against discrimination and to create public sentiment unfavorable to those injustices. On February 5, 1892, the Comité des Citoyens reported $2276.25 collected toward a fund to test the constitutionality of the 1890 Jim Crow law. The committee engaged Homer Plessy (q.v.) to test the public accommodations provision of the law, an action that resulted in the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case (1896), in which the U. S. Supreme Court for the first time upheld the doctrine of “separate but equal.” The committee was also unsuccessful in its attempt to have the law forbidding intermarriage declared unconstitutional. Antoine purchased a small plantation in Caddo Parish, and owned several city lots. Died, Shreveport, 1921; interred Shreveport. C.V. Sources: William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1891); John W. Blassingame, Black New Orleans, 1860-1880 (1973); Dorothea Olga McCants, trans. and ed., Our People and Our History (1973); Charles Vincent, Black Legislators in Louisiana during Reconstruction (1976); Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (1982).

ANTROBUS, Suzanne, novelist. Born in Michigan. Married Albert A. Robinson. At the time of publication of her only known work, she was living in New Orleans. The King’s Messenger: A Story of Colonial Louisiana, a novel, was published by Harper Brothers in 1901. D.H.B. Sources: Lucian Knight, ed., A Biographical Dictionary of Southern Authors (1929); Oscar F. Adams, A Dictionary of American Authors (1904); review, Independent, 53:2656, 7 (November 1901).

ARAGON Y VILLEGAS, Pedro, educator, bureaucrat. Migrated from Spain to New Orleans, 1772, as a “teacher of grammar” in government subsidized school; number of students steadily declined in late 1770s and early 1780s, forcing him to find other employment. Bureaucratic service: appointed secretary of intendant’s office, February 1785; commissioned to coordinate activities of Acadian immigrants from France during their brief layover in New Orleans, July 20, 1785. Plaintiff in the celebrated Aragon v. Palao suit before the cabildo, January 1785-October 1790. Died, ca. 1791. C.A.B. Sources: Laura Porteous, comp., “Index to the Spanish Judicial Records of Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVI (1943); Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana, 4 vols., 5th ed. (1882; reprint ed., 1974), III; Minter Wood, “Life in New Orleans in the Spanish Period,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXII (1939).

ARCENEAUX, Claude Joseph, electron microscopist. Born, Carencro, La., January 20, 1910; son of Emilien B. Arceneaux and Aline Martin. Education: Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Southwestern Louisiana), B. S., chemistry, 1932; Louisiana State University Medical School, New Orleans, 1934-1936. Chemist for Louisiana Department of Health before employment with Ethyl Oil Co. Baton Rouge, 1944. Pioneered use of the electron microscope in industrial and chemical research. Active in the Electron Microscopy Society of America; organized and edited the Society’s Proceedings, 1967-1975. Organized the Louisiana chapter of the Society; president for several terms. Received the President’s Award of the Electron Microscopy Society of America, 1974. Retired from Ethyl Oil Co., 1975. Married Bonnie Robin, August 26, 1944. Children: Claudia J. (b. 1945), Paul L. (b. 1952). Member: St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Bonne Mort Society, League of the Sacred Heart, Holy Name Society, Attakapas Historical Association. Died, Lafayette, February 9, 1978; interred St. Peter’s Catholic Cemetery, Carencro, La. P.D.A. Sources: American Men and Women of Science, 12th ed. (1973); obituary, Lafayette Advertiser, February 10, 1978.

ARCENEAUX, George, Sr., agronomist. Born, Carencro, La., 1895; son of Emilien and Aline Martin Arceneaux, brother of Thomas J. Arceneaux (q.v.). Married Louise Austin; two children: George, Jr., and Tom. Education: A. S., Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, 1914; B. S., Peabody University; Ph. D., Cornell University. Pioneer in developing sugarcane varieties, which enabled the Louisiana sugar industry to recover from effects of devastating cane disease. Career: taught in Lafayette Parish schools; variety agronomist and supervisor, United States Department of Agriculture Experiment Station in Houma, La., 1928-1950; project leader for sugar cane investigations at U.S.D.A. headquarters in Maryland, 1950-51; sugarcane consultant for various companies and counties including United Fruit Company, West Indies Sugar Corporation, Cuban-American Sugar Company, Mexico, Vietnam, Egypt, and Israel. Founder and director, International Research Service, a private sugarcane research organization. President, American Society of Sugarcane Technologists; active in International Society of Sugarcane Technologists. Charter member and president, Society of Louisiana Irises; president, Houma Rotary Club; worked with Boy Scouts of America; founded Terrebonne Parish Recreation Program. Wrote an autobiographical work, Youth in Acadie: Reflections on Acadian Life and Culture in Southwest Louisiana (1974), which contains excellent descriptions of Cajun life in the early twentieth century. After 1951 lived in Pass Christian, Miss. Died July 1, 1986; interred in Magnolia Cemetery, Houma, La. I.B.T. Sources: George Arceneaux, Youth in Acadia: Reflections on Acadian Life and Culture in Southwest Louisiana, (1974); New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 2, 1986; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, July 3, 1986; George Arceneaux, Sr., Papers, Southwestern Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Dupré Library, University of Southwestern Louisiana.

ARCENEAUX, “Louis” Pierre, pioneer. Born, Beaubassin, Acadia, Nova Scotia, 1731; son of Jean Arceneaux and Anne-Marie Hébert. Associated with Joseph Broussard (q.v.) dit Beausoleil’s group of refugees who arrived in Attakapas region in 1765. Name appears on a cattle contract with Broussard’s dated April 4, 1765. According to 1766 census, he settled in St. James on the Mississippi; moved to Carencro area ca. 1787. Some confusion of name, often appears as Pierre or Louis-Pierre. In Acadian version of the tale of the two lovers separated in the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, Louis Arceneaux is the faithless one. This tale was later related by a St. Martinville lawyer, Edward Simon (q.v.), to his friend, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In his epic poem, Evangeline (1847), Longfellow took elements of this folk tradition, changed Louis Pierre Arceneaux to “Gabriel Lajeunesse,” and created his version of the story. Married, 1758, Anne Bergeron. Children: François (b. 1759), Alexandre (b. 1761), Cyprien (b. 1762), Rosalie (b. 1764), Marie (b. 1767), Louis (b. 1770), Pierre (b. 1772), Françoise (b. 1773). Last will and testament dated June 25, 1793, in St. Martin Parish Courthouse archives, shows him to have been a fairly wealthy man at his death. Died, in the Attakapas District, 1793.  P.D.A. Sources: Bona Arsenault, History of the Acadians, 6 vols. (1978); Bona Arsenault, Histoire et Généalogie des Acadiens, 2 vols. (1965); William Faulkner Rushton, The Cajuns from Acadia to Louisiana (1979); Jacqueline P. Vals-Denuzière, The Homes of the Planters (1984).

ARCENEAUX, Thomas Joseph, educator, college administrator. Born, Carencro, La., June 13, 1908; son of Emilien Arceneaux and Aline Martin. Married Carita Anne Melchior, August 27, 1936. Education: graduated from Carencro High School, 1926; B. S., Southwestern Louisiana Institute, 1929; M. S., Texas A & M University, 1931; and Ph. D., Iowa State University, 1935. Post graduate instruction at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, 1946. Career: Crowley High School, 1929-32; Southwestern Louisiana Institute, 1934-35; Louisiana State University, 1935-41; Dean of the College of Agriculture, Southwestern Louisiana Institute, 1941-60, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1960-73. Agricultural career: surveyed agriculture in Africa for American Missions to France; chaired Commission on Rural Education at the International Rural Life Congress, Rome, 1951; served on Advisory Council for United States National Arboretum; and served on Agricultural Committee of the Louisiana Bankers Association. Arceneaux was very active in French cultural preservation; President, Louisiana Acadian Bicentennial Celebration Association, 1955; co-chairman, Acadian Association, 1965; president, Committee for Maison Acadienne Française, 1955-73; chairman, United States delegation to celebrate bicentennial of the Marquis de Lafayette’s birth; charter member of France-Amérique de la Louisiane Acadienne; official representative of Louisiana to the Quatorzième Conseil de la Vie Française in Amérique (1949); and official representative of the Louisiana Acadians to the Congrès de l’Union Culturelle Française, 1957; charter member of Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. Designed the Louisiana Acadian Flag, 1965. Honors: dubbed knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, 1949; officier d’académie (France), 1955; doctor of science, Université Laval, 1955; king, Abbeville Dairy Festival, 1961; king, Ville Platte Cotton Festival, 1965; Acadian of the Year, New Orleans International House, 1977. President, Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and the S.L.I. chapter of Phi Kappa Phi. Secretary, South Louisiana Mid-Winter Fair Association. Member, Rotary Club, which awarded him a Paul H. Harris Fellowship. Died, December 28, 1989; interred St. Peter’s Cemetery, Carencro, La. I.B.T. Sources: Vertical File, Louisiana Room, Dupré Library, University of Southwestern Louisiana; obituary, Lafayette Daily Advertiser, December 30, 1989.

ARCHINARD, Cesar, colonial official, commandant of Poste du Rapide, Spanish Louisiana, 1789-1790, 1799, perhaps at other times. Lived on Bayou Rapides. Large landowner, prosperous planter. Came to Rapides from Bayou Chicot (now in Evangeline Parish). Conducted a census of the inhabitants of his district in 1799. L.S.* Sources: Elaine H. Brister, Once Upon a River: A History of Pineville, Louisiana (1968); G. P. Whittington, “Rapides Parish, Louisiana: A History,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XVII (1934).

ARDIS, Jackson Bryan, businessman, banker. Born, Minden, La., March 21, 1857; son of Col. C. H. Ardis and Hattie Hamilton. Education: private schools, Minden, La.; Soulé’s Business College, New Orleans. Removed to Shreveport, 1873. Worked at Ardis & Co., wholesale grocers, a business begun by his father. Chairman of the board, City Savings Bank & Trust and First National Bank. Had extensive oil and gas interests. Owned controlling interest in Shreveport Journal. Married (1) Tweatie Stephenson. One daughter. Married (2) Gertrude Ingersoll Prince (d. 1934), November 28, 1888. Organized and contributed to several charities, including The Pines Sanitarium, Red Cross and Y.W.C.A. Member of Elks and Knights of Pythias. Died, May 6, 1935. P.L.M. Sources: J. Fair Hardin, Northwestern Louisiana … (1939); [J. E. Howe,] Shreveport Men and Women Builders (1931); Mary Lilla McClure and J. Ed Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (1937); Maude Hearn-O’Pry, Chronicles of Shreveport (1928).

ARDOIN, Amédé, musician (accordion). Born, L’Anse des Rougeau, Evangeline Parish, La., ca. 1899. Recorded 1928-1934, first with Dennis McGee, then alone; first black to record Louisiana French music; composed many standards of contemporary Cajun music repertoire, and influenced many important Cajun musicians, including Dennis McGee, Iry Lejeune (q.v.), Austin Pitre (q.v.), Michael Doucet, among others. Died, Pineville, La., November 3, 1942.  B.J.A. Source: Author’s research.

ARDOIN, Kilring J., Jr., politician. Born, Reddell, La., May 12, 1918; son of Kilring Ardoin, Sr., and Georgia Richer. Married Elva Mayeux, September 30, 1933; children: Linda Gay, Lloyd Kern and Charlotte Marie. Educated in local schools through the sixth grade; largely self-taught. At the age of eleven, Ardoin left school to work in the rice fields with his father, and by the time he was fifteen he was married and holding a second job as an electrician and plumber in the off season. Ardoin eventually established a 225-acre farm. Served in the merchant marine during World War II. Police juror, Evangeline Parish, July 3, 1968-May 31, 1980; instrumental in the development of Crooked Creek Recreational Park in Evangeline Parish. Member, Knights of Columbus. Bedridden for six years at the end of his life. Died, Mamou, April 5, 1995. N.D.F. Sources: interviews with the subject’s children; fiftieth wedding anniversary essay.

ARIAIL, Manor R., businessman, politician. Political career: clerk of district court, Alexandria, 1850; attorney for the Rapides Parish Police Jury, 1860; elected to the Alexandria City Council, 1861; appointed judge, Rapides Parish, 1861; delegate from Rapides Parish to the 1864 state constitutional convention. Business interests: owned and operated a steam ferryboat on Red River between Alexandria and Pineville, 1860; proprietor of Ice House Hotel, Alexandria, 1860-1872; also proprietor of “rosin gas works,” a crude gas-lighting system in Alexandria. C.A.B. Sources: Walter Prichard, ed., “A Tourist’s Description of Louisiana in 1860,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXI (1938); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana (1890); G. P. Whittington, Rapides Parish, Louisiana: A History (n.d.).

ARLINGTON, Josie, professional name of Mary Anna Deubler, madam. Born, New Orleans, 1864(?). Became a prostitute at about seventeen; worked under the names: Josie Alton, Josie Lobrano, Josie Lobrano d’Arlington, Josie Arlington. Operated from her family’s house on Iberville Street until able to build a more elaborate brothel on Basin Street which drew in wealthy and influential men. Lover, Tom Anderson, a state legislator, protected her and made her the most powerful madam in Storyville, New Orleans’s red-light district. In 1909, she retired to her private home on Esplanade Avenue; became reclusive. Built a large red marble tomb in Metairie Cemetery. Did not marry. Died, New Orleans, February 14, 1914; interred Metairie Cemetery. Tomb became a local attraction when it was noticed that a nearby traffic light seemed to make it glow red. Tomb was later sold; remains moved to an obscure vault. P.D.A. Sources: Mel Leavitt, Great Chara cters of New Orleans (1984); Al Rose, Storyville, New Orleans (1974).

ARMANT, John S., planter, adjutant general. Born, September, 1801; son of Jean-Baptiste Armant and Rose Carmelite Cantrelle. Married Louise Amélie Fuselier de la Claire in St. Martinville, September 14, 1824. Father of Col. Leopold Armant (q.v.) of the Eighteenth Louisiana Regiment who was killed at Mansfield, April 8, 1864. Named adjutant general by Gov. Alexandre Mouton (q.v.) and also served under Gov. Isaac Johnson (q.v.). Served as state senator. Died, August 12, 1859; interred St. James Catholic Cemetery, Convent, La. TAG, LA Sources: Evans J. Casso, Louisiana Legacy: A History of the State National Guard (1976); biographical notes, Military Library, Jackson Barracks, New Orleans.

ARMANT, Leopold L., attorney, soldier. Born, St. James Parish, La., June 10, 1835; son of John S. Armant (q.v.) and Louise Amélie Fuselier de la Claire. Education: Georgetown College, District of Columbia, graduated 1855; University of Louisiana, 1858. Practiced law, St. James Parish. Served in Louisiana house of representatives from St. James Parish, 1860-1861. Organized St. James Rifles when Civil War started and elected captain. Elected major, 18th Louisiana Infantry, October 5, 1861; promoted to rank of colonel, May 10, 1862. Frequently in temporary command of Gen. Alfred Mouton’s (q.v.) brigade. Killed, Battle of Mansfield, April 8, 1864; interred St. James Cemetery, Convent, La. A.W.B. Sources: Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., ed., Reminiscences of Uncle Silas: A History of the Eighteenth Louisiana Infantry Regiment (1981); Vacherie (La.) Enterprise, May 31, 1978.

ARMESTO, Manuel Andrés López de, Spanish official and first director of the Spanish School. Born, Spain, 1746. Educated in Spain. Fluent in French, English and Latin. Arrived in New Orleans, 1772, with two other teachers, Manuel Diaz de Lar (Latin) and Francisco de la Colima (primary). Since school enrollment remained small (35-40 students) Manuel added the additional responsibility of secretary to the government to his duties in 1780. In 1790s became a comisario de guerra honorario. In addition because of his language skills, he was twice elected sindico procurador general, an early form of ombudsman, responsible for investigating municipal problems, by the cabildo in 1779 and 1780. Married Sinforosa de Prado y Navarette. Remained as secretary to the government until the transfer of the colony to the U. S. in 1803. B.C. Sources: Judicial Records of the Spanish Cabildo, Louisiana State Museum, #1799091201; Seville, Spain. Archivo General de Indias, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, legajo 2553, #2442-2446; Spanish Mss., Book 1, Louisiana State Museum.

ARMSTRONG, F. Duval, journalist. First New Orleans reporter to work exclusively with sports. While working for New Orleans Daily Picayune, reported the first football game, 1893, and first golf match held in Crescent City. Covered Sullivan-Corbett champion­ship fight. Central American correspondent for Picayune, 1902?-1907. First sports editor, Picayune, 1907-1909. Worked in newspaper’s circulation department, 1909-1911; reporter, 1911-1913. Commercial agent St. Louis and San Francisco, Chicago and Eastern and Frisco Refrigerated Line railroads, 1914-1917. Purchasing Agent Cuyamel Fruit Co., 1918. Died, New Orleans, 1948. C.A.B. Sources: John S. Kendall, “Old Days on the New Orleans Picayune,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXXIII (1950); Soards New Orleans Directory (1902-1925).

ARMSTRONG, Louis, jazz trumpeter, singer, band leader. Born, July 4, 1900, traditionally given, but recent biographer places birthdate sometime in 1898, in Jane Alley, New Orleans, La.; son of Willie Armstrong and Mary Ann “Mayann” (Miles?) of Boutté, La. Reared in early childhood by grandmother, Josephine Armstrong; arrested for firing a pistol on New Year’s Eve, 1912 or 1913; sent to Colored Waifs’ Home; joined Colored Waifs’ Home Band, under the direction of Peter Davis (q.v.), playing first the tambour­ine, then the drum, and the alto horn, before the cornet; was essentially a self-taught musi­ci­an; left the Home in 1914 or 1915 and worked at various jobs and sat in for cornet­ists in honky-tonks around New Orleans; Joe “King” Oliver (q.v.), his sponsor and teacher, brought him to Chicago; replaced Oliver in 1918 or 1919 in Kid Ory’s (q.v.) Band. Married Daisy Parker in 1918. In May 1919 joined Fate Marable’s Band sailing out of St. Louis for a cruise on the Mississippi on the Dixie Belle. Wrote “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” which he sold for $50. Returned to New Orleans in September 1921, playing with various bands including Papa Celestin’s (q.v.) Tuxedo Band; joined Oliver in Chicago in 1922. Divorced first wife in 1923 and married Lillian Hardin in February 1924; joined wife’s band, “Lil Armstrong’s Dreamland Syncopators” in 1925; switched from cornet to trumpet between 1925 and 1928 and during that time made the famous “Hot Fives” and “Hot Sevens” recordings under his own name; improvisations on his trumpet moved Dixieland jazz from ensemble playing; became the central jazz innovator of his time; originated what came to be called “Scat” singing; played with various bands and with his own “Louis Armstrong and his Stompers”; toured the United States and in July 1932 embarked on first European tour. Acquired in England the nickname, “Satchmo,” a garbling of his original nickname, “Satchelmouth”. Alternated touring the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world for the remainder of his life. In the 1930s began making film appearances in Ex-Flame (1931), Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932), Pennies from Heaven (1936), Atlantic City (1944), A Song Is Born (1948), The Glenn Miller Story (1953), High Society (1956), and Hello Dolly (1969); Broadway appearances include “Hot Chocolates” (1929), in which he introduced Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin,” and “Swingin’ the Dream” (1939). Divorced Lil Hardin in 1932 and married Alpha Smith in 1938 but was divorced from her also. In 1942 married Lucille Wilson, his wife for the remainder of his life; toured in the 1930s and 1940s fronting big bands and playing popular music rather than blues or jazz; put together a smaller band, the “All Stars,” in 1947 when decline of big bands began. Toured the world for the next three decades sometimes sponsored by the U. S. State Department as America’s “Goodwill Ambassador”; seldom played New Orleans because of segregation laws. Returned for Mardi Gras in 1949 to be crowned King Zulu; received a cheering reception playing a benefit in New Orleans in 1965. Died in his sleep at his home in Corona, Queens, N.Y., on July 6, 1971; survived by his wife, Lucille, and his cousin, Clarence, whom he had adopted; interred Flushing, N. Y. cemetery. Singer Bowl, in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, N.Y., was renamed Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Park and Stadium and dedicated in October 1972; Armstrong Park on Rampart Street in New Orleans is a $10-million, thirty-one-acre park dominated by a twelve-foot statue of the jazzman; ten years in the planning it was dedicated in April 1980. D.W.M. Sources: James Lincoln Collier, Louis Armstrong, An American Genius (1983); Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954); Max Jones and John Chilton, Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900-1971 (1971); Leonard Feather, The Encyclopedia of Jazz (1955); William Russell, “Louis Armstrong,” in Frederic Ramsey, Jr., and Charles Edward Smith, eds., Jazzmen (1939).

ARNOLD, Edward Everard, painter, lithographer. Born, Heilbronn, Württemberg, Germany, ca. 1820s. Arrived in New Orleans, ca. 1846; in partnership with marine painter James Guy Evans, 1850. Married, April 21, 1851, Caroline Mary O’Reilly (b. ca. 1837), of Ireland, in St. Peter’s Church, New Orleans. Offered his services for sign painting when artistic commissions were sparse. Listed studios on Mandeville St., 1853-1854; Louisa St., 1855-1856; Poydras St., 1857-1859; Royal St., 1861; Frenchmen, 1865; and Bienville St., 1866-1867. Children: Charles Edward (1863-1866); Francis (b. ca. 1852). Died, New Orleans, October 14, 1866. J.L.S. Sources: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987); New Orleans Daily Orleanian, April 22, 1851; Works Progress Administration, “Lives, New Orleans Artists”; U. S. Census (1860), roll 419.

ARPIN, Paul, journalist. Born in France, 1811; arrived in New Orleans where he wrote a literary column for L’Abeille, 1839-1840. Editor of the French section of L’Abeille, 1845-1848. Went to New York as editor of Le Courrier des Etats-Unis, until 1853. Founded Le Progrès in New York, 1855. Wrote Biographie de L. M. Gottschalk, pianiste américain (1853). Contributor to American Cyclopaedia. Died, New York, May 18, 1865. M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIXe siècle (1932); Auguste Viatte, “Complément à la bibliographie Edward Larocque Tinker,” Revue de Louisiane, III (1974); Charles Testut, Portraits littéraires de la Nouvelle-Orléans (1850); Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1900).

ARTHUR, Lee, see KAHN, Arthur Lee

ARTHUR, Stanley Clisby, historian, orni­thologist, naturalist, archivist. Born, Merced, Calif., 1880. Education: schools of California. Early career as journalist in San Francisco, Los Angeles, El Paso, Tex., New Orleans, and New York. Removed to Louisiana before 1915. Married Ella Bentley, a poet, writer, and confidential assistant to Elizabeth M. Gilmer (Dorothy Dix, q.v.). Children: Stanley Clisby, Jr. (d. 1931), John Stephen, and Linden Bentley. Served as Louisiana state ornithologist, 1915-1920; naturalist on the Seaman expedition into the interior of Labrador, 1919; director, Louisiana Conservation Department, Division of Wildlife, 1924-1928; regional director, Survey of Federal Archives, 1934-1940. Books include The Story of the Battle of New Orleans (1915), Old Families of Louisiana (1931), The Birds of Louisiana (1918), The Story of the West Florida Rebellion (1935), The Fur Animals of Louisiana (1931), Old New Orleans (1944), Louisiana Tours (1950), Audubon: An Intimate Life of the American Woodsman (1937), Jean Laffite: Gentleman Rover (1952), and New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘Em (1937). Died, New Orleans, December 4, 1963; interred Metairie Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 5, 1963; Louisiana Union Catalog.

ASSUNTO, Frank, Dixieland jazz musician. Born Lake Charles, La., January 29, 1932; son of Jacinto A. “Papa Jac” and Josephine Messina Assunto. Married Joan Bartet, November 28, 1954; four children: Frank, Jr., Gina, Deano, and Joey. Began his career while still a teenager as a nationally renowned musician in a little combo that included his brother Fred and clarinetist Pete Fountain. In 1950, immediately after his graduation from high school, he founded Frank Assunto and the Dukes of Dixieland, a group often credited with initiating the revival of interest in Dixieland jazz. After a five-and-a-half-year engagement at the Famous Door on Bourbon Street, the group toured the world, appearing at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, on multiple national television programs such as the Ed Sullivan Show, and playing with the likes of the king of Thailand. The Dukes were the first to record the jazz classic “Bourbon Street Parade,” and they eventually became the first Dixieland group to sell over one million albums. Assunto died in New Orleans on Mardi Gras eve, February 25, 1974. S.C.H. Sources: New Orleans Times Picayune, April 8, 1974; Congressional Record, Senate Journal, 85th Congress, Second Session, June 27, 1958; Mel Leavitt, “Music From the Heart: A Tribute to Frank Assunto,” (unpublished manuscript, April 7, 1974).

ASWELL, James Benjamin, Jr., author, iconoclast. Born, Baton Rouge, April 27, 1906; son of James Benjamin Aswell (q.v.) and Ella Foster. Education: Central High School, Washington, D. C.; University of Virginia, 1924-1927. Married Rosalind Hightower (artist and ex-wife of actor Melvyn Douglas) of Gainesville, Ga., on October 26, 1932. Stepson, Gregory Hesselberg. World War II: OSS, head of Morale Operations. Career: syndicated N. Y. columnist, “My New York,” for King Features; host of New York radio program; author of We Know Better (1927), a collection of poems; The Midsummer Fires (1948), There’s One in Every Town (1950), The Birds and the Bees (1952), and The Young and Hungry-Hearted (1955), a collection of short stories. The Midsummer Fires publicly burned in Natchitoches by local preacher. Much fiction set in or about “Rivermark,” a fictional city with similarities to Natchitoches. Prolific author of short stories for popular magazines and newspaper supplements, including “A Promise to Mark” (Good Housekeeping), “The Intruder” (American Magazine), “Shadow of Evil” (Today’s Woman), reprinted in “Best Short Stories.” Writer of many articles especially for Liberty, Collier’s, and Saturday Evening Post, such as the tribute to Natchitoches in “The Town the GI’s Called Smith” and the nostalgic “Confessions of a Congressman’s Son.” Colorful and caustic commentator on politics and society; ardent supporter of “reform” governor Sam Jones (q.v.); vigorous opponent of “Longism.” Friend of Erskine Caldwell, Westbrook Pegler, Burton Rascoe, Sam Jones, Dr. John Kyser (q.v.), and local bootlegger. Eschewed literary labels and circles; sought to combine art and popularity. Died, February 23, 1955; interred Memory Lawn Cemetery, Natchitoches, La.  J.A.J. Sources: Archives, Northwestern State University of Louisiana; Archives, Louisiana State University; newspaper obituaries; “James Aswell” by Rosalind Hightower Aswell; “Introduction: Portrait of an Outsider” by Joseph A. Johnson.

ASWELL, James Benjamin, Sr., educator, congressman. Born, rural Jackson Parish, La., December 23, 1869; son of Benjamin W. Aswell and Elizabeth A. Lyles. Education: local schools; Peabody Normal College, Nashville, Tenn., graduated 1892; University of Nashville, B.A., 1893; M. A., 1894, University of Arkansas, LL. D., 1907. Married (1) Mary Lee Wright; (2) Ella Foster of Mineral Wells, Tex., and Shreveport, 1901. Children: Corinne (by first wife) and James, Jr. (q.v.). Career: teacher; president, Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (now Louisiana Tech University), 1900-1904; state superintendent of education, 1904-1908; president, Louisiana State Normal School (now Northwestern State University of Louisiana), 1908-1911. Elected to U. S. House of Representatives as Democrat and served 1913-1931; ranking minority member, Agriculture Committee; established Kisatchie National Forest and Fish Hatchery in district; opponent of President Herbert Hoover; author of drought relief measures; “dean of the Louisiana delegation.” Died: Washington, D. C., March 16, 1931; interred Rock Creek Cemetery. J.A.J. Sources: Congressional Directory, 1927; newspaper obituaries; Archives, Northwestern State University of Louisiana.

ATKINSON, Charles M., clergyman.  Born, Newburyport, Mass., June 17, 1819; licensed in 1848 to preach by Congregational Association of New York and Brooklyn. In 1867 named moderator of the Synod of Mississippi which included most of Mississippi and all of Louisiana; in 1875 the Doctor of Divinity Degree was conferred on him by King College, Bristol, Tenn. Served 29 years as Evangelist of the Presbytery of New Orleans, from that city to Lafayette; lived in Morgan City during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878 when he ministered and served the entire community. In 1880, removed to Thibodaux where he resided for 8 years, continuing as “Evangelist of the Teche.” Twice married; seven children, two of whom were lost in the 1878 epidemic. Died, Centerville, La., November 4, 1900. Atkinson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Morgan City named in his honor.  L.K.L. Source: Author’s research.

ATTAWAY, Elisha, inventor, carpenter and construction worker. Born near Mansfield, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, February 24, 1872; son of William Wallace Attaway and Mathilda Glaze Attaway. Educated in DeSoto Parish public schools. Married Ida Ellen Winfiele, daughter of Thomas Julian Winfiele and Theodosia Shaw Winfiele, at Opelousas, La., November 6, 1901. Children: Prescott George Attaway, William Wallace Attaway, Florence Mable Attaway, Bernetta Lucille Attaway Rivers and Elmer Joseph Attaway, lieut. col., United States Army. Member, Masonic Lodge, Grand Cane, DeSoto Parish. At time of marriage, Attaway was a farmer in the Burn community, Avoyelles Parish. Remained there until about 1913, when he rented a farm near Jeanerette and operated it for about a year. About 1914, moved to Lafayette, where he was employed by Southern Pacific Railroad. Active in the local First Baptist Church. Moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, about 1917 to work on a military construction project. After death of wife in 1918 at Little Rock, Ark., from influenza, moved his family to Opelousas, La., where his in-laws lived. Worked as a carpenter and construction worker in Opelousas the remainder of his life. Operated a small dairy during World War II. A deacon in First Baptist Church of Opelousas until the late 1920’s, when he withdrew from the church and made an unsuccessful effort to organize an independent church. Considered a brilliant carpenter and an eccentric genius. A lifelong inventor, he secured patents on several devices, including a bag holder, a car coupling, a bedstead brace and tightener, an insect catcher, a computing scale beam, a rafter gauge for use in cotton fields, and a cotton scale. First patent issued in 1894 and last patent in 1956. About 1920, at the request of an Opelousas automobile dealer, he invented an air filter for automobiles, which was sold to a number of people in the Opelousas area. No patent for this device has been found. Died, Opelousas, May 15, 1962; interred Myrtle Grove Cemetery, Opelousas. A.Y.B. Sources: Elisha Attaway Family Bible; Marriage License, Elisha Attaway and Ida E. Winfiele, St. Landry Parish Courthouse; Death Certificate, Ida W. Attaway, No. 1775, Arkansas Department of Health, Division of Vital Records; Death Certificate, Elisha Attaway, No. 8540, State of Louisiana Vital Records Registry; Copies of Elisha Attaway’s patents furnished by United States Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office; Opelousas Daily World, May 15, 1962.

AUBRY, Charles-Philippe, soldier, administrator. Military service: second lieutenant, Lyonnais Infantry Regiment, November 6, 1742; second lieutenant, company of French grenadiers, April 1, 1743; lieutenant, December 1743; served with distinction in Bavaria, Bohemia, and Italy during War of Austrian Succession, 1740-1748; commissioned captain of colonial troops and assigned to Louisiana, 1750. Louisiana service: led party of French raiders against an English installation along the Tennessee River, 1757; commanded a detachment of French troops in the successful defense of Fort Duquesne, September, 1758; directed rear-guard forces during French evacuation of Fort Duquesne, October, 1758; returned to Illinois, 1758; led a relief expedition to Fort Niagara, 1759; while en route force attacked, routed, Aubry taken prisoner and tortured by English-allied Indians; English prisoner of war imprisoned in New York, 1759-1760; released and transferred to France, 1760; received Cross of St. Louis for meritorious conduct in the colonial service, 1760; placed in command of Louisiana caretaker French garrison, 1763; accompanied Director-general Jean-Jacques-Blaise d’Abbadie (q.v.) to Mobile to preside over transfer of trans-Appalachian region from France to England, October, 1763-January, 1764; upon D’Abbadie’s death, February 1765 became acting governor of Louisiana. Gubernatorial administration: directed settlement of first large group of Acadian immigrants, 1765; prepared to transfer Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spanish representative, Antonio de Ulloa (q.v.), who arrived in New Orleans, March 5, 1766; ruled colony jointly with Ulloa, 1766-1768; resumed role as acting governor after New Orleans rebellion of October 29, 1768; assisted Ulloa’s successor, Alejandro O’Reilly (q.v.), in restoring order to New Orleans, August, 1769; provided Spanish authorities with information used to convict leaders of rebellion, August-September, 1769; attempted to return to France, but died in the wreck of the Père de Famille off Bordeaux, France, February 17, 1770. C.A.B. Sources: David Ker Texada, Alejandro O’Reilly and the New Orleans Rebels (1970); Marc de Villiers du Terrage, Les Dernières Années de la Louisiane française (1904); James E. Winston, “The Cause and Results of the Revolution of 1768 in Louisiana,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XV (1932); Gustave Devron, ed., “Deux Lettres du Capitaine Aubry,” Comptes-Rendus de l’Athénée Louisianais, 7th series (January, 1900); Gustave Devron, ed., “M. Aubry, Dernier Gouverneur Français en Louisiane,” Comptes-Rendus de l’Athénée Louisianais, 6th ser. (July, 1897).

AUDUBON, John James, artist, ornithologist. Born, Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), April 26, 1785; illegitimate son of Jean Audubon and a Creole woman, Mademoiselle Rabin. Adopted legally by Jean and Anne (Moynet) Audubon in 1794. Married Lucy Bakewell (q.v.), June 1808. Children: Victor, John W. Went with father to live in France, 1789; came to U. S. in 1803, settled on father’s estate “Mill Grove” near Philadelphia. Began studying and drawing birds. Engaged in various business activities, none of which was successful. Filed for bankruptcy in 1819. Continued his wanderings and paintings of birds. Decided to attempt to publish a collection of paintings of American birds. Came to Louisiana in 1820. His wife became a governess and teacher, and Audubon taught music and drawing to her pupils in St. Francisville in 1825. His collection of paintings received favorable reception by European publishers, after having met with a cool reception by American publishers. In 1827 he was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He returned to America, 1831, with a reputation as the foremost American naturalist; elected fellow American Academy, 1830; settled on estate “Minnie’s Land” (now Audubon Park), New York City, 1841. Author: Birds of America, 4 vols. (1827-1838); Ornithological Biography, 5 vols. (1831-1838); Synopsis of the Birds of North America (1839); Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (completed by his sons), colored plates published in two volumes, 1842-1845, text in three volumes, 1846-1854. Died, New York City, January 27, 1851. M.S.W. Sources: Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896 (1967); World Book Encyclopedia (1973); Carolyn E. De Latte, Lucy Audubon: A Biography (1982); Alice Ford, John James Audubon (1964).

AUDUBON, Lucy Bakewell, educator. Born in the English Midlands, January 18, 1787; daughter of William Bakewell and Lucy Green. Immigrated to the United States, 1801, met and married John James Audubon (q.v.), 1808. Early years of marriage were spent on Kentucky frontier where two sons, Victor Gifford (b. 1809) and John Woodhouse (1812) were born. Financial ruin in 1819 brought Lucy to accept the role of family provider in order to free Audubon for work on The Birds of America. Arrived in Louisiana in 1821, began work as tutor in New Orleans; from 1823 to 1830 she conducted classes for young ladies, first at Beech Woods, and then at Beech Grove Plantation in West Feliciana Parish where she taught many of the daughters of the most prestigious families. Her determination and savings allowed Audubon to complete and to publish The Birds which restored the family’s fortunes—fortunes that Lucy lived to see lost once again. Died, Shelbyville, Ky., June 18, 1874. C.E.D. Sources: Carolyn E. De Latte, Lucy Audubon: A Biography (1982); Alice Ford, John James Audubon (1964).

AUGUSTIN, George, journalist, author. Born, New Orleans, February 22, 1866, son of Judge James D. Augustin. Educated in New Orleans. Editor of The Creole Fireside. Many poems in New Orleans periodicals. Published Romance of New Orleans, Creole Sketches (1882); Claude Mirelle, A Christmas Story (1897), The Vigil of a Soul (1899) and The Haunted Bridal Chamber: A Romance of Old Time New Orleans (1902). Died, New Orleans, February 15, 1935. M.A. Sources: May W. Mount, Some Notables of New Orleans … (1896); New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 16, 1935.

AUGUSTIN, J. Numa, soldier. Born, New Orleans 1874. Graduated, United States Military Academy, West Point, 1895. Commissioned second lieutenant, 24th United States Infantry Regiment, June 12, 1895. Married Alice Palmer. Mortally wounded in the Battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba, July 1, 1898; died, July 2, the only Louisianian killed in the war. A.W.B. Sources: Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 2 vols. (1903); Stanley C. Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (reprint, 1971); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana, 2 vols. (Atlanta, 1914).

AUGUSTIN, Marie-Josephine, educator, author. Born, St. Charles Parish, La., 1851; daughter of Judge James G. Augustin. Taught in New Orleans private schools until 1891 when she was appointed to teach French at Newcomb College. Wrote: Le Macandal. Episode de l’insurrection des noirs à St. Domingue (under the pseudonym “Tante Marie”) published, 1892. Two plays published in the Comptes-Rendus de l’Athenée Louisianais: Les Vacances de Camille (1895-1896) and Le Dernier Bonnet d’Ane (1898). Died, New Orleans, January 12, 1930. M.A. Source: Author’s research.

AUGUSTINE, Israel M., educator. Born, Moreauville, La.; son of Andrew and Louise Augustine. Education: local black school in Moreauville; New Orleans University High School, 1914; New Orleans University, 1918; Northwestern University, M. A. in School Administration/Supervision, 1945. Married Ethel Coleman. Child: Israel M. Augustine, Jr., judge of the Criminal District Court of New Orleans. Memberships and activities: National Education Association (life member); president, New Orleans Secondary School Principals Association; First District of the Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary Association; Rho Phi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Bunch Club. Religious affiliation: First Street United Methodist Church. Died, New Orleans, La., August 5, 1980; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery. C.T. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 8, 1980.

AUGUSTINE, Israel M. Jr., lawyer, jurist, civil rights leader. Born in New Orleans, La., 1925. Married Helene S. Augustine; one daughter, Carlene Barthe. Education: graduated from McDonough #35 High School; Bachelor’s degree, Southern University; law degree, Lincoln University, St. Louis, Mo. Admitted to the Louisiana bar, 1951. Partner in private law firm of Augustine and Smith, 1951-1969; judge, criminal district court for New Orleans, 1969-1981; judge, Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1981-1984; judge, New Orleans drug court, 1988-1991. Elected to first of two terms on the board of directors of the Greater New Orleans Urban League, 1952; elected second vice president of the National Bar Association, 1956; unsuccessfully ran for the New Orleans school board, 1956; helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1957; helped organize and became the first president of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, 1957; participated in the march on Washington, 1963; ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives, 1984. Taught government at Southern University at New Orleans for many years. Received several awards and honors, including the Urban League Achievement Award, the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society Award, the Metropolitan Crime Commission Award, the Outstanding Community Service Award from the A. Philip Randolph Institute; honorary doctorate degrees from Union Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern University at New Orleans. Died, New Orleans, August 29, 1994; interred, Mount Olivet Cemetery, New Orleans, La. J.D.W. Sources: Biographies of Louisiana Judges (1971); New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 30, 1994.

AUSTEN, John Dawson, businessman, electrician, journalist. Born, Pennsylvania, 1838; son of David Austen, merchant and postmaster of Bayou Sara and St. Francisville, La., 1841-1861, and Charlotte E. Cooke. Civil War service: Third Company, West Feliciana Rifles; private, Company D, Fourth Louisiana Infantry; commissioned CSA Signal Corps, 1862. Chief telegrapher at siege of Port Hudson, May-June, 1863; escaped. Telegrapher, Southwest Telegraph Division, Department of East Louisiana and Mississippi; captured, Osyka, Miss., October 8, 1864; imprisoned in New Orleans until end of war. After war, ran a general store became an electrician in St. Francisville and editor of town paper. Married, October 18, 1869, Jeanne Elise Lebret, daughter of Pierre Lebret and Elise Bettinger, owners of Fancy Point Plantation, West Feliciana Parish. Children: Marie (b. 1870); John Pierre (b. 1871), married Coralie Cormier Edwards, daughter of William Everett Edwards, Jr., and Marie Coralie Cormier; Eugene (b. 1873); Francis X. (b. 1875); Isadore (b. ‘1879). Active in Democratic politics during Reconstruction. His wartime diary is currently housed in the Louisiana Office of State Parks to be later included in the Port Hudson Battlefield, Park exhibits. Died, St. Francisville, November 1892. R.M.K. Sources: David C. Edmonds, Guns of Port Hudson (1983); Official Records of the War of the Rebellion; Austen family papers.

AUSTEN, John Jones, planter, soldier, politician. Born, New York, March 18, 1775; son of John Austen and Sarah Jones. Married (1), 1795, Jane Meeker of New Jersey. Two children: Sarah Jane (b. 1796), married Ashbel Goodrich; David (b. 1797), married Charlotte E. Cooke, daughter of Apollo Cooke of New Jersey. After death of first wife, removed to Feliciana in 1803. Received a land grant from Spanish government. Married (2) Sarah Palmer, daughter of Archibald Palmer and Hannah Carter. Children: William, Lewis Saunders, Aurelia, Robert McCausland, Sarah Ann, Mary Jane, Hannah Louisa, John Quincy Adams, Susan Jones, Meranda Elizabeth, and Charles Bushnell. During War of 1812 served as first lieutenant and adjutant of Gen. Robert McCausland’s Thirteenth Regiment, Third Brigade, and was at the Battle of New Orleans. Later served as a justice of the peace and member, West Feliciana Parish Police Jury. Died by drowning, Thompson’s Creek, June 13, 1833. A marker erected by Daughters of 1812 on his plantation site in West Feliciana Parish. R.M.K. Sources: Louisiana Genealogical Register, XXVI (March, 1979); Succession records, West Feliciana Parish; Mary Ann Sagely-Smith, East Feliciana Cemetery Inscriptions; Austen Family records.

AUSTIN, Gene, songwriter, recording artist. Born Eugene Lucas, Gainesville, Texas, June 24, 1900. Parents divorced when Gene was three years old, and mother married Jim Austin, a blacksmith. Grew up in Minden, La. Learned to play piano and guitar. Ran away from home at age fifteen and joined the army the next year. Was stationed in New Orleans; played the piano at night in the city’s vice district. Served in France in World War I. After war settled in Baltimore, intending to study dentistry. Soon was playing piano and singing in local taverns. Began writing songs. Formed a vaudeville act with Roy Bergere, with whom he wrote “How Come You Do Me Like You Do.” Act broke up when Bergere married. Struggled to find work as a single artist. Worked briefly in a club owned by Lou Clayton, who later was a part of the famous vaudeville team Clayton, Jackson and Durante. Married, for the first time, and took steady job with New York music publisher, auditioning his and others’ songs for recording companies. RCA Victor bought his song “When My Sugar Walks Down the Street.” When it became a big success, they signed him to a writing and performing contract. In the next ten years with RCA, Austin sold over 80 million records—a total unmatched by a single artist for forty years. Best sellers included “Ramona,” “The Lonesome Road,” and “My Blue Heaven.” Made two movies, in 1931 and 1934, but retired from recording. For the next twenty years lived in Florida, Nevada, and California, performing only infrequently in night clubs. As a young recording star lived extravagantly. Married five times and divorced four times. Two daughters: Charlotte Antellini and Ann Hebberger. In 1956 CBS made a televison drama about his life. Returned briefly to recording with RCA and made several television appearances. Campaigned unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor in Nevada in 1962. Income from his phenomenal early record sales allowed him to live comfortably the rest of his life. Died Palm Springs, Calif., January 24, 1972; interred Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, Calif. W.R.S. Sources: Who Was Who on the Screen, 2nd ed. (1977); H. Allen Smith, “A Crooner Comes Back,” Saturday Evening Post, August 31, 1957; Variety, August 29, 1956, January 2, 1957, January 1, 1958; obituary, January 26, 1972; Los Angeles Times, obituary, January 25, 1972; burial notice, January 28, 1972.

AUSTIN, Moses, banker, lead miner, empresario. Born at Durham, Conn., October 4, 1761. Joined brother Stephen in general merchandising business at Philadelphia, later expanded to Virginia. Married Maria Brown of New Jersey, and removed to Wythe County, Va., to enter lead mining and smelting business. Children: Stephen F. (q.v.) and Emily Austin. Removed in 1798 to southeastern Missouri, Washington County; obtained a league of land from the Spanish, established the town of Potosi, erected furnaces, invested in the Bank of St. Louis. The failure of investments in the Panic of 1819 drove him west; sought an empresarial grant in Spanish Texas following the Adams-Onis Treaty; headquartered at Natchitoches; received permission to locate an empresarial plantation in Texas, but died on June 10, 1821, at Natchitoches, before he could benefit from the award. A.P.M. Sources: Eugene C. Barker, Life of Stephen F. Austin (1926); Barker, The Austin Papers (1924-1926).

AUSTIN, Stephen Fuller, attorney, businessman, empresario and Father of Texas. Born, Virginia, November 3, 1793; son of Moses (q.v.) and Maria Brown Austin. Removed with family to Missouri, 1798. Education: academy education in Connecticut; two years at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky. Returned to Potosi, Mo., to work in family enterprises, including storekeeping; served as adjutant of militia battalion, several terms in the Missouri legislature; moved to Arkansas and appointed territorial circuit judge of the first judicial district of Arkansas; left for Natchitoches and New Orleans in 1820 to study law under John H. Hawkins. After the death of Moses Austin, he traveled to Natchitoches to assume the family enterprise in Texas. Labored for four years to secure confirmation of his father’s grant from the Spanish colonial authorities, then from the Mexican Republic, and finally from the state of Coahuila. Returned to New Orleans to recruit colonists. Located more immigrants than any other empresario in several colonies; served in the Coahuila y Texas legislature; presided at the colonists’ convention of 1832, presented the petition of the convention of 1833 to the authorities; imprisoned for eighteen months in Mexico City; commanded the “Army of the People” in the opening phase of the Texas Revolution, served the temporary Texas government as agent to the United States. Failed to win election as first president of the Republic of Texas, but served in President Sam Houston’s cabinet as secretary of state. Never married. State capital and a university are named in his honor. Died, December 27, 1836. A.P.M. Sources: Eugene C. Barker, Life of Stephen F. Austin (1926); Barker, The Austin Papers (1924-1926); James E. Winston, “Stephen F. Austin: Founder of Texas, 1793-1836,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, IX (1926).

AVART, François-Robert, land developer. Born, New Orleans, 1779; son of Valentin-Robert Avart and Julie Françoise Allain. Military career: commissioned sublieutenant, New Orleans militia August 20, 1797. Business career: on October 26, 1841, with assistance of surveyor H. Maulhauser, he subdivided riverfront plantation. Subdivision, presently bounded by Upperline and Valmont streets of New Orleans, became known as Faubourg Avart. Death date unknown. C.A.B. Sources: Meloncy C. Soniat, “The Faubourgs Forming the Upper Section of the City of New Orleans,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XX (1937); Jack D. L. Holmes, comp., Honor and Fidelity: The Louisiana Infantry Regiment and the Louisiana Militia Companies (1965).

AVERY, Daniel Dudley, attorney, planter, politician. Born, Baton Rouge, April 12, 1810; son of Dudley Avery. Educated Yale College, 1826-1830. Admitted to Louisiana bar, 1832. Married Sarah Craig Marsh, 1837; several children. Elected to state legislature, 1832, served four years. Appointed a commissioner, with Maunsel White (q.v.) and Walter Brashear (q.v.),, to superintend construction of state capitol. Removed to Petite Anse Island (later Avery Island) plantation in 1850s, remaining there until 1860 when called to the bench of the Florida district. Resigned judgeship when New Orleans fell to Federal forces in 1862. Retired to Avery Island, but driven from there, with family, by General Banks’ (q.v.) overland expedition. Went to Texas, remained there until war’s end. Returned to Avery Island. Named by Governor Warmoth (q.v.) first president of Iberia Parish Police Jury when Iberia Parish created in 1868. Died, Avery Island, June 8, 1879. G.R.C. Sources: New Iberia Louisiana Sugar-Bowl, July 3, 1879; Glenn R. Conrad, New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People (1979); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana … , 3 vols. (1909).

AVERY, Dudley, businessman, politician. Born, Baton Rouge, September 20, 1842, eldest son of Daniel Dudley Avery (q.v.) and Sarah Craig Marsh. Education, local schools, attended Princeton University. Civil War: enlisted 1861, served with Fourth Louisiana Infantry; elected lieutenant, 18th Louisiana Regiment. Wounded, Battle of Shiloh. Took part in all engagements of Red River Campaign. Married, March 23, 1865, Mary Louise Richardson, daughter of Daniel Dubose and Mary Alexander Richardson of Bayside Plantation near Jeanerette, La. Children: Daniel Dudley, Kate Richardson, John Leeds, and Dudley, Jr. After war engaged in planting and salt production on Avery Island. Organized the first militia company outside of New Orleans after Civil War, The Iberia Guards. Served in the state senate in the 1890s. Charter member, UCV Camp 1788, New Iberia. Died, January 11, 1917; interred Avery Island. G.R.C. Sources: Alcée Fortier, Louisiana … , 3 vols. (1909); Glenn R. Conrad, comp., New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People (1979); New Iberia (La.) Enterprise, January 13, 1917.

AVERY, Katherine Buckner, public health nurse, civic leader. Born, New Orleans, May 17, 1896; daughter of Daniel Dudley Avery and Katherine Buckner. Education: Touro Infirmary School of Nursing, graduated 1921. Joined Louisiana Public Health Service, 1927; aided refugees of 1927 flood; first appointed staff nurse, Iberia Parish. Retired to ancestral home on Avery Island, 1945. Founder: Iberia Parish Tuberculosis Association, 1929; Iberia Parish Crippled Children’s Association. Recipient, New Iberia Chamber of Commerce award for outstanding civic service. Honoree, Distinguished Graduate, Touro Infirmary School of Nursing. Died, New Iberia, La., April 6, 1982; interred family cemetery, Avery Island. G.R.C. Source: Obituary, New Iberia Daily Iberian, April 7, 1982.

AYCOCK, C. C. “Taddy,” attorney, lieutenant governor. Born, Franklin, La., January 13, 1915; son of Inez Crask and Clarence A. Aycock. Educated in local schools. Marrried Elaine Champagne, November 2, 1945, in Franklin. Children: Barbara Elaine (b. 1946), Joseph Wesley (b. 1947), John Kenneth (b. 1949), Mary Margaret (b. 1951), Larry Thomas (b. 1955), and Susan Elizabeth (b. 1958). Career: practiced law in Franklin; won the Bronze Star while serving in Europe during World War II; member, state house of representatives, 1952-1959; elected speaker of the house, 1952; instrumental in passage of right-to-work law, 1952; elected lieutenant governor, 1960; became the first lieutenant governor elected independent of any traditional ticket in 1964 and again in 1968; promoted name change of Southwestern Louisiana Institute to University of Southwestern Louisiana; supported French heritage movement and Acadiana Regional Airport; ran unsuccessfully for governor, 1971; retired from politics and returned to law practice in Franklin. Died, Franklin, January 6, 1987; interred Franklin Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Albert L. Aycock, Louisiana Descendants of Simon Aycock, 1783-1981 (1982); Lafayette Daily Advertiser, obituary, January 7, 1987.

AYCOCK, Guy G., physician, politician. Born, St. John Parish, La., October 8, 1888; son of Albert A. and Ida (Treau) Aycock. Education: attended Jefferson College, Convent, La.; the University of Tennessee Medical School, 1912. Married Florence Lewis, daughter of George T. and Florence Bellesion Lewis, on November 22, 1915. Children: Elizabeth, married Robert Mathew Bell; Clifton Guy, physician; Reverend Roy Roland Aycock; Barbara Florence, nurse; Harry William. Began medical practice in Gibson, La., then removed to Patterson. Mayor of Patterson, 1928-1940, and St. Mary Parish coroner, 1932-1940. Elected sheriff in 1940 and removed to Franklin. Established Aycock Clinic in Franklin. Vice-president of Louisiana Sheriff’s Association.  Re-elected to third term as sheriff, 1948. Died, September 8, 1949. D.M.K. Source: J. F. Hyer, comp., The Story of Louisiana (1960).