Dictionary D - Louisiana Historical Association (original) (raw)
D
D'ABBADIE, Jean-Jacques-Blaise, director-general of Louisiana. Born at Château d'Audoux, near Navarrenx, Basses Pyrénées, France, 1726. Education: College d'Harcourt, graduated 1742. Entered the royal service as a clerk in the lumber-receiving department of the Rochefort naval yard. Served as a royal scribe in the comptroller's office, 1743; as a clerk in the naval repair shop, 1744. Served aboard a French man-of-war in the Antilles, 1745; and in Canadian waters, 1746. Captured by English forces in 1746 and held as a prisoner of war until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Following release in 1748, returned to the French naval bureaucracy. Promoted to rank of chief clerk of the artillery department, 1751; and in 1757 to the rank of commissary general in the Naval Office's colonial bureau. Served aboard a small French naval squadron that unsuccessfully attempted to deliver provisions to beleaguered Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, Canada. Commissioned ordonnateur (administrative chief and first judge of the colonial tribunal) of Louisiana, December 29, 1761. Ordered by the French crown to establish and maintain good relations between the colony's feuding religious orders, the Capuchins and Jesuits, and to administer efficiently Louisiana's financial, police and judicial affairs. Shortly after departing Bordeaux, D'Abbadie's ship was captured by English warships. Subsequently held as prisoner of war at Barbados for three months; returned to France following his release. Commissioned director-general of Louisiana, February 10, 1763; position formed by consolidation of former governor's and ordonnateur's positions. Ordered by the crown to dismantle the colony's French garrison and prepare Louisiana for occupation by English and Spanish forces pursuant to the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763). Departed Rochefort, France, for Louisiana, March 1763; arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River, June 21, 1763. Prepared for the transfer of the Angoumois Regiment from Louisiana to Saint-Domingue, July, 1763. Departed New Orleans for Mobile to assist British forces in occupying West Florida and to supervise the transfer of the region's French soldiers to French-held territory. Remaining tenure in office devoted to reconciling English and hostile Indians, preventing France from being drawn into Pontiac's uprising, and in maintaining the skeleton forces in Louisiana long after the Spanish occupation forces were expected to arrive, despite a complete lack of support from France. Was bitterly attacked by New Orleans merchants for having given the LaClède-Chouteau interests exclusive trading privileges with the Indians of Upper Louisiana, 1764. During his administration, abortive attempt made to produce sugar commercially in Louisiana. Died New Orleans, February 4, 1765; interred New Orleans. C.A.B. Sources: H. Froidevaux, "Abbadie (D')," Diction¬naire de Biographie Française (1933- ); Marc de Villiers du Terrage, Les Dernières Années de la Louisiane française (1903); Carl A. Brasseaux, trans. and ed., A Comparative View of French Colonial Louisiana, 1699 and 1762: The Journals of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Jacques-Blaise d'Abbadie (1979).
DAGGETT, Harriet Spiller, attorney, academic. Born, Springfield, Livingston Parish, La., August 5, 1891; daughter of Maria Louise Dolan and Blasingaim Spiller. Education: local schools; Louisiana State Normal College at Natchitoches, graduated 1909, taught in public schools in Jennings, La..; Louisiana State University, B. A., 1923, Bachelor of Laws, 1926, M. A., 1928; Yale Law School, J.S.D., 1929. Admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1926 and named instructor in the Louisiana State University Law School the same year. Within five years rose to rank of full professor, one of the first women to achieve a senior position in a major American law school, served in this position until her retirement in 1961. Married DeVan Damon Daggett of Jefferson Davis Parish, La., 1911. Children: DeVan Damon Daggett, Jr., and John D. Daggett, both attorneys. Major fields of interest in teaching and research: community property, the family and domestic relations and mineral rights. Author, The Community Property System of Louisiana (1931), considered an authoritative statement on community property law in Louisiana. Author, Mineral Rights in Louisiana (1939), a pioneering work in that field, considered an important treatise in that area of the law. Introduced a course in mineral rights at the Louisiana State University Law School, founded the LSU Mineral Law Institute in 1953 and served as a reporter for the Oil and Gas Reporter of the Southwest Legal Foundation. Author of numerous articles, some of which influenced the course of legislation in family law in the state. Chairman, Louisiana Library Commission; recipient, distinguished service citation of the School of Social Welfare of Louisiana State University; assisted in the establishment of the Family Court in East Baton Rouge Parish. Died, Baton Rouge, July 22, 1966. D.E.L. Sources: Louisiana Law Review, XXI (1961), 687-690; Bibliography of Publications, 1929-1961, Louisiana Law Review, XXI (1961), 691-696; Louisiana Law Review, XXVII (1967), 1-4; Obituary, Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, July 23, 1966.
DAKIN, James Harrison, architect. Born, New York, August 24, 1806. Joined architects Town & Davis, New York, 1829; studied under Davis; partner, Town, Davis & Dakin, 1832-1833. Hired James Gallier, Sr. (q.v.) and brother, Charles Dakin (born New York, May 24, 1811, died St. Gabriel, La. [?], June 25. 1839); established own practice in New York, 1833-1835. Removed to New Orleans, November, 1835. Joined brother, Charles, forming Dakin & Dakin. When Charles left Gallier, 1835, to run Mobile, Ala., office of Dakin & Dakin, 1836-1839, James carried on alone, 1839-1852. Dakin designs include New York University, 1833; Rockaway Marine Pavilion, 1833; First Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y., 1834; Bank of Louisville (Ky.), 1834. In New Orleans: Verandah Hotel, 1836; St. Patrick's Church, 1837; State Arsenal, 1839; Medical College of Louisiana, 1843. In 1846, Henry Howard (q.v.) draftsman in his office. Served in Mexico in Mexican War, 1846. Then did University of Louisiana (New Orleans), 1847, Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge, 1847; lived in Baton Rouge, 1847-1852. Supervised construction of New Orleans Custom House, 1850-1851. Finished Louisiana capitol interior, 1852. Is considered one of more original Romantic-era architects. Died, Baton Rouge, May 13, 1852. A.S.J. Sources: Jane B. Davies, "A. J. Davis' Project for a Patent Office Building, 1832-34," Journal of Society of Architectural Historians, XXIV (1965); John A. Kouwenhoven, Columbia Historical Portrait of New York (1953); Clarence John Laughlin, "Louisiana Fantasy," Architectural Review, CXII, #843 (May, 1967); Arthur Scully, Jr., James Dakin, Architect: His Career in New York and the South (1973).
DALCOUR, Pierre, poet. Born, New Orleans, reared in Paris, France. Educated in Paris. Contributed to Les Cenelles twelve poems, two of which Chant d'Amour and Heures de Desenchantement, open and close Les Cenelles. Active in literary circles, conversed with leading writers of Europe, including Dumas, Hugo, and others. Died in Paris. Selected works: "Un An d'Absence," "Le Maudit," "La Foi, L'Espérance et la Charité," "Caractère," "Le Songe," and "Au Bord du Lac." Died in France. D.D.C. Sources: Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes, Our People and Our History, trans. and ed. Sr. Dorothea Olga McCants (1973); Charles B. Roussève, The Negro in Louisiana: Aspects of His History and His Literature (1937); Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932).
DALFERES, A. Wilmot, jurist. Born, White Castle, La., June 15, 1897; fourth son of Maximilian David Dalferes and Rosa Himel. Removed to Lafayette, 1906. Education: local public and parochial schools; entered Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Southwestern Louisiana), 1913, graduated 1916, active in athletics and forensic activities twice winner of coveted Judge Julian Mouton debating medal. Teacher of mathematics in Lake Charles, resigning in 1917 to enter the "aviation section" of the signal corps, U. S. Army, honorably discharged, May 26, 1919. Elected to Louisiana house of representatives in 1920. Admitted to practice of law on July 3, 1925, after studying under John L. Kennedy and attending Loyola Law School. Served as judge of Lafayette City Court, 1932-1950; elected Fifteenth Judicial District judge, 1950. Married, July 1, 1933, Monique Martin, daughter of Louis Martin and Madeline Prejean of Lafayette; two children: A. Wilmot, Jr., and Yvonne Claire. President, Louisiana City Judges Association (1936-1950); chairman, Juvenile Probation Advisory Board; author of constitutional amendment granting juvenile jurisdiction to Judicial District Bar Association; National Council of Juvenile Court Judges; National Association of State Trial Judges; Judicial Council of Supreme Court of Louisiana; Juvenile Probation Advisory Board; Catholic church; Knights of Columbus; Serra International; Nocturnal Adoration Society for Mental Health; Junior Baseball Program. Died, August 26, 1981; interred St. John's Cemetery, Lafayette, La. O.C.G. Sources: Lafayette Advertiser, June 16, 1971; obituary, August 27, 1981; J. Cleveland Frugé, Biography of Louisiana Judges; Dalferes family papers.
DALLOZ, Charles J., see HOUZEAU, Jean-Charles
DALZELL, W. T. Dickinson, clergyman, physician. Born, St. Vincent, Jamaica, June 28, 1828. Education: Oxford, England. Pursued studies in both theology and medicine. Civil War service: served as chaplain to a Texas regiment. Ordained to Church of England, 1848. In July, 1866, began his post at St. Mark's Church in Shreveport. Served as a physician and minister in Shreveport's yellow-fever epidemic of 1873. Was considered to be an authority on yellow fever. Spent remainder of life at St. Mark's Church, with the exception of one year spent in Memphis, Tenn. Married, November 1, 1866, Estelle Logan of New Orleans. Children: Dr. William Gregg Dalzell, Mrs. Andrew Jackson Ingersoll, and Mrs. William F. Boyd. Dalzell St., Shreveport, named for subject. Died, Shreveport, February 5, 1899. P.L.M. Sources: Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (1937); Maude Hearn O'Pry, Chronicles of Shreveport (1928).
DAMERON, Ethel Claiborne, preservationist. Born, New Roads, La., August 4, 1890; daughter of Judge Louis B. and Rosa Pourciau Claiborne. Education: local schools, Harris College for Young Ladies, Roanoke, Va. Married, January 24, 1914, Charles Irving Dameron. Children: Charles Haywood Dameron (b. 1914), Claiborne Dameron (b. 1915), Ethel Dameron Woodward (b. 1920), Dorothy Dameron Blair (b. 1921). Instrumental in founding the West Baton Rouge Parish Library and the West Baton Rouge Parish Historical Association's museum; in raising a bronze statue of Henry Watkins Allen on the West Baton Rouge Courthouse grounds; in establishing a rest area in West Baton Rouge Parish; in securing highway markers at historic sites and in having the Brusly Live Oak accepted into the Live Oak Society. Member: John James Audubon Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution; the National Society of the American Revolution; Baton Rouge Committee of the Colonial Dames of America; West Baton Rouge Historical Association; Foundation for Historical Louisiana; Friends of the Anglo-American Art Museum; board of trustees, West Baton Rouge Parish Library. Charter member, West Baton Rouge Garden and Civic Club; the Woman's Book Club of New Roads; the Study Club of Baton Rouge; the Landmark Society of New Orleans; and Friends of the Cabildo. Died, January 8, 1976; interred Roselawn Memorial Park, Baton Rouge. F.D.C. Sources: Obituary, Plaquemine Iberville South, January 13, 1976; Congressional Record, June 13, 1974; information from family member.
DANE, B. L. R., see BISLAND, Elizabeth
DANZIGER, Alfred David, attorney, civic leader. Born, New Orleans, September 20, 1884; son of Isidore Danziger and Amelie Dreyfous Danziger, grandson of Able Dreyfous, early New Orleans notary. Education: Boys High School, New Orleans, Tulane University. Studied law in the office of his uncle, Felix J. Dreyfous; admitted to the bar in 1908. Assistant attorney general, 1934; executive counsel for Mayor Robert S. Maestri (q.v.), 1936-1946. President, Young Men's Business Club, 1937; New Orleans Association of Commerce, 1929. Active in flood-control legislation, the development of Grand Isle, Young Men's Hebrew Association, Greek War Relief in Louisiana, Jerusalem Temple and Masonic affairs. Died, April 15, 1948; interred Hebrew Rest Cemetery, New Orleans. C.C.K. Sources: Obituary, New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 16, 1948; New Orleans Item, April 16, 1948; editorial, April 17, 1948; Danziger Family Bible.
DARBY, William, surveyor, geographer. Born, Hanover Township, Pa., August 14, 1775; son of Patrick Darby and Mary Rice. Removed with family to Ohio Valley, 1781. Self-educated. Taught in local schools, 1793-1799? Cotton planter in Natchez District, 1799-1804. Married (1) Mrs. Boardman, of Natchez, ca. 1799. Married (2) Elizabeth Tanner, February 1816. Two children? Surveyor: deputy U. S. surveyor, 1804-1809; undertook a series of explorations and land surveys at personal expense as the basis for a geographical study of the lower Mississippi Valley, 1809-1814. Member of Andrew Jackson's (q.v.) topographical staff, 1814-1815; member of the surveying team that established the boundary between the United States and Canada, 1818; map drawn by Darby was used to establish the boundary between the United States and Spain's North American territory, 1819. Wrote twenty geographical books and drew three published maps. His most notable publication is the oft-cited A Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana . . . , 1st ed. (1816); 2nd ed. (1817). Died, October 9, 1854. C.A.B. Sources: Dictionary of American Biography, V; Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896; National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints, CXXXIII.
D'ARENSBOURG, Karl Friedrich, pioneer, colonial official. Born, Arensbourg, Sweden, 1693; son of Johan Leonard von Arensburg and Elisabet Eleonora Formandt-Manderstrom. After a military education, became a lieutenant in the Sodermanland Battalion of Boarders. On May 25, 1719, promoted to captain and then served in the army of Charles XII. After Battle of Pultava emigrated to Louisiana under a commission issued by the Company of the Indies. Commanded a large group of German settlers and sailed on the Portefaix arriving in October 1721 at Biloxi. They settled on the banks of the Mississippi River about twenty miles above New Orleans. Married Marguerite Metzer. For more than forty years served as commander and judge of the German Coast of Louisiana, taking a creditable part in the defense against the Indians after the Natchez massacre of 1729. Dubbed chevalier of the French military order of St. Louis, August 31, 1765. Played a part in forcing Governor Ulloa (q.v.) out of Louisiana in 1768. Children: Pierre Frederick, Charles Frederick, Louise, Marguerite Marie, Pélagie, and Rosalie. Died, November 18, 1777. C.S.B. Sources: Stanley Clisby Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (1931; reprint ed., 1971); J. Hanno Deiler, The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German Descent (1909; reprint ed., 1969); Grace King, Creole Families of New Orleans (1921; reprint ed., 1971).
DARRALL, Chester Bidwell, congressman, mercantilist, physician, planter. Born near Addison, Pa., June 24, 1842. Studied medicine at Albany (New York) Medical College. Enlisted November 1863 in Union Army with the rank of first lieutenant and assistant surgeon; served with the 86th Regiment of the New York Volunteer Infantry as a surgeon and was discharged June 27, 1865. Resided a year in Paysore, Ill., and a year in Kenne, Ohio, before removing in 1867 to Brashear, La. Elected to the Louisiana senate, 1868, from the district comprising Vermilion and St. Mary parishes; elected as a Republican to the national House of Representatives and served, March 4, 1869, to February 20, 1878; returned to Congress 1881-1883; named register of United States Land Office in New Orleans, 1883; unsuccessful candidate for Congress, 1888; withdrew from public life, leaving Morgan City to reside in Washington, D.C., until his death. Owner of Avoca Plantation on Bayou Boeuf near Morgan City, where he resided until moving to Washington in 1900. Married, 1874, Elizabeth Marshall of Somerset, Pa. Two daughters. Died, Washington, D.C., January 1, 1908; interred Glenwood Cemetery. L.K.L. Sources: Darryl Family File at the Morgan City Archives; Howard J. Jones, "Biographical Sketches of Members of the 1868 Louisiana State Senate," Louisiana History, (1978); Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950).
DART, Benjamin Wall, attorney. Born, New Orleans, March 13, 1890; son of Henry Plauché Dart (q.v.) and Mary Kernan. Education: Rugby Academy and privately tutored; Tulane Law School, graduated 1912. Admitted to Louisiana bar, 1912. Married Clara Belle Cromwell, June 30, 1920. Editor, Louisiana's General Statutes, 1931 and 1939; editor, Louisiana Civil Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1931; editor, Constitutions of Louisiana, 1812-1921. Practiced law, New Orleans, 1913-1948. Removed to Clinton, La., 1948; practiced law East Feliciana Parish, 1948-1958. Member, Louisiana Lodge #102, Free and Accepted Masons; Rayne Memorial Methodist Church, New Orleans; Mary Winans Wall Methodist Church, Clinton; Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. Died, December 6, 1964; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. E.K.D. Sources: Stephen P. Dart, St. Francisville; Louisiana Bar Association.
DART, Henry Plauché, attorney, historian, archivist, editor, preservationist. Born, Fort St. Philip, Plaquemines Parish, La., February 5, 1858; son of Henry Dart (1807-1886) and Mary Brown Plauché (1823-1897). Father, born Cornwall, England, emigrated via New York to New Orleans, 1836; overseer, Louisiana railroads, 1836-1838; civilian superintendent, construction, U. S. Army posts in Louisiana, 1841-1861; superintendent, New Orleans public works and Delachaise brickyard, 1865-1868. Married, June 22, 1841, Mary Brown Plauché, daughter of Urbain Plauché, aide-de-camp of Gen. Andrew Jackson (q.v.), and niece of Jean-Baptiste Plauché, later lieutenant governor of Louisiana H. P. Dart, the ninth of ten children, was educated in New Orleans public grammar schools; served as clerk, Cotton & Levy, New Orleans legal firm, 1872-1879. At 16, he drilled with New Orleans White League against Reconstruction government in the city. Legally emancipated at 18, Dart was admitted to the Louisiana bar at 21 years, February 11, 1879. Established his law office in New Orleans, 1880, and argued his first case before the Louisiana Supreme Court, 1880; admitted to practice before U. S. Supreme Court, 1893. Participated, 1894, in movement to preserve State St., New Orleans, against the Belt R. R., a forerunner of the preservation movement in the city. With Dart's brother-in-law, Benjamin Wall Kernan, firm became Dart & Kernan, 1895, specializing in corporate law, in particular for banking, insurance, and transportation companies. Over a century of practice, the firm's titles represented various family partnerships; it was dissolved as Dart & Dart, 1981. Colleagues regarded Dart, senior member of the firm until his death, as foremost trial lawyer of Louisiana bar. In fifty-five years, he tried ca. 300 cases before the Louisiana Supreme Court, plus appearances in federal and other state courts. Counsel, Lafayette Fire Insurance Co., 1883-1934. Founder, Parkside Improvement Co., New Orleans real estate, 1891-1906; president, Harvey Canal Land & Improvement Co. and Joseph Rathborne Lumber Co. Founder, president, Louisiana Bar Association, 1898-1901; his proposals on New Orleans Courthouse and professional standards for attorneys were adopted in Constitution of 1898; served as chairman, Louisiana Supreme Court committee on admission and disbarment of Louisiana attorneys, 1898-1908. Organized movement to robe Louisiana judges, 1900; Louisiana delegate, Southern Conference, Quarantine and Immigration, Chattanooga, Tenn., 1905; supported establishment of U. S. Quarantine Service. Projector and member, New Orleans Court House Commission, 1906-1921, and president, 1916-1921. Delegate, New Orleans-Baton Rouge Good Roads Conference, 1909; National Good Roads Congress, 1912; and National Rivers and Harbor Congress, 1919. Chairman, Centenary Celebration Committee, Louisiana Supreme Court, 1913. Chairman, U. S. Legal Advisory Board for New Orleans (draft board), 1917. Lecturer, legal history, 1920-1922, Loyola University, New Orleans, which awarded him honorary LL. D., 1921. Appointed archivist for the Louisiana Historical Society, 1920, he supervised editing and publishing Louisiana colonial archives: French Superior Council, 1717-1769; Spanish judicial archives, 1769-1803. Supported, unsuccessfully, 1921, the establishment of a Louisiana State Department of Archives. Editor, Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 1922-1934. Member, board of curators, Louisiana State Museum, 1924-1934, and president, 1926-1934. Member, New Orleans Committee, U. S. Committee for George Washington Bicentennial, 1932. Charter member, American Law Institute. Member of federal advisory committee to preserve historic buildings in New Orleans, 1933. Author of Sources of the Civil Code of Louisiana (1911); History of the Supreme Court of Louisiana (1913); Legal Institutions of Louisiana (1919); Courts and Law in Colonial Louisiana (1921); Law Library of a Louisiana Lawyer in the 18th Century (1924); Colonial Legal Systems of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas (1926), and many historical articles, notes, memorials, and book reviews in Louisiana Historical Quarterly, and in legal periodicals. Married, September 23, 1882, Mary Lytle Kernan (1860-1912), daughter of William Fergus Kernan (1825-1899 [q.v.]), of Clinton, La., judge and member of the Louisiana legislature, and Sarah C. Wall (1834-1881). Children: Henry Plauché, Jr. (b. 1883); William Kernan (b. 1885); May Wall (b. 1886); John (q.v.); Benjamin Wall (q.v.); Sally (b. 1892); and Edith (b. 1893). All four sons entered the family legal firm. Dart, a Democrat, was a member of Rayne Memorial Methodist Church, Boston Club, and Metairie Golf Club. Died, New Orleans, September 27, 1934. M.W.* Sources: Papers of Henry Plauché Dart, Sr., members of his family, and his law firms, plus parts of his private law library, were given by his descendants to the Archives and Manuscripts/Special Collections Dept., Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans, see Acc. 140, Papers of Dart & Dart and other legal firms; Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 1919-1935, esp. Vol. XVIII, 254-266 (April, 1935); New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 28, 29, 1934; Twelfth Census of the United States, Schedule No. 1, Population, 1900, Louisiana, Vol. XXXI, Orleans, Sheet 2, line 58; New Orleans City Directory, 1880-1934; certain statements in the entry on H. P. Dart, Sr., in Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XXI, Supplement I (1944), should be compared with the manuscript records in Acct. 140, Papers of Dart & Dart, which apparently were not available to the author of that entry.
DART, John, attorney. Born, New Orleans, December 13, 1888; son of Henry Plauché Dart (q.v.) and Mary Lytle Kernan. Education: Rugby Academy; Tulane University Law School, 1913. Volunteered World War I, private, Washington Artillery, commissioned second lieutenant, served in France. Commissioned captain, Judge Advocate Department Reserve and ordered to active duty World War I, post-war judge advocate at Charleston, S. C., Port of Embarkation. Returned to civilian life with rank of colonel. Member, Louisiana legislature, Fourteenth Ward, 1924-1926. Member, E. D. White Memorial Committee; member and chairman, board of trustees, Rayne Memorial Methodist Church; member, advisory board of commissioners of Liberty Place. Active in Boy Scouts, American Legion, Army & Navy Club, other civic and social organizations. Married Phyllis Reeves, June 24, 1925. Died, March 6, 1980; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. E.K.D. Source: Author's research.
D'ARTAGUIETTE, Martin, colonial official and concessionaire. Eldest son of Jean-Baptiste d'Iron d'Artaguiette. On father's death, became seigneur d'Iron and other places. Prior to death of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (q.v.) in Havana (1706), the minister of the French navy decided to hold an inquest into the affairs of the Le Moyne brothers, including J.-B. Le Moyne de Bienville (q.v.). At the time, there was no question of transferring the role of leader from Iberville to Bienville, so the post of investigator and of colonial governor went to Nicolas Doneaux de Muy with Martin d'Artaguiette, a naval commissioner, selected to assist De Muy. Martin came to Louisiana with his own younger brother, Bernard d'Iron (or Diron), who, at the time, was under fourteen years of age but destined to serve with the troops of the colony and become an inspector general, census taker, and also property holder along with another blood brother, Pierre d'Itouralde d'Artaguiette. Martin's own sojourn in the colony lasted from 1708 to 1712. After the downfall of John Law (q.v.), the Company of the Indies was formed. Martin remained through the Company's existence as the only board member with first-hand knowledge of Louisiana. In his favored position, he reiterated his earlier far-sighted recommendations for exploiting the territory. Insisting that Louisiana needed fewer coureurs de bois or trappers, he urged recruiting farmers whose clearing of virgin land and tilling of the fertile soil would eventually make Louisiana self-sufficient. Favored sending to the colony upright, marriageable girls and women so settlers might have wives instead of consorting with Indian women. Vehemently opposed the contemplated project of importing pirates to the Mississippi Valley from Cartagena and elsewhere. Argued successfully that the pirates' lack of discipline would further demoralize an already weak colony. Advocated commerce with the Spaniards in Pensacola to the east and in upper Mexico to the west. He bought and leased ships with family funds, stressing the navigability of the Mississippi River. Perhaps, most important of all, he advocated that land grants not be limited to the affluent nobility or large corporations but include middle-class partnerships and smaller societies with lesser but sufficient capital to send stable families willing to settle, populate the country, and supply the skills direly needed to build houses and cultivate gardens. Finally, Martin shared his conviction that even friendly Indians would have to be reinforced with blacks to provide the labor needed for the heavy work without which a primeval, subtropical country could not flourish. As a member of the board of directors of the Company of the West, Martin had ranked in influence next to John Law and Antoine Crozat (q.v.). Besides being in charge of the purchase of victuals and merchandise, he headed the bureau or office of the Company of the Indies concerned exclusively with Louisiana. In addition to his earlier first-hand familiarity with the vast area, he had the advantage of receiving frequent reports from his two brothers in the province. Bernard is considered the first European settler at today's Baton Rouge; indeed, for some time, the site of the state's capital was known as Dironbourg. Pierre was a member of a partnership which, before 1720, sent at least forty settlers to the Mississippi Valley, including craftsmen and an expert in the weaving of fabric from the silkworm. Martin's own partner as investor was the Count d'Artagnan, Joseph de Montesquiou; the two were joint owners of Cannes Brûlées (1720s), today's Kenner. Died, Cap Français, Saint-Domingue. H.C.B. Sources: Marcel Giraud, Histoire de la Louisiane française, vols. I-IV (1953-1974); "Jefferson History Notebook," vol. 1 (December, 1979); Dictionnaire de Biographie française, III.
D'AUBERVILLE, Vincent Guillaume Le Sénéchal, commissaire-ordonnateur of Louisiana. Son of Louis Charles Le Sénéchal d'Auberville, French naval officer, and Marie d'Aymé, whose brother, Louis d'Aymé de Noailles (also known as Noailles d'Aymé) commanded the troops sent from France for the 1739-1740 Indian campaign. Began career in the Ministry of Marine, 1728; assigned to port of Brest as écrivain ordinaire of the Marine, April 1733; appointed écrivain principal of the Marine, January 1743; assigned to flagship Le Juste under squadron commander L'Estaduère, January 1745; assigned to flagship Le Northumberland under the duc d'Anville, April 1746; promoted to commissaire ordinaire of the Marine, May 1747. Named in summer 1747 interim ordonnateur of Louisiana to hold office during the period between the planned departure of Le Normant and the delayed arrival of Michel, he came from France to New Orleans in January 1748 and took over from Le Normant in March 1748, holding the office of ordonnateur until Michel arrived at end of May 1749, a period of some 15 months. D'Auberville married Marie Françoise Petit de Coulange (1732-1812), widow of Jean-Baptiste Boucher de Monbrun de St. Laurent in May 1749. She was daughter of Pierre Louis Petit de Coulange (Canadian-born officer who died in the 1736 campaign against the Chickasaws) and Françoise Gallard de Chamilly. Two children: Marie Louise (1750-1834), who married Francisco Bouligny (q.v.), and Céleste Elisabeth (1752-1764). He remained in New Orleans as a commissaire de la Marine and second judge of the Superior Council, and in January 1750 was appointed Marine contrôleur of the port. On the death of Michel (December 1752) D'Auberville again became interim ordonnateur of Louisiana, appointed by Governor de Vaudreuil (q.v.), who strongly recommended him for permanent appointment; however, the recommendation did not reach France until after Kerlérec (q.v.) arrived as Vaudreuil's successor in early 1753. Kerlérec, writing in September 1753, supported D'Auberville's permanent appointment, but recommended postponing it to some later date, when it would come as a reward for continued good performance. D'Auberville continued his service as interim ordonnateur until his death, after six months of illness, March 14, 1757, on his plantation on the Mississippi. F.M. Sources: Guy Frégault, Le Grand Marquis: Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil . . . (1952); Marc de Villiers du Terrage, Les Dernières Années de la Louisiane française . . . (1904); Donald Lemieux, "Legal and Practical Aspects of the Office of Commissaire-Ordonnateur of French Louisiana," Louisiana Studies, XIV (1975), 379; Dauberville-Bouligny and Bouligny-Baldwin Papers, The Historic New Orleans Collection; Jack Maguire Papers, Tulane University Library; Superior Council Records; May 4, 1749, AC, C 13a, 33:113-113vo; September 19, 1753, AC, C 13a, 37:87; January 1, 1750, and March 15, 1757, AN Marine C7, 10.
D'AUNOY, Rigney, physician, educator. Born, New Orleans, August 8, 1890; son of Joseph D'Aunoy and Zelina Chrétien. Education: Tulane University, B. S., 1910; M. D., 1914. Never married. Assistant pathologist, New Orleans Dispensary, 1916-1917; assistant pathologist, Charity Hospital, 1919-1924; pathologist, 1928-1939. Instructor in Pathology and Bacteriology, Tulane, 1919-1924; professor of Pathology and Bacteriology, Louisiana State University, 1931-1938; dean, LSU Medical School, 1937. Died, New Orleans, September 17, 1941; interred St. Louis Cemetery II. G.R.C. Sources: Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942; New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 18, 1941.
DAUTERIVE, Henry Joseph, physician and surgeon. Born, Belle Place, Iberia Parish, La., November 1, 1885; son of Fernand Joseph Dauterive and Cora Elizabeth Walet. Education: local schools; Soulé Business College; New Orleans; Tulane University School of Medicine; Mercy Hospital, Chicago. World War I service: surgeon with American Expeditionary Forces, primarily attached to British Army, 1914-1918, discharged with rank of captain. Practiced medicine, Franklin, La., 1910-1912, New Orleans, 1919, New Iberia, 1920-1960. Founded Dauterive Sanitarium (now Dauterive Hospital), 1920. Married, June 18, 1924, Mildred Weeks, daughter Edward T. Weeks, New Iberia attorney, and Marie Decuir. Three children: Henry J., Jr. (b. 1925), Edward Weeks (b. 1926), Eugene Walet (b. 1928). Member: U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Service and Selective Service System, World War II; St. Peter's Catholic Church; Knights of Columbus; director, State National Bank of New Iberia. Died, New Iberia, July 19, 1963; interred Memorial Park Mausoleum. H.J.D. Sources: New Iberia Daily Iberian, obituary, July 21, 1963; Dauterive Family Papers.
DAVAGE, Matthew Simpson, academic, church leader. Born, Shreveport, July 16, 1879; son of Rev. Samuel and Harriet (Lee) Davage. Education: public schools of Shreveport; New Orleans University (now Dillard University), A. B., 1900; A. M., 1907; graduate work, University of Chicago. Honorary LL. D. degrees from New Orleans University; Clark College, Atlanta, Ga.; Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson College), Austin, Tex.; Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss. Married Alice Vera Armstead, August 10, 1904. Served as president of five colleges: George R. Smith College, Sedalia, Mo., 1915-1916; Samuel Huston College, 1916-1919; Huston-Tillotson, 1919-1920; Rust College, 1920; Clark College, 1924-1941; instructor of Mathematics, New Orleans University, 1900-1905. Served as trustee to Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Fla., Rust College, Clark College, Dillard University, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn. Treasurer of the Ecumenical Methodist Council, Western Section, two quadrennia; treasurer of the Gulfside Advance Assembly Movement; chairman, committee on rules and the committee on expenses; agenda for the central jurisdiction; member, commission on church union and one of the senior members of the Methodist board of publication; member of the administrative board of the Commission on Christian Higher Education of Association of American Colleges; member of eleven general conferences, the 1939 Uniting Conference, and the Ecumenical Conference of 1931, 1947, 1951. Chosen by Congregationalists and Methodists to begin the merger of Samuel Huston and Tillotson colleges; was the first president of the combined institution. President of the Colored Home and Industrial School in New Orleans; served as member, 1912-1930, of the Book Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church; member of the Board of Publication, 1940. Buildings and auditoriums named in his honor at Clark College (auditorium), Huston-Tillotson (student union building), Rust College (men's dormitory). In the Carver Housing subdivision in Atlanta, Ga., Davage Street is named in his honor. Received the Dillard University Distinguished Alumni Award, 1957. Retired from service June 1955. Died, September, 1976. C.T. Sources: The Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974), I; James P. Brawley, Mathew Simpson Davage: Elder Statesman and Reverend Sage (s.l., n.d.).
DAVEY, Robert Charles, congressman. Born, New Orleans, October 22, 1853, son of John C. Davey. Education: attended the public schools; St. Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, Mo., graduated 1871. Engaged in mercantile pursuits. Married Margaret Johnson, daughter of Frank R. Johnson in 1875. Children: Elizabeth and Margaret. Lifelong member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Elected to the state senate in 1879, 1884, and again in 1892; served as president pro tempore of the senate during the sessions of 1884 and 1886. Judge of the first recorder's court in New Orleans 1880-1888; unsuccessful candidate for mayor of New Orleans, 1888. Elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1894. Elected to the Fifty-fifth and to the five succeeding congresses and served from March 4, 1897, until his death; had been reelected to the Sixty-first Congress. Died, New Orleans, December 26, 1908; interred Metairie Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950); New Orleans Daily Picayune, obituary, December 27, 1908.
DAVEZAC, Auguste Geneviève Valentin, attorney, politician, diplomat. Born, Aux Cayes, Saint-Domingue, May, 1780; son of Jean Pierre Valentin Joseph D'Avezac, wealthy Saint-Domingue planter, and Marie Rose Valentine de Maragon D'Avezac de Castera. Education: Military College of La Flèche, France. Studied law in Edward Livingston's (q.v.) New Orleans office. (Auguste's sister Louise married Edward Livingston on June 3, 1805.) Personal aide to Gen. Andrew Jackson (q.v.), rank of major, War of 1812. Admitted to Louisiana bar, worked mostly criminal cases. Removed to New York City in 1839. Secretary of legation, The Hague, August 11, 1829, until 1831, chargé d'affaires, Netherlands from October 15, 1831, to July 13, 1839; New York state legislature, 1843-1845; chargé d'affaires, Netherlands from April 19, 1845, to September 16, 1850. Affiliated with Tammany Hall, New York City, 1839-1845. Close friendships with Andrew Jackson and Edward Livingston. Author of "Fragments of Unpublished Reminiscences of Edward Livingston," The U. S. Magazine and Democratic Review, VIII (1840). Died, New York City, February 15, 1851. T.D.S. Sources: Dictionary of American Biography, B; National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XIII; U. S. Dept. of State, United States Chiefs of Mission, 1768-1973 (1973).
DAVID, Francis Edward, law enforcement officer, civil servant. Born, Pineville, La., September 11, 1874. Eldest of eight children of John Edward and Marie Cleo David. Served under Sheriff Kilpatrick as chief deputy sheriff and in 1912 was elected sheriff. Twice reelected. During the administration of Gov. Henry Fuqua (q.v.) was appointed secretary of the Highway Department. Later, under Gov. Oramel Simpson (q.v.) he was assistant warden of the State Penetentiary at Angola, Louisiana. In 1933 became assistant chief of police in Alexandria and in 1935 chief of police, a position he held until retirement, 1936. Died, October 28, 1955; interred Rapides Cemetery, Pineville, Louisiana. J.M.B.† Sources: Personal recollections; obituary, Alexandria Daily Town Talk, October 29, 1955.
DAVIDSON, Thomas Green, attorney, planter, congressman. Born, Coles Creek, Jefferson County, Miss., August 6, 1805. Studied law, began law practice in Baton Rouge; active in Democratic party. Appointed register of the U. S. Land Office, served in the Louisiana house of representatives, 1833-1846, delegate to Native American Convention in 1841 from the Florida Parishes; member, Native American Association, but would later withdraw. Ironically (because of his former nativist views) he defeated Know-Nothing Preston Pond for Congress in 1855 and served from 1855 to 1861. Member of the John Slidell (q.v.) Regular Democrats in the division of the party between the Regulars and Pierre Soulé (q.v.) Southern Rights faction. Strong supporter of the Kansas-Nebraska legislation and supported secession. Withdrew from Congress in February 1861. After the Civil War, Davidson again served in the state legislature; elected to the lower house, 1874-1878, 1880, 1883. During his last term in the legislature, Davidson died in Springfield (Livingston Parish), La., September 11, 1883; interred Springfield Cemetery. M.C. Sources: James K. Greer, "Louisiana Politics, 1845-1860," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XIII (1930); Baton Rouge Capitolian-Advocate, obituary, September 14, 1883; New Orleans Daily Picayune, obituary, September 13, 1883; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971).
DAVIS, Benjamin, clergyman. Born ca. 1795. Following service in the Cape Fear Baptist Association, Cumberland County, North Carolina, Davis preceded the first New Orleans visit of colleague James A. Ranaldson (q.v.), arriving in December, 1815, as an agent of the Louisiana Bible Society, departing for Mississippi in March, 1816. Later, he returned to New Orleans where he led construction of the city's first Baptist church building, August 23, 1818. During his brief ministry, Davis also administered New Orleans' first baptism by total immersion in the Mississippi River near the old Customs House. Subject was reportedly the father-in-law of Judge Alfred Hennen (q.v.), a leading attorney and civic leader. Economic hardship and quite possibly a hostile city government ended Davis' endeavors, especially since he attempted to teach "the unlettered" to read and study the Bible. Before his return to Mississippi in 1820, his congregation numbered 16 whites and 32 blacks. T.F.R. Sources: Glen Lee Greene, House Upon a Rock: About Southern Baptists in Louisiana (1973).
DAVIS, Horatio, state adjutant general. Born, Pennsylvania, 1790; son of Col. Samuel Boyer Davis. Education: attended St. Mary's College, Baltimore, Md. Served in U. S. Army. Married: Naomi DuBourg. Was a warden of St. Louis Cathedral. Appointed adjutant general by Gov. Joseph Marshall Walker (q.v.). Died, October 17, 1857; interred St. Louis Cemetery I, New Orleans. TAG, LA Source: Author's research.
DAVIS, Jefferson Finis, president of the Confederacy. Born, June 3, 1808, Christian (now Todd) County, Ky.; son of Jane Cook and Samuel Emory Davis. Family lived in St. Mary Parish, La., on Bayou Teche for less than a year. Removed to Wilkinson County, Miss. Education: local schools; attended St. Thomas College, Ky., Jefferson College, Miss., and Transylvania University, Ky.; graduated from West Point, 1828. Married (1) Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor (q.v.), in Louisville, Ky., June 17, 1835; she died three months later of malaria and is buried at "Locust Grove," his sister's plantation near St. Francisville, La. Married (2) Varina Banks Howell (q.v.), February 26, 1845; spent part of their honeymoon at "Locust Grove" and at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans. Children: Samuel Emory (1852-1854), Margaret Howell (1854-1909), Jefferson Finis, Jr. (1857-1876), Joseph Evan (1859-1864), William Howell (1861-1873), Varina Ann (1864-1898). United States Army, 1828-1835; cotton planter, 1835-1845; United States congressman, 1845-1846; United States senator, 1847-1851 and 1857-1861; secretary of war, 1853-1857; president of the Confederacy, 1862-1865. Closely associated with several Louisianians during his presidency: Judah P. Benjamin (q.v.), Adolphe Rost (q.v.), John Slidell (q.v.), Duncan Kenner (q.v.), and Gen. Richard Taylor (q.v.); attended the Comus Court ball during Mardi Gras of 1882; spoke at the French Opera House on April 25, 1882, under the auspices of the Southern Historical Society; author of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1878-1891); refused an offer in 1887 to be a representative of the Louisiana Lottery Company; elected an honorary member of the Louisiana Historical Association in 1889. Died, New Orleans, December 6, 1889; temporarily interred in Army of Northern Virginia's tomb in Metairie Cemetery; when widow decided to move his body to Virginia, the casket was transported to the Confederate Museum and Memorial Hall on Camp Street, where it lay in state until time of departure; reinterred Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va. J.B.C. Sources: Hudson Strode, Jefferson Davis, 3 vols. (1955-1964); Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896 (1967); Frank E. Everett, Jr., Brierfield, Plantation Home of Jefferson Davis (1971).
DAVIS, John, theater, ballroom, and gambling house proprietor, merchant, importer, restaurateur. Born, Paris, France, 1773; son of John and Anne Marie Davis. Emigrated from Cuba to Louisiana, 1809; purchased Tremoulet's Hotel, 1811, renamed it the United States Hotel (sometimes known as the Marine or Navy Hotel); opened tavern on Bayou St. John and eventually had gambling establishments both on Bayou St. John and in Mandeville. Veteran of Battle of New Orleans. Leased Condé Street Ballroom, 1814; opened Salle d'Orléans ballroom, November,1817; opened Théâtre d'Orléans as proprietor, November 27, 1819. Personally recruited performers for Théâtre d'Orléans from France. Married Marie Félicité Meunier, native of Tours, France. Died, Mandeville, La., June 13, 1839; interred St. Louis Cemetery I. His obituary in the Daily Picayune stated: "Under his judicious efforts and unfaltering enterprise [French opera in New Orleans] was raised from a wretched condition to prosperity and excellence." M.G.S. Sources: Henry Kmen, Music in New Orleans . . . (1966); New Orleans Daily Picayune, June 15, 1839; Louisiana Courier, June 14, 1839; W. Adolphe Roberts, Lake Pontchartrain (1946).
DAVIS, Leroy Joseph, soldier, businessman, politician. Born, Jennings, La., January 7, 1922; son of August Davis and Leontine Abraham. Education: local school, Jefferson Davis Parish Training School. World War II and Korean War veteran: Ninety-second Infantry, U. S. Army, Company D, rose to rank of master sergeant; wounded in Korea; awarded the Purple Heart. Retired from service in 1962, opened a local washateria and was employed as assistant manager of an insurance firm. In June 1973, he was elected to serve as first black councilman of Jennings. Held this position until his death. Married, December 1950, Maude Rochelle Johnson, of Jennings, daughter of Willie Rochelle and Gertie Blanchard. Children: Karllis R. Davis (b. 1956) and Damon Davis (b. 1963). Active in Democratic party; member of Jennings City Council (1973-1980). Member: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church; Our Lady of Perpetual Help K. of P.C. Council 132; president, church parish council; usher for the church. Died, March 18, 1980; interred Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Jennings. M.R.D. Source: Author's research.
DAVIS, Louise Simon, pioneer in education for the mentally retarded. Born, 1880. Education: Newcomb College, graduated 1899; received training in education of the retarded, Vineland, N. J. Founded the first school for the mentally retarded in the New Orleans area, Magnolia School, 1935; director until 1945; founded two schools for black, mentally retarded children, Hope School and Abbie School; founded Louise Simon Davis School for the Mentally Retarded in 1946; director until her retirement in 1967; founded first night school at Kingsley House with Eleanor McMain, 1900. Member: committees that established the Greater New Orleans Association for Retarded Children, the Evaluation Center, the Cerebral Center, the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra; League of Women Voters. Received Woman of the Year Award from New Orleans Federation of Women's Clubs; received first award given by the international society of women educators, Delta Kappa Gamma, as a woman pioneer in her field. Married, Albert B. Davis. Children: Albert B., Jr., Allen L., Mrs. Cyril Cunningham. Died, Galveston, Tex., July 12, 1974; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans. C.A.D. Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 14, 1974.
DAVIS, Mary Evelyn Moore, novelist, poet. Born, Talladega, Ala., April 12, 1852; daughter of John and Marian Lucy Crutchfield Moore; only daughter among nine children. Early years in rural Alabama and on a plantation near San Marcos, Tex. First poems appeared in the Tyler (Tex.) Reporter in 1860, followed by poetry publications in this newspaper and others in the South. Her poetry from this early period indicates mastery of a variety of forms. Highly popular in her own time, she became known for short stories, sketches, novels and informal historical writing, as well as for poetry. Her work is most noteworthy today, perhaps, for the close detailing of everyday life in Texas and Louisiana, which provide the settings for much of her work. Skillful in description of people and places, she is somewhat less successful in psychological motivation for characters' actions and in seeking beyond the obvious in attitudes in society. In War Times at La Rose Blanche (1888), a semiautobiographical tale, was her first prose book and is her best-known work. Her first novel was Under the Man-Fig (1895), a tale of mystery and romance set in a small Texas town, and felt by some critics to be her best work. Many of her short stories and other works are set in New Orleans, where she lived for many years. Married Thomas Edward Davis (q.v.), 1874. She was active in society. Became famed for her literary salon, where local and visiting writers and artists came to discuss the arts. She wrote her many works under a variety of names: Mrs. M. E. M. Davis, Mollie Moore Davis, Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis, and Mollie E. Moore. Variety in choice of plots and characters is also characteristic of her fiction, where she depicts persons from every level of society, and uses plots from history or her imagination ranging from light romance and humor to tragedy. Two of her most widely read works are set in Louisiana: The Little Chevalier (1903), an historical novel, and The Price of Silence (1907), set in contemporary New Orleans. Other works include: Minding the Gap and Other Poems (1867); A Christmas Masque of Saint Roche; Père Dagobert (1896); Throwing the Wanga (1896); An Elephant's Track, and Other Stories (1897); Under Six Flags: The Story of Texas (1897); The Wire Cutters (1899); The Queen's Garden (1900); Jaconetta: Her Love (1901); Tulane Songs (1901); The Mistress of Odd Corner (1902); The Yellow Apples (with P. Stapleton, 1902); A Bunch of Roses, and Other Parlor Plays (1903); Christmas Boxes (1907); A Dress Rehearsal (1907); His Lordship (1907); The New System (1907); Queen Anne Cottages (1907); Selected Poems by Mollie Moore Davis (1927). Died, New Orleans, January 1, 1909. D.H.B. Sources: J. W. Davidson, The Living Writers of the South (1896); A. Johnson, ed., Dictionary of American Biography (1909); The Library of Southern Literature (1909); Notable American Women, 1607-1950; Frances Willard and Mary L. Livermore, A Woman of the Century (1893); Lina Mainiero, ed., American Women Writers, I (1979).
DAVIS, Peter, music teacher. Born, New Orleans, 1881. Credited with first teaching Louis Armstrong (q.v.) to play the trumpet when Armstrong was in the Colored Waif's Home for Boys, which later became the Milne Boys Home. Davis taught thousands of youngsters to play the trumpet. Kept up an active interest in the school even after retirement. Last seen in public in 1965 when Armstrong appeared in New Orleans for a concert sponsored by the New Orleans Jazz Club. Died, New Orleans, April 29, 1971; interred Holt Cemetery. H.C. Sources: New Orleans States-Item, April 30, 1971; The Second Line (Spring, 1971).
DAVIS, Thomas Edward, journalist. Born, Bedford, Va., September 25, 1835; son of Micajah Davis and Ellen Phillips. Education: local schools; University of Virginia, graduated 1858, qualified to practice law, medicine, and engineering. Civil War service; joined Twenty-first Virginia Cavalry as adjutant and major; later seved with other units but always in Virginia. Refused to acknowledge Lee's surrender and, with others of similar mind, struck out for the West. Spent five years prospecting for gold in Montana, was moderately successful. Removed to Galveston, Tex., invested capital in tobacco business, successful until wiped out by Panic of 1875. Married, in Galveston, Mary Evelyn Moore (q.v.) of Comanche, Tex. At least one child. In 1876 founded the Houston Telegram. Removed to New Orleans, 1878; wrote editorials for New Orleans Times. In 1879 joined staff of Daily Picayune as a reporter. Some of his best articles dealt with the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition and led to his promotion as editorial writer. When C. Harrison Parker left the Picayune for a political job, subject succeeded him as editor-in-chief, an office he held for over twenty-five years, ending his active career a few months before the consolidation of the Picyaune and the Times-Democrat in 1914. A daughter, Mrs. Paul F. Jahncke survived subject. Died, New Orleans, February 19, 1917; interred Metairie Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 21, 1917; January 25, 1937.
DAVIS, Varina Howell, author, First Lady of the Confederacy. Born, May 7, 1826, at Marengo, her grandfather's plantation in Louisiana; daughter of Margaret Louisa Kempe and William Burr Howell; removed to The Briers, family plantation near Natchez, Miss. Education: private tutor; two years at Madame Greenland's school at Philadelphia. Married: Jefferson Davis (q.v.), February 26, 1845, at family home. On their six-week bridal tour they stayed at Locust Grove, his sister's plantation on Bayou Sara, near St. Francisville, La., at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, and at Rosemont with his mother near Woodville, Miss. Children: Samuel Emory (1852-1854), Margaret Howell (1854-1909), Jefferson Finis, Jr. (1857-1876), Joseph Evan (1859-1864), William Howell (1861-1873), Varina Ann (1864-1898). Career: was mistress of Brierfield, their plantation near Vicksburg, Miss., and later Beauvoir, on the Gulf Coast at Biloxi, Miss. Although a Whig, she soon shared her husband's political views; well educated and a brilliant hostess, she aided her husband in Washington, D. C., when he was a congressman, 1845-1846; a senator, 1847-1851, and 1857-1861; secretary of war, 1853-1857; and as president of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va., 1862-1865. Shared the hardships of his prison life. Suffered a nervous collapse in 1876; aided him with his memoirs written at Beauvoir. After husband's death in 1889, she wrote the two-volume work, Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by His Wife. Removed to New York City soon after publication of her book in 1890; lived with daughter, Varina Ann, who was a published author; wrote articles for the Sunday World to support herself; sold Beauvoir to the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a home for Confederate soldiers and a memorial to her husband; returned to New Orleans, March 1, 1899, where she held a reception for the United Confederate Veterans in Louisiana at the St. Charles Hotel. Died, New York City, October 16, 1906; buried beside her husband in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va. J.B.C. Sources: Eron Rowland, Varina Howell, Wife of Jefferson Davis, 2 vols. (1927-1931); Frank E. Everett, Jr., Brierfield Plantation, Home of Jefferson Davis (1971); Herman Hattaway, "The United Veterans of the Confederacy in Louisiana," Louisiana History, XVI (1875); David C. Roller and Robert W. Twylman, eds., Encyclopedia of Southern History (1979).
DAWSON, John Bennett, politician, Congressman. Born, near Nashville, Tenn., March 17, 1798; son of John Dawson and Sarah Barrow. After mother's death, 1816, came under guardianship of uncle, William Barrow (q.v.), of Feliciana Parish, La. Education: Centre College, Danville, Ky. Married Margaret Johnson, daughter of John H. Johnson (q.v.), 1817. Elected police juror, West Feliciana Parish, La., but declared inelligible by governor, 1825; trustee, Louisiana College, Jackson, 1825; member, Louisiana legislature, 1826-1828; elected brigadier general and major general, state militia, 1826. Served as parish judge, 1827-1841; owned controlling interest in St. Francisville newspapers, 1830-1840. Unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, 1834. Served as a Democrat in U. S. Congress, 1843-1845. Appointed interim postmaster, New Orleans, 1843. Member, Feliciana Lodge #31, Free and Accepted Masons. Died, Wyoming Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, June 22, 1845; interred Grace Church Cemetery, St. Francisville. E.K.D. Sources: Elrie Robinson, Early Feliciana Politics (1936); Hamilton Papers, Louisiana State University Archives; Oath Book West Feliciana Parish; Register, Grace Church; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950).
DAWSON, John Sterling, educator. Born, Wilkinson County, Miss., December 17, 1871; son of Sterling and Lucy Dawson. Education: home; Natchez College, B.S.; Leland College, Baker, A. B.; and Southern University. Began teaching career at Laurel Hill, La., 1890. Married Corinne Lee, one of his students. Children: John M., Marian, Thomas J., and Brunetta. Retired, July 28, 1947. High school of West Feliciana Parish, La., named in his honor, 1948. Senior deacon, Sunday school superintendent, secretary-treasurer, Rasberry Baptist Church, St. Francisville, 1916-1950. Thirty-second Degree Mason, Jewell Lodge #100; secretary-treasurer, Old Benevolent Society, St. Francisville. Died, October 9, 1950; interred Pilgrim Rest Cemetery, St. Francisville. E.K.D. Sources: Interview with members of Dawson family; St. Francisville Democrat, October 13, 1950.
DAWSON, Sara Morgan, diarist, journalist, author. Born, New Orleans, La., February 28, 1842; daughter of Judge Thomas Morgan and Sara Fowler. Forced from her Baton Rouge home by Federal troops to take refuge at Linwood, three miles from Port Hudson, La. Witnessed siege of Port Hudson (May-July, 1863). Married Francis Dawson, South Carolina editor of the Charleston News and Courier (1874), which she wrote for under the pseudonyms of "Mr. Fowler," and "Feu Follet." After death of husband moved to Paris, 1899. Wrote Les Aventures de Jeannot Lapin (1903), a French version of "Brer Rabbit," adapted as a French school text. She died in Paris, May 5, 1909. Her son, Francis, published her book, A Confederate Girl's Diary (1913), a remarkable account of her observations of wartime Louisiana and especially the siege of Port Hudson. The Diary, much acclaimed by historians and literary critics, established her as a diarist of national significance. B.G. Sources: Sara Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary (1960); E. M. Coulter, Travels in the Confederate States (1948); D. S. Freeman, The South to Posterity (1939); The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XXIII; Mississippi Valley Historical Review, I (1914-1915).
DEAR, Cleveland, congressman. Born, Sugartown, Beauregard Parish, La., August 22, 1888; youngest son in a family of four boys and six girls; son of James H. and Sarah Jane Harper Dear. Attended local public schools; Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, graduated 1910; law department, 1914. Admitted to Louisiana bar, 1914, commenced practice in Alexandria, La. During World War I was appointed second lieutenant of field artillery on August 15, 1917; promoted to rank of first lieutenant and served in the ammunition train of the field artillery in the Eighty-seventh and 111th divisions until his discharge on December 14, 1918. Married Marion S. Anderson of Milwaukee, Wis., in April 1921. Two children: Marion and Cleveland, Jr. Served as district attorney, Ninth Judicial District of Louisiana, 1920-1933, when elected to Congress. Served as a Democrat from March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1937; was not a candidate for renomination in 1936, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the gubernatorial nomination. Resumed the practice of law; was an avid fisherman; a member of the Masons, Shriners, Elks, and the American Legion; served as a deacon in the Baptist church. Appointed judge, Ninth Judicial District court of Louisiana, 1941, to fill an unexpired term and was elected in 1942 and again in 1948 and served until his death in Alexandria, December 30, 1950; interred Greenwood Memorial Park, Pineville, La. J.B.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Henry E. Chambers, A History of Louisiana (1925); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, December 31, 1950.
DE BATZ, Alexandre, engineer, architect, draftsman, artist. Husband of Jeanne Ricard. Like his son Adrien, he may have been born in Montaterre in Picardy, Diocese of Beauvais, France. De Batz made the earliest known drawings of Indian life in the lower Mississippi Valley, and his architectural drawings reveal his connection with the French colonial authorities in Louisiana. The first indication of his presence in New Orleans was his signature in a marriage register of the parish church of St. Louis, New Orleans, dated June 15, 1730. In December 1731 he drew a plan and elevations of an observatory and in January, 1732 the same types of drawings of the Ursuline Convent; the plantation of the Company of the Indies, New Orleans; and the pestle mill and tunnel mill, New Orleans. In July 1732 he drew a plan of the parish church of St. Louis as it then existed. In the spring of 1732, De Batz made drawings of the settlements and lifestyles of various Indian tribes, including the Colapissas, Tunica, Natchez, Illinois, Fox, Attakapas, and Choctaw. Other extant drawings of this type are dated 1735. In 1733 he again signed the marriage register, but this time he is referred to as "Engineer of the King." In 1735 he was sent to Mobile to replace the engineer who had died there that year. He remained at least until 1736. By 1740 he was back in New Orleans where he signed a plan, elevation, and section of the Capuchin school. In 1747 he made a map of the whole coast of the Louisiana province from Florida to Texas and in 1749 drew a plan of the North Fort at English Turn on the Mississippi River below New Orleans. In 1750 he was the architect of the plantation Monplaisir for Jean de Pradel (q.v.), located across the river from New Orleans. In 1813 it became the residence of John McDonogh (q.v.). De Batz is next mentioned in 1757 after leaving his Arkansas post to become engineer-architect at Fort de Chartres in the Illinois country, where he died, October 17, 1759. C.S.B. Sources: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987); Samuel Wilson, Jr., "Louisiana Drawings by Alexandre De Batz," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (May, 1963).
DEBLANC, Alcibiades, attorney, soldier, jurist. Born, St. Martinville, La., September 16, 1821; son of Maximilien d'Erneville DeBlanc and Aspasie Castille. Civil War service: enlisted June 19, 1861, Camp Moore, La.; captain Company C., Eighth Louisiana Infantry; promoted to rank of major, 1862; promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel at Fredericksburg, April 6, 1863; captured at Banks Ford, May 4, 1863; paroled at Old Capitol Prison, Washington, D. C., 1863; wounded Gettysburg; appointed to rank of colonel, July 2, 1863, by President Davis. Louisiana Supreme Court justice from 1877 to 1883. Married, February 22, 1843, Mathilde Briant (1822-1892), St. Martinville, daughter of Judge Pierre Paul Briant (q.v.) and Françoise Arsene Seveignes. Children: Marie Louise Derneville (b. 1844), Joseph Gilbert (b. 1845), Marthe Adrienne (b. 1848), Corine Mathilde Antoinette (b. 1850), Raphaël (b. 1851), Henri Léonce (b. 1853), Marie Daniel (b. 1858), Marie Anne Elizabeth (b. 1860), Robert Jefferson (b. 1866). During Reconstruction, in 1867, DeBlanc organized a White Man's or Caucasian Club in Franklin. With other clubs they became known as the Knights of the White Camelia. With taxation as excuse for resistance, DeBlanc led an insurrection in St. Martin Parish, La., May, 1873, in protest of Gov. William Pitt Kellogg's government. He organized local men against New Orleans Metropolitan policemen and later U. S. troops sent by the governor. DeBlanc finally surrendered to Marshall DeKlyn but he had accomplished the desired objective—demonstrating that the people disagreed with the Kellogg "usurpation" and showing that Kellogg needed U. S. troops to maintain peace. Held prisoner on board the Lucretia bound for New Orleans; 6,000 people went on board at Morgan's Landing to give him a hero's welcome. In New Orleans, he was cheered by the crowds and requited of charges with bail. Died, St. Martinville, November 8, 1883; interred St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery. D.S. & M.B. Sources: Andrew Booth, comp., Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands (1920); Donald J. Hébert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records; St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church Baptismal Records, 1843-1854, 1855-1865, 1865-1883; Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVIII (1945); Attakapas Gazette, XIV (1979).
DE BLANC, César, soldier, administrator. Born, Marseilles, France, ca. 1683; son of Charles de Blanc and Marguerite d'Espagnet. Arrived in Louisiana, 1719. Served as military officer for Company of the Indies. In 1731 named lieutenant; reestablished as captain, July 18, 1734, after having been cashiered by the Company of the Indies. Sent to Illinois, 1736; served as captain of a detached Marine company. Took part in the Chickasaw Wars. In 1745, captain and company commander in New Orleans. Sent to Natchitoches Post as commandant, 1746. Received the Cross of St. Louis from Governor Vaudreuil (q.v.), April 11, 1751. Married (1), in New Orleans, March 28, 1731 (date of marriage contract), Elisabeth Guyol (Guiot), of Toulon, France, daughter of engineer Pierre Guyol and Thérèse Beyle. No known children. Married (2), at Natchitoches, Marie Dolores Simone Juchereau de St-Denis (1732?-1777?), daughter of Louis-Antoine Juchereau de St-Denis (q.v.) and Emanuela Maria Stefania Sanchez y Navarro, June 9, 1750. Children: Louis-Charles (q.v.) and Jacques-Maurice (1756-1757). Died, Natchitoches Post, April 18, 1763. J.O.V. Sources: Civil and ecclesiastical records, Louisiana and Illinois; Vaudreuil Papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.; Archives des Colonies, Archives Nationales, Paris, France.
DEBLANC, Louis-Charles, soldier, administrator, planter. Born, Natchitoches Post, April 29, 1753; son of César de Blanc (q.v.) and Marie Dolores Simone Juchereau de St-Denis. Rose to rank of captain of cavalry, 1786. Named commandant of Natchitoches Post, 1787; served until 1795 when appointed last commandant of Attakapas Post. After Louisiana Purchase, held various civil offices under American regime. Married, ca. 1744, Elisabeth Pouponne Derneville of New Orleans. Children: Joseph Marie Charles, Marie Louise Marthe, Marie Louis César, Jean-Baptiste, Céleste Mathilde, Jean-Baptiste Thomas, Pierre Georges César, Marie Aspasie, Elisabeth Marcelite, Marie Joseph Constance, Marie Mélanie, and Maximilien. Acquired a large plantation in the vicinity of New Iberia. Died on his plantation, April 6, 1826; interred St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery, St. Martinville, La. C.W. & J.O.V. Source: Authors' research.
DEBOUCHEL, Onézime, writer. Born, Greenwood Plantation, Plaquemines Parish, La., 1848; son of Victor Debouchel (q.v.). Education: Jesuit College. Published poems in the Comptes-Rendus de l'Athénée Louisianais from 1876 to 1878. Died, New Orleans, 1881. M.A. Source: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932).
DEBOUCHEL, Victor, writer. Born, Lyons, France, 1820. Removed to New Orleans at age 19, opened a school attended by Pierre Toutant Beauregard (q.v.). In 1841, published Histoire de la Louisiane in New Orleans; written as a textbook for his students. Married; one child named Onézime (q.v.). Elected to the Louisiana legislature, 1846. Purchased two plantations, Greenwood in Plaquemines Parish and Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish. Collected large library and published occasional pieces in La Renaissance Louisianaise. Died at Chalmette, 1864. M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932); Auguste Viatte, "Complement à la bibliographie d'Edward Larocque Tinker," Revue de Louisiane, III (1974).
DE BOW, James Dunwoody Brownson, editor, economist, statistician. Born, Charleston, S. C., July 10, 1820; second son and third of five children born to Garret De Bow, a merchant, and Mary Bridget Norton. Education: local schools; Cokesbury Institute, 1839, Abbeville, S. C.; College of Charleston, 1840-1843. Father died in 1826, mother in 1836. Clerk for a Charleston grocer, ca. 1835-1837. Taught school near Charleston, 1838. Read law after graduation from college, where he studied natural science, law, and economics; admitted to South Carolina bar in 1844. After brief career as contributor and editor for the Southern Quarterly Review, 1844-1845, removed to New Orleans. Established De Bow's Review (43 vols. published under various titles and with periodic suspension, 1846-1880, with financial backing of wealthy New Orleans merchant and planter Maunsel White [q.v.]). De Bow intended his commercial/financial journal to be nationalistic in sentiment and non-partisan in politics, but he consistently advocated Southern financial interests, including direct trade with Europe, a transcontinental railroad through the South, Southern manufactures, scientific agriculture, and slavery. As sectional tensions grew, De Bow became more militant, taking stands first as a Southern nationalist and then as a secessionist. Helped plan an endowment system for the newly founded University of Louisiana (now Tulane) in 1845; urged that courses in "commerce, public economy, and statistics" be taught there, and held the university's first professorship in those fields, 1848-1858(?). Admitted to Louisiana bar in 1846. Head of Louisiana Bureau of Statistics, 1848-1852; superintendent of seventh federal census, 1853-1855. Responsible for organizing and publishing the most comprehensive federal census to that date, as well as a valuable compendium (Statistical View of the U.S.). Also made significant reforms in arrangement and presentation of census data. Believed that statistical data was necessary for proper financial planning and policy. His Industrial Resources . . . of the Southern and Western States (3 vols., 1853) was the first comprehensive statistical survey of Southern agriculture, commerce, and industry. Staunch supporter of Southern commercial conventions; presided over Knoxville Convention, 1857. Served the Confederacy by establishing and operating the Produce Loan Agency, an attempt to supply the government with needed raw materials and manufactured goods. Shrewd financial investments in gold, land, cotton, bonds, and railroads realized large profits for De Bow during the war. Revived the Review in 1865, establishing offices in seven cities, North and South, with business offices in New York and editorial offices in Nashville. The revived journal expressed no shame in the Lost Cause, but accepted the results of the war. De Bow believed the two biggest challenges to renewed Southern economic vitality were the "negro problem" and development of Southern industry. Married (1), August 5, 1854, Caroline Poe (d. 1858) of Georgetown, D. C., daughter of George Poe and Marie Toulmin. Children: Mary Emma (b. 1855; rechristened Caroline Mary, 1858) and James (1856-1857). Married (2), September 1860, Martha E. Johns, of Nashville, Tenn., daughter of a wealthy planter. Children: James (b. 1861), Benjamin Franklin (b. 1862), Elvira (b. 1862), William Neal (b. 1863). Nominal Democrat in politics. Member: Episcopal church, American Geographical and Statistical Society, Louisiana Historical Society. Physically frail, he suffered frequent bouts of illness and died of pleurisy, Elizabethtown, N.J., February 27, 1867; interred family plot at the home of his mother-in-law, Mrs. John Johns, near Nashville, Tenn. D.S.* Sources: Ottis Clark Skipper, J.D.B. De Bow: Magazinist of the Old South (1958); De Bow's Review, III, New Series (June, 1867); Dictionary of American Biography.
DECLOUET, Alexandre Etienne, planter, politician. Born, St. Martin Parish, La., June 9, 1812; son of Etienne DeClouet and Aspasie Fusilier. Orphaned and reared by an aunt. Education, local schools; Georgetown College, D. C., graduated 1829; St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky. After tour of Europe took up study of law but gave it up to become a planter. Married, April 29, 1836, Marie-Louise Benoit St. Clair. Children: Alexandre, Marie Christine, Charles Albin, Marie Arthemise, Paul Louis, Louis Gabrielle, and Marie Lorenza. Built St. John Plantation house (extant), ca. 1840. In 1837 elected to Louisiana house of representatives; later elected to senate. In 1849 Whig party candidate for governor; defeated by Joseph M. Walker (q.v.). Member, secession convention; later represented Louisiana in Confederate Congress and was signer of constitution of Confederate States. Commissioned colonel of the Twenty-sixth Louisiana Regiment. Ill health forced retirement to home in December 1862. After war, a "redeemer"; active in Democratic party and in Reconstruction politics. Died, Lafayette Parish, La., June 25, 1890; interred St. Martinville, La. G.R.C. Sources: Alcée Fortier, ed., Louisiana . . . , 3 vols. (Atlanta, 1909), III, n.p.; St. Martinville, La., Weekly Messenger, June 28, July 5, 1890; Donald Hebert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984).
DECLOUET DE PIEDRE, Alexandre François Joseph, soldier, administrator. Born, Château Chambrésis, France, ca. 1717; son of Jean Martin de Clouet de Piedre and Laura Gambier. Military service: Campaigns: France, Battle of Mhin; Fontenoy, Noucour, in the sieges of Flanders, in which he was made a prisoner of war and wounded twice in the assault on Bergonson. In Louisiana, in the service of Spain at the taking of Fort Bute at Manchac and siege of Baton Rouge. Married, September 11, 1761, in New Orleans, Marie Louise Favrot of Baton Rouge, daughter of Claude Joseph Favrot and Louise Elizabeth Bruslé. Children: Alexandre Joseph (b. 1762), Alexandre, Jr. (b. 1763), Joseph Marie de Piedre (b. 1764), Charles Phillippe (b. 1765), Louis Jean Laurent Brognier (b. 1766), Auguste Pierre Lanois (b. 1768), Joseph Baltazar Neuville (b. 1770), August Albert Lanois (b. 1772), Pierre Auguste Lanois (b. 1773), Marie Louise Hyacinte (b. 1776), Pierre Joseph Favrot (b. 1778), Caroline Charlotte (b. 1779). First commandant of the Arkansas Post under Spanish rule. Replaced, 1774, Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire as commandant and judge of the Attakapas and Opelousas posts until replaced by Captain Jean Farault de la Villebeuvre. Died, July 31, 1789; interred New Orleans. D.S. Sources: Attakapas Gazette, III (1968); "de Clouet," Eunice News, November 21, 1973; "Portrait of Commandant de Clouet," St. Martinville Teche News, June 10, 1965; Alcée Fortier, ed., Louisiana, 3 vols. (1909), III; Quintilla Morgan Anders, comp., Some Early Families of Lafayette, Louisiana (1970); St. Louis Cathedral Archives, Book of Funerals, 1784-1793, p. 20, Act 532; Yvonne Pavy Weiss, "Alexandre De Clouet" (M.A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 1937).
DEDE, Edmond, violinist, composer. Born, New Orleans, November 20, 1829, of free blacks who had emigrated from the West Indies. A violin prodigy he first studied in New Orleans, then Mexico. Around 1850 local free persons of color raised money to send him to France to complete his education. After brief stops in London and Brussels he served a six-year apprenticeship in Paris. He then took positions as violinist and director at Rouen, Angers, and at Bordeaux's Grand Théâtre, 1859-1865. A master of the violin, he was also a composer of many works for orchestra. It was the light music of the cafe-concert, though, which seemed most suitable to him. Serving briefly in Algiers and Marseille, Dédé returned to Bordeaux to serve as orchestra leader of the Alcazar. In 1881 he moved to the Folies Bordelaises. Over forty years after going to Europe, Dédé decided, in the winter of 1893-1894, to return to New Orleans to present a number of concerts. His performances in his native city were hailed as great successes despite the loss in transit of his favorite violin. Shortly after his New Orleans tour he returned to Bordeaux where he died in 1903. He left behind more than forty compositions of a light and popular style and a son who was following his footsteps. D.W.M. Sources: Rodolphe Desdunes, Our People and Our History, trans. and ed., Dorothea Olga McCants (1973); Charles B. Rousseve, The Negro in Louisiana . . . (1937); Charles E. O'Neill, "Fine Arts and Literature: Nineteenth Century Louisiana Black Artists and Authors," in Robert Macdonald, John Kemp, and Edward Haas, eds., Louisiana's Black Heritage (1977); Maud Cuney Hare, Negro Musicians and Their Music (1936; reprint ed., 1974).
DE DEVA, Bernardo, clergyman. Born, Solare, Spain, ca. 1750. Education: Capuchin schools and seminaries of native land. Arrived, 1785, as one of five missionaries to Louisiana. First assignment at New Orleans but soon sent to Lafourche area by way of Donaldsonville, serving from that settlement all of inhabited Lafourche until establishment of a church parish in Thibodaux, 1817. Main base of operations later at Plattenville (Valenzuela Post or Belle Alliance), but ministered also at St. Gabriel of Iberville (civil parish) and St. Bernard of Galveztown. Became ally of Fray Antonio de Sedella (q.v.) during the jurisdictional disputes (early 1800s) between the Cathedral Capuchin friar and Vicars General Patrick Walsh (q.v.) and Jean Olivier, appointees of Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore during ecclesiastical interregnum in Louisiana. Temporarily assisted Père Antoine (Antonio de Sedella) at St. Louis Cathedral. On October 21, 1818, placed the cornerstone of new Assumption Church and blessed completed edifice on December 21, 1819, under title of "l'Assumption de Nuestra Señora de la Fourche des Chetimachas." Among papers found after death, 1833, of Father Joseph Tichitoli, Assumption Church pastor, was an act of donation of 1,000 arpents of land by Fr. De Deva to Fr. Joseph Bigeschi of Plattenville. Bigeschi's legacy was transferred to the bishop of Louisiana. In November, 1838, Bishop Antoine Blanc (q.v.) opened the first seminary in Lower Louisiana on De Deva's property. It was officially known as the "Ecclesiastical Diocesan Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul," but popularly called the "Seminary of the Assumption." Fr. Bernardo had died June 9, 1826. H.C.B. Sources: Archives, Diocese of Baton Rouge and Archdiocese of New Orleans; Roger Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana (1939).
DEGAS, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar, artist. Born, Paris, France, July 19, 1834; son of Auguste-Hyacinthe de Gas and Marie-Celestine Musson. Education: Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1855 became a student at the École des Beaux-Arts. Worked in the studio of Louis Lamothe. Before 1860 established himself as a fine portrait painter. In the 1860s painted classical subjects, race-track scenes, and his interest in the ballet began. Arrived in New Orleans in October 1872 and stayed for five months. Lived at 2306 Esplanade with his brothers, René and Achille, and their uncle and cousins. Some of the paintings he created while in New Orleans were New Orleans Cotton Office (the most famous of these), 1873; Portrait of Estelle (Mme René de Gas), 1872; Madame René De Gas (seated in white dress), ca. 1872. Drew many studies and executed full-scale paintings of his relatives while in New Orleans. Returned to Paris and painted, drew, and sculpted until his failing eyesight prevented him from doing so. Died, Paris, France, September 27, 1917. K.W.H. Sources: James B. Byrnes, "Degas His Paintings of New Orleanians Here and Abroad," and John Rewald, "Degas and His Family in New Orlans," in Edgar Degas, His Family and Friends in New Orleans; Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans; David Christopher Traherne Thomas, "Degas, Edgar," in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, Vol. V; The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987).
DE GRANDFORT, Madame Manoel (pseudonym: Marie Fontenay), New Orleans writer and social critic of brief residence, but of long-standing controversy. Born, France, 1829, as Marie Barsalon. Arrived with her husband in New Orleans under the name of Madame Barousse. As a teacher of the French language, she failed to gain entry to the Creole society. After death of husband, married Manoel de Grandfort, who published a short-lived French weekly newspaper known as Le Coup d'Oeil. Soon afterward, the couple returned to France where Madame de Grandfort authored L'Autre Monde (1855) under the pseudonym of Marie Fontenay. Her book was a sarcastic critique and highly exaggerated account of crude American manners, with a special emphasis reserved for New Orleans and its French-speaking population; it also predicted—somewhat uncannily—the outbreak of a civil war between the North and South. After her book was distributed in the U. S., in both French and English-language editions (1855), it provoked an indignant literary reply in Madame Ligeret de Chazy's Les Créoles. Réponse à Madame de Grandfort, a smaller booklet. L'Autre Monde or The New World remains as one of the leading French-language satires of Louisiana's Creole society, despite its literary shortcomings and general disregard for truthful reporting. Before her death near the end of the century, Madame de Grandfort became a successful romantic novelist. M.A.F. & T.F.R. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932); Marie Fontenay, L'Autre Monde (1855); Madame de Grandfort, The New World, trans. by Edward C. Wharton (1855).
DEGRAVELLES, Charles Camille, physician, civic leader. Born, St. Mary Parish, La., November 21, 1883; son of Eva Haifleigh and St. Clair L. deGravelles. Education: attended private school in Patterson, La.; Holy Cross College and Rugby Academy, New Orleans; Tulane University, M. D., 1910. Interned St. Mary's Hospital, Patterson; practiced in Morgan City, 1910-1933; practiced in New Iberia, 1933-1948; member, American Medical Association, Southern Medical Association, and state, district, and parish medical societies; past president of state group; held a fellowship in American College of Physicians, member, Phi Beta Pi medical fraternity and Sons of the American Revolution; past president, New Iberia Rotary Club, member, New Iberia Chamber of Commerce, and Iberia Parish Democratic Executive Committee. Received citations for work on Iberia Parish Selective Service Board during World War II. Married (1) Mary Nations, Beeville, Texas. Children: Charles Camille, Jr., and Norbert Roth. Married (2) Mary Riddle, Bentonville, Ark. Child: Martha Tabb. Died, March 22, 1948; interred Rosehill Cemetery, New Iberia. V.D.G. Sources: Ellis Arthur Davis, The Historical Encyclopedia of Louisiana (1937); Family Papers; New Iberia Daily Iberian, obituary, March 23, 1948.
DE HAULT DE LASSUS DE LUZIERES, Pierre-Charles, founder of New Bourbon, Upper Louisiana. Born, March 9, 1739; son of Charles-Philippe de Hault de Lassus, mayor of Bouchain and Councillor to Louis XVI, and Anne-Marguerite d'Arlot. Married, May 13, 1765, Domitilde-Josephe Dumont. Children: Pierre-Josèphe (b. 1766), Charles-Auguste (b. 1767), Jacques-Marcelin-Ceran (b. 1770), Jeanne-Félicité-Odile (b. 1773), married Pierre Augustin Bourguignon Derbigny (q.v.); Philippe-François-Camille (b. 1778). As anti-Revolutionary, fled France ca. 1791; settled temporarily at Pittsburgh; removed to Illinois country 1793 and founded settlement of New Bourbon, adjacent to Ste. Genevieve; 1797, Governor Carondelet appointed him commandant of the newly created New Bourbon District of Upper Louisiana; 1798, son Charles-Auguste appointed lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. Died, New Bourbon; interred December 21, 1806, Ste. Geneviève. C.J.E. Sources: John Francis McDermott, "The Diary of Charles de Hault de Lassus," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXX (1947), 359-438; Carl J. Ekberg, Colonial Ste. Genevieve.
DEILER, John Hanno, academic, author. Born, Altoeting, Bavaria, Germany, August 8, 1849; son of Konrad and Magdelein Edenbeck Deiler. Education: graduated Royal Normal College, Freising, 1868; attended Royal Polytechnic Institute, Munich. Taught in public schools of Munich until 1871. Married Wilhelmina Saganowski, December 9, 1872. Principal, German School, New Orleans, 1872-1879; organist, St. Boniface Church; professor, German language and literature, University of Louisiana (Tulane University) 1879 to end of century. Founder of German Archives and German singing societies in New Orleans; president, German Society for the Protection of German Immigrants, New Orleans Quartette Club, and German Gazette Publishing Company. Wrote many books in English and German about German immigration to the United States. The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German Descent, his most notable work, was published in 1909. Died, July 20, 1909; interred Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans. K.J.R.A. & J.B.C. Sources: John Fredrick Nau, The German People of New Orleans, 1850-1900 (1958); Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942 (1942); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, July 21, 1909.
DEJACQUE, Joseph, socialist writer. A French immigrant, arrived in Louisiana about 1855, where he wrote socialistic poems critical of local and national society. Les Lazaréenes (1857), his most famous poetic work, attacked greed, the propertied classes, and social inequality. The booklet was largely inspired by the writer's personal experiences as a refugee of the French political upheavals of 1848. According to Alcée Fortier, Déjacque's poetry and socialist philosophy were outstanding in their criticism of New Orleans and its inhabitants. The author apparently departed Louisiana around 1858. T.F.R. Sources: François Charles Deléry (?), "Native French Literature in Louisiana," newspaper clipping (1871?) in "Louisiana Papers, 1779-1937," E. L. Tinker Collection, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.; Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Escrits de langue française en Louisiana au XIX siècle . . . 1932); Ruby Van Allen Caulfield, The French Literature of Louisiana (1929); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Studies (1894); Joseph Déjacque, Les Lazaréenes: Fables, chansons, poésies sociales (1857).
DEJAN, Edouard, musician, composer. Appears in New Orleans' city directories, 1878-1884, as a clerk in the music store of Philip Werlein (q.v.). In the 1885 city directory listed only as a clerk, in 1886 listed as a pianist and working for Louis Grunewald's music store. He published primarily piano music, with some vocal music. Among publishers associated with are M. Elie, Louis Grunewald, and Philip Werlein. Henri Wehrmann (q.v.) engraved many of his works. A.E.L. Sources: New Orleans City Directories, 1878-1886; The Historic New Orleans Collection, Sheet Music Collection; Amistad Research Center, Sheet Music Collection.
DE LA CROIX, Charles, missionary. Born, Hoorebeke-Saint-Corneille, Flanders, October 28, 1792. Ordained a priest in 1817 by the newly appointed bishop of Louisiana, Louis Guillaume Du Bourg (q.v.). Superintended, 1818, construction of "The Barrens," first seminary in Upper Louisiana. Assigned to the Lower Mississippi Valley by Bishop Joseph Rosati (q.v.). Became pastor, 1823, of St. Michael's, Convent (originally known as Saint-Michel de Cantrelle), La. Induced the Religious of the Sacred Heart to open a boarding school in Convent, 1828. In the next year, sojourned in Belgium to recoup health and collect funds for the erection, upon his return, of a brick-and-mortar St. Michael's Church which still stands. Temporarily administered the older church parish of St. James, on the west bank of the Mississippi, at Cabahanoce. After fifteen years in America, returned to Belgium. Died in Belgium, August 20, 1869. H.C.B. Sources: Baton Rouge Diocesan Archives; Roger Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana (1939); The New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4; The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 6.
DELACROIX, Cyril, clergyman. Born, Evreux, Normandy, France, June 1, 1817. Ordained a priest, 1846, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Removed to New Orleans and became an assistant, August 1847, at St. Patrick's Church. Among other endeavors, supervised the construction of a school which opened in January 1851. In August of the following year he founded the first Louisiana Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Became pastor of St. Joseph's, Baton Rouge, on December 27, 1865, and served for 28 years, longer than any other before or since that time. Steered St. Joseph's through difficult days of Reconstruction and managed to make major improvements. In 1891, had erected the 193-foot high steeple acclaimed at that time as "easily the peer of any in the South." Brought the Brothers of the Sacred Heart to Baton Rouge where they opened St. Vincent's Academy, the forerunner of Catholic High School. Died, Baton Rouge; interred December 9, 1893, St. Joseph's Cathedral. F.M.U. Source: Naven O. Couvillon, comp. and ed., History of St. Joseph's (1953).
DE LA HOUSSAYE, Sidonie, novelist. Born, St. John the Baptist Parish, La., August 17, 1820; daughter of Ursin Perret and Françoise Pain. Grew up on Bellevue Plantation, near Franklin, La. Married Alexandre Le Pelletier de la Houssaye, a steamboat captain and lived first in St. Martinville, then in Franklin, where she ran a school until the Civil War. After her husband's death, served briefly as postmistress of Franklin, then reopened school. When her daughter died in 1875, assumed responsibility for her eight grandchildren, her son-in-law John Tarlton being unemployed. In the 1880s began writing for New Orleans periodicals such as L'Abeille, Le Meschacebé, and Le Franco-Louisianais. Corresponded with George Washington Cable (q.v.) who visited her in 1887. In 1890 was awarded the gold medal of the Athenée Louisianais, society founded in 1876 by Alfred (q.v.) and Armand Mercier (q.v.) to preserve the French language in Louisiana. Died, February 18, 1894; interred Franklin. Her published works include three novels published under her own name: Pouponne et Balthazaar (1880), Charles et Ella (1892), Amis et fortune (1893) and a series published under the pseudonym Louise Raymond, Les Quarteronnes de la Nouvelle Orléans. Many unpublished manuscripts are deposited in the Department of Archives of Louisiana State University Library. M.A. Sources: J. John Perret, "A Critical Study of the Life and Writings of Sidonie de la Houssaye with Special Emphasis on the Published Works" (Ph. D. dissertation Louisiana State University, 1966); J. John Perret, "Introduction," Pouponne and Balthazar (1983); Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle . . . (1932).
DE LA RONDE, Pierre Denis, fils, planter, soldier, public official. Born in what is now St. Bernard Parish, La., April 20, 1762; son of Pierre Denis de la Ronde (q.v.) and Madeleine Broutin. Military service: War against the British in West Florida, 1777-1781 (the Gálvez expedition: soldier, 1778; cadet, 1780; sub-lieutenant, 1786; lieutenant, 1791; Louisiana Infantry Regiment. Campaigns: Fort Bute of Manchac, Baton Rouge, Mobile, Pensacola.). Member of the cabildo as perpetual regidor, 1798-1803; civil commandant of St. Bernard, 1788, and, additionally, military commandant, 1792-1802. Elected to the constitutional convention for the Territory of Orleans to prepare a new constitution for Louisiana, 1811-1812; represented Orleans Parish as a senator. War of 1812 service: colonel, commanding the Third Regiment, Louisiana Militia during the Battle of New Orleans, acted as a scout for Gen. Andrew Jackson (q.v.); accompanied Maj. Jacques Villeré (q.v.) in reporting the arrival and movements of the British at Lake Borgne; credited with overhearing and reporting the password of the British troops; commended by General Jackson for his contributions. The De La Ronde plantation home, built in 1805, was one of the seven houses on the battlefield in St. Bernard Parish and was the site of the night battle of December 23, 1814. It was used as a hospital by the British troops, being the place where General Gibbs died and to which the body of Gen. Edward Packenham (q.v.) was taken after being mortally wounded. The De La Ronde Hospital, founded in 1981 in Chalmette, La., was named in honor of this battlefield use. The ruins of the original home still stand, the only ones still existing on the battlefield area. De La Ronde rose to the rank of major general commanding the militia in the 1820s, serving on the staff of Gov. Thomas Bolling Robertson (q.v.). Married, January 31, 1788, Eulalie Guerbois, daughter of Louis Alexandre Guerbois and Marie Elizabeth Trépagnier. Children: Eulalie (1789-1856); Elizabeth Céleste (1791-1822); Héloïse (1792-1867); Joséphine Pepita (1796-1851); Marie Nanette (1799-1834); Pierre Denis (1801-1840); Adélaïde Adèle (1803-1837); Marie Félicie (1805-1842); Isabelle Emilie (1807-1890); Magdalene Azalie (1809-1872). Died, December 1, 1824, New Orleans; interred St. Louis Cemetery II. C.G.D. Sources: Stanley Clisby Authur, Old Families of Louisiana (1931; reprint ed., 1971); Samuel Carter, Blaze of Glory: The Fight for New Orleans, 1814-1815 (1971); Marie Cruzat de Verges, American Forces at Chalmette (1966); De La Ronde Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Howard-Tilton Library, Tulane University; Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana (reprint ed.,1974), IV; John Edward Harkins, "The Neglected Phase of Louisiana's Colonial History: The New Orleans Cabildo, 1769-1803" (Ph. D. dissertation, Memphis State University, 1976); Jack D. L. Holmes, Honor and Fidelity: Louisiana Infantry Regiment and Louisiana Militia Companies, 1766-1821 (1965); Grace King, Creole Families of Louisiana (1921); Henry Rightor, Standard History of New Orleans (1900); Samuel Wilson, Jr., Plantation Houses on the Battlefield of New Orleans (1965).
DE LA RONDE, Pierre Denis, père, planter, soldier, and public official. Born, Quebec City, Canada, November 11, 1726; son of Louis Denis de La Ronde and Marie Louise Chartier de Lotbinière. Military service: 1744, second ensign, Infantry of the Marine, in Louisiana; 1746, enseign-en-pied, and later lieutenant; stationed Natchitoches. Other activities: De La Ronde retired as a lieutenant-en-pied and settled in New Orleans sometime after 1755. Became a sugar planter; as a representative of the sugar planters, he was one of the eight syndics selected to take part in the deliberations of the Superior Council when that body expanded its duties in 1768; he was among those who signed a petition to rid New Orleans of the Spanish frigate that had been used as a prison by Gov. Antonio de Ulloa (q.v.). Married, 1756, Madeleine Broutin, daughter of Ignace François Broutin (q.v.), royal engineer, and Madeleine Marguerite Lemaire. Children: Louise (1758-1831), who married Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas (q.v.); Thérèse (1759-1817), Pierre Denis, fils (q.v.), Catherine (1765-1809). De La Ronde owned a plantation opposite the Vieux Carré of New Orleans in the area known as Algiers Point, where a street is now named in his honor. Knight of the Military Order of St. Louis. Died, New Orleans, May 7, 1772; interred St. Louis Cemetery II. C.G.D. Sources: Stanley Clisby Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (1931; reprint ed., 1971); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, I; Denis Family Papers; The Title of Nobility; Manuscript Division, Howard Tilton Library, Tulane University; Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana, Vol. II; Grace King, Creole Families in Louisiana (1921); Bill Barron, The Vaudreuil Papers: A Calendar and Index of the Personal and Private Records of Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Royal Governor of the French Province of Louisiana, 1743-1753 (1975).
DELCROIX, Eugene A., photographer. Born, 1892. Educated in New Orleans and Covington, La. Specialized in pictorial photography, concentrating on scenes of the Vieux Carré and Louisiana swamps; former president, counselor, and judge of the Orleans Camera Club. Work was internationally known, and included in exhibitions in London and Tokyo; received numerous awards for his work. Author of Patios, Stairways and Iron Lace Balconies of Old New Orleans (1945); portfolio of his work appeared in the April 1938 edition of Pencil Points magazine. Negative collection owned by The Historic New Orleans Collection. Extensive print holdings at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Married Aimée Bienvenu. Died, New Orleans, April 10, 1967; interred St. Louis Cemetery II. J.H.L. Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 10, 11, 1967.
DELERY, see also CHAUVIN DELERY
DELERY, François Charles, physician, author. Born, St. Charles Parish, La., January 28, 1815; son of Louis Boisclair and Marie Babin. Studied medicine, Paris, 1829-1842. Married Odile Deléry. Medical career: Practicing physician in New Orleans, 1842-1849; president, New Orleans Board of Health, 1849-1851; co-founder of Société Médicale de la Nouvelle Orléans, 1859; Louisiana delegate to Philadelphia Quarantine Congress, 1858; coroner, City of New Orleans, 1865. Lived in Havana, Cuba, during the Civil War. Literary career (books): Thèse pour le doctorat en médecine présentée et soutenue le 10 février 1842 (1842); Essai sur la liberté (1847); Etudes sur les passions (1849); Quelques mots sur le nativisme (1854); Précis historique de la fièvre jaune (1859); Replique de Dr. Charles Deléry aux mémoires du Dr. Charles Faget (1860); Dernière replique au Dr. Faget (n.d.); Mémoire sur l'épidémie de fièvre jaune qui a regné à la Nouvelle Orléans et dans les campagnes pendant 1867 (1867); (plays) "L'Ecole du peuple" (1877). (article) "Chroniques indiennes," Comptes-Rendus de l'Athénée Louisianais (1878); (essays) during Civil War, wrote collection of pro-Confederate essays entitled "Le Dernier Jour d'un sceptique." Removed to Bay St. Louis, Miss., 1871, and practiced medicine there until 1880. Died, Bay St. Louis, June 12, 1880; interred New Orleans. C.A.B. Sources: Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896, (1967); Louisiana Union Catalog (1959); Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, 2 vols. (1892); New Orleans Daily Picayune, June 14, 1880.
DELGADO, Isaac, merchant, financier, philanthropist. Born, Kingston, Jamaica, November 23, 1839; son of Henry Delgado, a West Indian planter. One of three brothers and six children of Spanish-Porguguese, and possibly Jewish, descent. Arrived in New Orleans with a brother at age fourteen to live with an uncle, Samuel Delgado. Obtained a mercantile clerkship through uncle's influence and later joined Samuel Delgado in directing Delgado and Company, sugar and molasses merchants. Contrary to popular belief, Delgado never engaged in sugar planting. Director, U. S. Safe Deposit and Savings Bank; a founder of the Louisiana Sugar Exchange. Did not serve in the Civil War, and no record exists of his loyalties in the contest. Delgado's charitable activities are legendary. Contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to numerous charitable and civic causes, including many bequests of which the public knew nothing. During his life he paid for construction and maintenance of a modern wing for the New Orleans Charity Hospital and contributed generously ($150,000) to establish the New Orleans Museum of Art (originally the Delgado Art Museum). A family story says he built the museum to please his French mistress, who complained about the lack of culture in New Orleans. The bequests of his will included a large personal art collection (mostly paintings, bronze statuary, and antique furniture) to the museum, land and money to establish a boys' trades school (now Delgado College), and large contributions ($100,000 each) to Charity Hospital and the Eye, Ear and Nose Hospital of New Orleans. He also gave $10,000 to the New Orleans Convalescent Home, of which he was president at the time of his death. Never married. Member: Episcopal church; Democratic party; Boston Club; French Opera Club; Chess, Checkers and Whist Club. Prominent in New Orleans social life and a member of many carnival organizations. Died, New Orleans, January 4, 1912, of diabetes and Bright's disease; interred Metairie Cemetery. D.S.* Sources: New Orleans Daily Picayune, January 5, 1912; John Smith Kendall, History of New Orleans (1922), Vol. II; Prescott N. Dunbar to author, March 15, 1983; Mrs. W. A. Rolston, Jr. (Delgado's great-grand niece) to author, March 19, 1983.
DELILLE, Henriette, religious, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family. Born 1813; daughter of Jean-Baptiste Delille-Sarpy and Pouponne Dias. Educated like most quadroons in France or New Orleans. Chose to work with poor, sick, the aged, and slaves. November 21, 1836, along with others, founded a religious community called the Sisters of the Presentation; helped build St. Augustine Church to be pastored by Father Etienne Jean-François Rousselon (q.v.) in 1841. Name of religious community changed to Sisters of the Holy Family, November 1, 1842; founding members included Juliette Gaudin (q.v.) and Josephine Charles (q.v.). Took religious vows October 15, 1852; founded a school for girls in 1850; 1860, opened a hospital for colored poor. Died, November 17, 1862. R.E.M. Source: Audrey Marie Detiege, Henriette Delille, Free Woman of Color, Foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family (1976).
DELPIT, Albert, novelist, playwright, journalist. Born, New Orleans, January 30, 1849. Educated at the lycée of Bordeaux. Returned briefly to Louisiana after completing his studies, then settled permanently in Paris. Secretary to Alexandre Dumas, père. Served in the French army during the Franco-Prussian War and received the Legion of Honor. Contributed to many Paris newspapers, numerous plays produced at the Odion, la Comédie Française Vaudeville, Le Gymnaise Dramaloquet. Awarded the Montyou Prize in 1872. In 1880, awarded the Vitet Prize, by the French Academy, for his total literary output; his 1891 volume Poésies was crowned by the French Academy. Became a French citizen, 1892. Died in Paris, January 5, 1893. Volumnous literary output. Novels and short stories: Huit jours d'histoire (1871); Le Repentir (1873); La Vengeresse (1874); Les Compagnons du Roi (1876); Jean Nu-Pieds (1876); Le Dernier gentilhomme (1877); Les Filles de Joie (1877); Le Mystère de Bas-Meudon (1878); Le Fils de Coralie (1879); La Marquise (1882); Solange de Croix-Saint-Luc (1885); Mademoiselle de Bressier (1886); Disparu (1888); Thérèsine (1888; first published in Revue des Deux Mondes [1887]); Comme dans la vie (1890); Toutes les deux (1890); Belle Madame (1892; published the same year in Revue des Deux Mondes). Plays: La Voix de Maître; Robert Pradel (1873); Jean-nu-pieds (1876); La Soeur de Charité (1875); Les Chevaliers de la Patrie (1876); Le Message de Scapien (1876); Le Fils de Coralie (1880); Le Père de Martial (1883); Les Maucroix (1883); Passionnerment (1891). M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tucker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932); L'Abbeille de la Nouvelle Orléans, January 6, 1893.
DELPIT, Thomas Henry, businessman, civic leader. Born, New Orleans, July 27, 1911; son of Joseph Albert and Florine Sims Delpit. Education: local schools. Owner, originator and manager of the Chicken Shack, the first such restaurant in Baton Rouge. Married, December 19, 1934, Edmae LaMotte of West Baton Rouge Parish, La., daughter of Marshall La Motte and Bertha Jackson La Motte. Children: Billie (b. 1935); Joseph A. (b. 1940); Lisa Denise (b. 1952). Active in United Givers Fund Division and past president of the Holy Name Society of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. Member, St. Agnes Council No. 12 of the Knights of Peter Claver, YMCA, and member: St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. Thomas A. Delpit Drive in Baton Rouge named for subject. Died, Baton Rouge, July 26, 1959; interred Gilbert Memorial Gardens. C.V. Sources: Personal interview with his wife, June 3, 4, 1984, Baton Rouge; his son, Representative Joseph "Joe" A. Delpit, May 15, 1983; Baton Rouge State Times, July 27, 1959.
DEMAREST (DESMARET), Louis George, planter. Born, Dunkirk, France, 1760; son of André George Demarest and Marie Jean Bourdon. Married, July 2, 1785, Adelaïde de Blanco Navarro, only child of Martín Navarro (q.v.), intendant of Louisiana, and one of Louisiana's wealthiest residents. Navarro provided a dowry of 6,000 pesos. Children: Félix Martín (b. May 12, 1788), Gilbert Ursin Pierre (b. 1789), Symphrosie Adélaïde (b. 1791), Michel Adélard (b. 1793), Marie Clarisse (b. 1795), Marie Zeide (b. 1799), Marie Alix (b. 1810), and Edouard (b. 1813). Received two large land grants, 1786 and 1790, totalling more that 3,000 arpents along Bayou Teche. Following the death intestate of Adelaïde's father in 1793, Louis and Adelaïde began a fourteen-year legal battle to obtain part of Navarro's estate. Louis left New Orleans in late 1799, was detained several years in Cuba, and finally reached Madrid in 1803; four years later, after several visits to La Coruña, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Francisco Antonio Navarro's widow for one-sixth of the intendant's estate worth more than 28,000 pesos. Returning to his plantation on Bayou Teche in 1807, he began construction of a plantation home which was completed in 1810. Died, on his plantation, August 15, 1815. The plantation house he built, now renamed Frances Plantation, still stands. B.C. Sources: Division of the estate of Martín Navarro, La Coruña, August 14, 1807 (copy in possession of author); Succession No. 94, Parish of St. Mary, Franklin, Louisiana; Marriage Book 2, St. Louis Cathedral Archives, New Orleans; Baptismal statements and death statements, St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, St. Martinville, La.; Judicial Records of the Spanish Cabildo, Louisiana State Museum, No. 79904271.
DEMBINSKI, Louis, educator. Born, Tarnów, Galicja, Poland, 1827; son of a Polish vinegrower and merchant. Removed to the United States, 1849. Taught and studied in New England towns; entered Yale University, 1855, B. A., 1858; probably the first Polish Phi Beta Kappa member. Opened, 1858, a college-preparatory school for boys in Clinton, La. Became, 1859, a member of the Examining Committee for Centenary College, Jackson, La. (later moved to Shreveport). Married, August 16, 1860, Lilly Oppermann of New Haven, Conn., at Baton Rouge, La. Children: two daughters. Became principal, 1860, of the public school in Clinton. Enlisted, September 1, 1861, in the 16th Louisiana Infantry, but probably, on sick furlough, returned to teaching at Clinton, 1862-1863. From September, 1863, to May, 1864, clerk in the United States Provost Marshal's Office, New Orleans. Chosen principal, 1864, of Claiborne Boys' School, New Orleans. Discharged in September, 1866, for pro-Union sentiments. Departed New Orleans. Died March 9, 1896; interred Philadelphia, Pa. L.S. Sources: Ladislas J. Siekaniec, O.F.M., The Polish Contribution to Early American Education, 1608-1865; James William Mobley, "The Academy Movement in Louisiana," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXX (1947); Yale 1858 Classbook (publ. 1897-1898).
DE MEZIERES, Athanase Christophe Fortunat Mauguet, soldier, administrator. Born, Paris, France, March 26, 1719; son of Louis Christophe Claude Mauguet de Mézières and of Marie Josèphe Antoinette Ménard de Clugny. Scion of basse noblesse, De Mézières banished to Louisiana by royal order, November 28, 1733, at request of mother, who preferred to keep his inheritance for herself. Edict reversed by Louis XV, October 29, 1742, but questionable whether the exile was apprised of revocation. On Natchitoches frontier, summer, 1740; identified as a cadet in 1744; recommended for promotion to cadet a l'aiguillette, 1746; reappears as enseigne en second (expectative), 1748. Transferring from regular Marines to reserve forces, De Mézières given rank of lieutenant; received final promotion, in the French military, to the rank of captain, 1754. With transfer of Louisiana to Spanish crown, was officially discharged. However, the commercial and diplomatic alliances which De Mézières made with the western tribes during the conduct of his personal and professional activities in the 1750s and 1760s, catapulted him into a role of exceptional service during the last dozen years of his life. Recognizing the strategic location of the Natchitoches outpost as a buffer against Indian aggression, and admitting a tradition of hostility against Spanish settlements by the western tribes, Spanish colonial officials appointed De Mézières commander of the Natchitoches frontier on November 24, 1769, in order to capitalize upon the already existing good relations between that French outpost and the more savage nations. He enacted Spanish controls upon Indian traders and coureurs de bois, executed a number of strategic treaties with both northern and western tribes, and extended the fur trade significantly. Recommended for rank of colonel, 1779. Shortly thereafter, appointed governor of Texas, De Mézières did not live to assume the position. Died in San Antonio, Texas, November 2, 1779. Married (1) Marie Petronille Félicité Juchereau de St. Denis, April 18, 1746, daughter of Louis Juchereau de St. Denis (q.v.). One child, Elizabeth Marie Félicité Nepomucene. Married (2), about 1755, Pélagie Fazende, daughter of Jacques Fazende. Children: Marie Pélagie Athanase, Cesaire Marie, Louis François Marie, Marie Antoine, a son, Marie Stéphanie Pélagie, Marie Josèphe "Colette", Marie Jean Jacques, a son, Marie Nicolas Zosime, a son. E.S.M. Sources: Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches, 1729-1803: Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean-Baptiste des Natchitoches in Louisiana (1977); Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches, 1800-1826: Translated Abstracts of Register Number Five of the Parish of St. François des Natchitoches in Louisiana (1980); Elizabeth Shown Mills, "[De] Mezieres-Trichel-Grappe: A Tri-Caste Lineage in the Old South," The Genealogist, V (1984); Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches Colonials, 1729-1803: Censuses, Military Rolls, and Tax Lists (1981); Herbert E. Bolton, ed. and annot., Athanase de Mézières and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780 (1914); MM. Berthelot, eds., La Grande Encyclopedie, inventaire raisonne des sciences, des lettres et des arts, tome XXIV; Nouvelle biographie générale, tome XXXVI; Bill Barron, The Vaudreuil Papers: A Calendar and Index of the Personal and Private Records of Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Royal Governor of the French Province of Louisiana, 1743-1753 (1975); Jean Gabriel Fazende, et al. v. Succession of Mr. Marie Pélagie Athanase Mauguet de Mezieres, Microcopy VS.5 (1833); in Office of the Clerk of Court, Natchitoches; John Ogden Leal, trans., "San Fernando Church Burials, 1761-1808," Alamo Library, San Antonio; Glenn R. Conrad, First Families of Louisiana, 2 vols. (1970).
DEMING, Henry C., New Orleans mayor under military government of Benjamin Butler (q.v.). Born, Colchester, Conn., May 23, 1815; son of David Deming and Alice Champion. Education: Yale, graduated 1836; Harvard Law School, 1839. Before the Civil War, active in the Democratic party of Connecticut; served as state representative, 1849, 1850, 1859-1861, state senator, 1851, and mayor of Hartford, 1854-1858, 1860-1862 (overlapping with term as state representative). The Civil War reshaped his career. Served as Republican speaker of state legislature; joined army as the lieutenant colonel of the Twelfth Connecticut Regiment, the first body of Union troops to enter New Orleans. Appointed first military-mayor in October 1862; resigned February 1863. Returned to Connecticut to run for Congress; served, March 4, 1863 to March 3, 1867; lost race for reelection in 1866. Appointed collector of internal revenue, 1869. Served until death. Wrote campaign biography of U. S. Grant, 1868. Married (1), 1850, Sarah Clerc. Married (2), 1872, Annie Putnam Jittson. Died, October 8, 1872; interred Spring Grove Cemetery, Hartford, Conn. J.L. Sources: Melvin C. Holli and Peter Jones, eds., Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (1981); Benjamin F. Butler, Butler's Book (1892); John S. Kendall, History of New Orleans (1922).
DENECHAUD, Charles Isidore, attorney, civic, social and religious leader. Born, New Orleans, January 3, 1879; son of Edward Francis Denechaud and Juanita Del Trigo. Education: Jesuit College, New Orleans; Tulane University, LL. B., 1901; Loyola University, LL. D., 1924. Married Rose Stafford of Ontario, Canada, October 30, 1907. Children: Rosemary E., married Charles Taylor Walet; Kathleen F., married John T. Charbonnet; Charles I., Jr., married Mary Barbara Byrne; and Margaret S., married Otto F. Ramsey. Admitted to Louisiana bar and federal courts, 1901; member, New Orleans Bar Association, Louisiana Bar Association, and American Bar Association. Served as attorney for Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, National American Bank of New Orleans, Loyola University, WWL Radio and TV, and New Orleans Chapter of American Red Cross, among others. President of Barcom, Inc. Served as special assistant to attorney general of the United States; appointed chairman of Local Disaster Relief Committee of American Red Cross, 1936, by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. Served in Paris as Overseas Commissioner for the National Catholic Welfare Council, 1918-1920. Professor of Civil Law at Loyola University, where he received honorary LL. D., 1932. Appointed to Louisiana State Welfare Board, 1936, and served on Commission on American Citizenship, Louisiana State Hospital Board, board of administrators of Charity Hospital, executive committee of the International House, board of commissioners of New Orleans City Park, board of managers of the Hospital Association of New Orleans, and board of trustees of Catholic University of America. Served on board of directors of Standard Fruit and Steamship Company, National American Bank of New Orleans, Roosevelt Hotel Corporation, International Trade Mart, United Service Corporation, Louisiana League for Hard of Hearing, New Orleans Chapter of the Red Cross, Marquette Association for Higher Education, St. Mary's Orphan Boys' Asylum, Lakeshore Hospital, Catholic School Board of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Art Association of New Orleans, and Delgado Museum of Art. Served as chairman of the board of advisors of Hotel Dieu and Xavier University. Elected president of Loyola's Athletic Council, Loyola Grid Club, and Jesuit High Alumni Association. Distinguished Catholic lay leader; served as chairman of Laymen's Committee for Eighth National Eucharistic Congress, 1938; chairman of executive committee for Diocesan Seminary Fund, 1919, district deputy of Knights of Columbus, 1904-1917; member, executive committee of National Catholic Educational Association, treasurer, 1922; and member, executive committee of National Council of Catholic Men; president, Federation of Catholic Societies of Louisiana, 1908-1912; and national president, American Federation of Catholic Societies, 1912-1914. Contributed article, "The Catholics of the South," to Catholic Builders of the Nation, 1923. Dubbed Knight of St. Gregory, 1924, and Papal Chamberlain of the Cape and Sword to Pope Pius XI, 1938. Citation from American Medical Association for work on behalf of hospitals and health care; special Red Cross service award, 1942. Died, New Orleans, October 21, 1956; interred Metairie Cemetery. C.E.N. Sources: Edwin Adams Davis, The Story of Louisiana (1960); Catholic Action of the South, October 28, 1956.
DE NECKERE, Leo Raymond, clergyman, prelate. Born, Wevelgem, West Flanders (Belgium), June 7, 1799; son of Charles Louis and Marie Anne (Delporte) De Neckère. Early education, college of Roulers; seminary studies in preparation for the priesthood begun at Vincentian Seminary, Ghent. Responded to plea of Bishop Louis Guillaume Du Bourg (q.v.) for missionary workers in former Louisiana Territory and sailed with him to the United States on La Caravane, June 2, 1817. Seminary studies continued at St. Thomas Seminary, Bardstown, Ky., and completed at St. Mary of the Barrens, Perryville, Mo. Joined Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) June 1, 1820. Ordained priest October 13, 1822. Unusually gifted and versatile; fluent in five languages and competent to teach such varied subjects as philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, and natural history. Member and superior of the Perryville Seminary, 1825, while also engaged in missionary work. Suffered from poor health and returned to Flanders for about a year, 1827. Bishop Joseph Rosati (q.v.), now administrator of the Diocese of New Orleans and bishop of St. Louis, recommended to Rome that De Neckère be made a bishop and entrusted with the Diocese of New Orleans. De Neckère, opposed to the idea, wrote Rome in a contrary sense but was appointed in 1829. Consecrated, June 24, 1830, by Bishop Rosati. Poor health remained a problem. De Neckère asked to be relieved of his responsibilities in 1831 and again near the end of 1832. Filled needs of Irish and other English-speaking Catholics by founding St. Patrick's Parish, New Orleans, in 1833. When severe cholera epidemic swept New Orleans, 1832, De Neckère brought Sisters of Charity from Maryland to staff Charity Hospital. Epidemic recurred 1833. Died, September 5, 1833, of cholera. First bishop to be interred in New Orleans. J.E.B. Sources: Roger Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana (1939); J. B. Code, Dictionary of the American Hierarchy (1964); J. Rothensteiner, History of the Archdiocese of St. Louis (1928); J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States (1892).
DENEGRE, George, attorney, civic leader. Born, New Orleans, August 17, 1854; son of James Denis Denègre (q.v.) and Sylvanie Blanc. Education: Fordham, B. A., 1875; University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), LL. B., 1878. Married Edith Bayne who adopted her nephews and niece, Stanhope Bayne-Jones (q.v.), Marian Gayle Denègre Hopkins (1890-1982), and Thomas Bayne Denègre (1893-1967). Entered the practice of law (1878) in the firm of his father-in-law, T. L. Bayne (q.v.), of which John Slidell (q.v.) had been a member. At his death he had been for many years head of this firm, then known as Denègre, Leovy and Chaffe (now Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler & Sarpy). This firm was one of the most conspicuous in the South. Besides conducting a general practice, its clients included the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad & Steamship Co., Western Union Telegraph Co., Bell Telephone Co., Southern Express Co., New Orleans Traction Co., which controlled half of all the street railroading in New Orleans, and many other corporations and firms. Although primarily engaged in office practice, he was a trial lawyer of the first rank. Active in the civic affairs of the city and state, including, in particular, the successful efforts to remove the radical or carpetbag rule from the city and state; and the opposition to the Louisiana Lottery. He also took a leading part in the Citizens' League campaign of 1896 which laid the foundation for the city's political regeneration. Member, Maritime Law Association of the United States, American Society of International Law, American Bar Association and Louisiana Bar Association. Active in social affairs, being a member of the Boston Club and other preeminent social organizations. Died, New Orleans, May 24, 1930. G.D. Sources: Newspaper clippings; Louisiana bar obituary; family papers; National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1906).
DENEGRE, James Denis, businessman, banker. Born, Southampton County, Va., August 18, 1812; son of Jean Michel Denègre, native of Montauban, France (who settled in St-Domingue until the slave uprising forced his removal to Virginia) and Mary Cobb, native of Southampton County, Va. Married Louise Sylvanie Blanc, daughter of Evariste Blanc and Marie Fanny Labatut. Children: Joseph (b. 1839), Mary Emma (b. 1841), Louise Sylvanie (b. 1842), John (b. 1844), Charles (b. 1845), Louise (b. 1847), James Taylor (b. 1848), Henry (b. 1850), Amelie (b. 1851), William Pierce (b. 1853), George (q.v.), Mary Virginia (b. 1856), Walter Denis (q.v.), and Elizabeth Lillian (b. 1862). Removed to New Orleans from Virginia as young man; distinguished himself in civic and financial life of the city. President, Citizens Bank (predecessor of First National Bank of Commerce, New Orleans). Issued the ten dollar notes known as "Dix Notes" or "Dixes" from the which the expression "Land of Dixie" and song "Dixie" are said to have arisen. Exiled to Brussels, Belgium, by General Butler (q.v.) after the fall of New Orleans. While in Europe, he was offered and declined the portfolio of minister of finance in Emperor Maximilian's government. Died, Brussels, June 3, 1865. G.D. Sources: "Blanc Cousins," a genealogical chart assembled by Thos. C. Nicholls, Jr., and Richard B. McConnell, privately reproduced, October 1, 1960; newspaper clippings; National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1906).
DENEGRE, Walter Denis, attorney, civic leader. Born, New Orleans, June 19, 1858; son of James Denis Denègre (q.v.) and Sylvanie Blanc. Married Mrs. Bertha Cobb-Armour. Child: Elaine (b. 1895), married Walter D. Sohier, Jr. Education: St. John's College, Fordham, New York; Harvard, graduated 1879; Tulane Law School, 1881. Special counsel for U. S. before the French and American Claims Commission. Partner in the firm Bayne, Denègre & Denègre (now Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler & Sarpy). Active in politics and a leader in New Orleans in the Young Men's Democratic Association and later the Citizens' League. He was deprived of a seat in the U. S. Senate by political jugglery on the part of the presiding officer of the Louisiana assembly. Took an active part in suppressing the "Mafia" and "Black Hand" in New Orleans in 1889. Ruled as Rex in 1899 and was a member of the leading social clubs of New Orleans and Washington. Later removed to Washington, D. C., and Manchester, Mass., where he was a noted horseman and also president of the Massachusetts Auto Club. Chief of Division of Insular Possessions, Bureau of Alien Property, 1917-1919. Continued an active social and political life until his death in Manchester, July 28, 1934. G.D. Sources: National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1906); Who Was Who in America.
DENNETT, Daniel, educator, journalist. Born, Saco, York County, Me., March 27, 1818. Taught school in Ohio, Iowa, and Tennessee before removing to Louisiana in 1841. Settled on Bayou Salé in St. Mary Parish; became owner/editor of Franklin Planters' Banner in 1848; supported improvements in the methods of agriculture; zealous advocate of temperance. After the Civil War, became associated with the New Orleans Daily Picayune as editor, later as agricultural editor. Married, 1842, Mary Elizabeth Garret, daughter of John Joshua Garret. Six children. Active before the war as a Whig, later joined the Republican party. Member, Presbyterian church. Lived in Brookhaven, Miss., in later life. Died, Brookhaven, January 6, 1891. D.J.M. Sources: William Henry Perrin, ed., Southwest Louisiana, Biographical and Historical (1891; reprint ed., 1971); New Orleans Daily Picayune, obituary, January 6, 1891.
DENT, Hatch, planter, attorney. Born, Charles County, Md., February 6, 1775. Practiced law. Removed to Louisiana after the Louisiana Purchase, settled near Alexandria. Appointed clerk of court, Rapides County, May 1805; justice of the peace, January 7, 1806; reappointed, July 27, 1809; major, Tenth Regiment, Louisiana Militia, January 1, 1808; appointed sheriff, Fourth Superior Court District, 1807; reappointed 1809. A planter and possibly a merchant. Married Jeanette Meuillon, December 18, 1806. Died, 1816. A.W.B. Sources: George Mason Graham Stafford, The Wells Family of Louisiana and Allied Families (1969; reprint ed., 1976); Clarence Edwin Carter, comp., The Territorial Papers of the United States, IX, The Territory of Orleans (1940).
DENUX, Alton René, dentist, state legislator. Born, Marksville, La., July 25, 1904; son of Virginia Riddle and H. A. deNux. Education: local public schools; Loyola University, New Orleans, graduated 1927. Married: Esther Martin, in New Orleans, 1925. Children: Wanda and Constance. Career: practiced dentistry in Marksville. Served on Avoyelles Parish School Board, 1935-1944; president, 1937-1940; mayor of Marksville, 1937-1940 and 1950-1954. Appointed to State Board of Dentistry in 1948 and 1959. Served as secretary for sixteen years. Served three terms in state house of representatives, 1944 to 1950; initiated annual senior citizen's picnic and the honoring of veterans of World War I by local bank in Marksville. Member: Roman Catholic church, Democratic party, Lions Club; honorary member of Omicron Kappa Epsilon. Died, Marksville, December 1, 1986; interred St. Joseph Catholic Church Mausoleum. J.B.C. Sources: Ellis Arthur Davis, ed., The Historical Encyclopedia of Louisiana, (1937); Lafayette Daily Advertiser, obituary, December 2, 1986; xerox copy, State of Louisiana House Concurrent Resolution #42, First Session, 1986.
DE POUILLY, Jacques Nicolas Bussière, architect. Born, Chatel-Censoir, Yonne in Burgundy, France, 1805. Educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. Married Laurence Drigny in Church of St. Roch, Paris, October 1, 1825. Children: Lucinne (b. 1833), Belzire (b. 1845). De Pouilly removed to New Orleans about 1834 and practiced architecture with his brother, Joseph Isidore de Pouilly (d. 1866). He was also affiliated at times with architects Louis H. Pilie, Louis Surgi, Eugene Surgi and Ernest Goudchaux. Major architectural works in New Orleans include St. Louis Exchange Hotel (1836-1838, rebuilt after fire, 1841), Exchange Passage (1837), Citizens' Bank Building (1837), Dufilho's Pharmacy ([1837] Pharmacy Museum), Olivier House (1839), St. Augustine's Church (1841-1842), St. Louis Cathedral (1849-1850). Designed numerous houses and some of the finest tombs in New Orleans. Taught linear drawing at Audubon College. Died, New Orleans, February 21, 1875; interred St. Louis Cemetery II. J.T.M. Sources: Edith Elliott Long, Madame Olivier's Mansion (1965); Samuel Wilson, Jr., A Guide to Architecture of New Orleans, 1699-1959 (1959); Mary Louise Christovich, ed., New Orleans Architecture, Vol. III, The Cemeteries (1974).
DERBANNE, François (Guyon) Dion Desprès, administrator, explorer. Baptized at Quebec, February 6, 1671. Married ca. 1726. As son of the French Canadian privateer, François Guyon dit Desprès, and of his wife Marie-Marguerite Marsolet, Derbanne's birth connections were to assist him well in his colonial career. His maternal grandfather, Nicolas Marsolet, sieur de St. Aignan, had come to New France with Samuel Champlain and enjoyed a long career as Indian interpreter, merchant, and fiefholder. Derbanne's maternal grandfather, Jean Guyon, sieur de Buisson, had established his family in the New World with the 1634 Touruvran migration led by Robert Giffard and was the progenitor of many of Canada's political and religious leaders. In Derbanne's youth, his father took into partnership Antoine La Mothe Cadillac (q.v.), who soon after wed Derbanne's first cousin (Thérèse Guyon, daughter of Denis). The eventual appointment of this in-law to the governorship of Louisiana was to shape Derbanne's colonial activities as well. The establishment of the Louisiana colony and the exploration of the Mississippi Valley lured Derbanne southward. He participated in the Le Sueur expedition, 1698-1699, which explored for minerals in the upper valley. His memoirs particularly note his role in the circa 1705 exploration of the Missouri. In August 1706 he was dispatched to France aboard the Aigle with Jean-Baptiste Baudreau dit Graveline, Nicolas Chauvin dit La Frénière (q.v.), and Pierre Babin dit La Source, in an effort to establish a commercial venture between the Gulf Coast merchants and the continent. Circa 1709 he received his first official appointment: garde magasin of the colony's stores on Dauphin Island. Bore the brunt of the 1710 attack upon the island by English privateer from Jamaica. Cadillac, as governor, appointed Derbanne to oversee his own interests in the 1714 commercial expedition of Louis Juchereau de St. Denis (q.v.) to the Rio Grande; and Gov. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (q.v.) concurred in this estimation of Derbanne's business acumen when he named Derbanne subdélégué and garde magasin of the newly established and strategic military outpost of St. Jean-Baptiste des Natchitoches. Derbanne's arrival at Natchitoches in January 1717 apparently marked the first settlement of the Louisiana frontier by a family of European origins; and the choice of family was appropriate for bridging cultural disparities. Jeanne de la Grande Terre, Derbanne's wife, was a Native American, most probably a Chitimacha. The union of Jeanne and Derbanne dated at least from 1709 at which time she, as Derbanne's slave and domestic, conceived their first child. Contemporary records at Natchitoches reveal that the couple eventually married, although no record of her manumission or of that marriage has been found. An inventory of Derbanne's estate, taken after his death in February 1734, itemized a contract of marriage executed by the couple at Natchitoches on January 14, 1726. It is probable that the marriage was solemnized shortly thereafter by one of the visiting missionaries from the neighboring Spanish post of San Miguel de Los Adaes. Children: Jean-Baptiste Dion Desprès (b. 1709), settled at Los Adaes near his father-in-law, Lieut. José Gonzales, Jean Dion Desprès (b. 1716), Jeanne Dion (b. 1719), married François Manne, settled at Opelousas, Gaspard Dion (b. 1724), remained at Natchitoches; Louise Marguerite (b. 1727), married 1) Etienne Barbier; (2) Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, Jr., remained at Natchitoches; Pierre Dion (b. 1730), resided at Pointe Coupée and Natchitoches. Derbanne died in New Orleans, 1734. E.S.M. Sources: Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, Vol. I (1871); Elizabeth Shown Mills and Gary B. Mills, Tales of Old Natchitoches (1978); "François (Guyon) Dion Desprès Derbanne," Natchitoches Genealogist, (October, 1981); Marcel Giraud, A History of French Louisiana, Vol. I; The Reign of Louis XIV, 1698-1715 (1953); Katherine Bridges and Winston DeVille, "Natchitoches and the Trail to the Rio Grande," Louisiana History, VIII (1967); Clarence M. Burton, ed., The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I; Mme. Pierre Montagne, "Jean Guyon Before His Departure for Canada," French Canadian and Acadian Genealogical Review (Spring, 1968); "Nicholas Marsolet de Saint-Aignan," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. I (1966); Elizabeth Shown Mills, Natchitoches, 1729-1803 (1977); Jay Higginbotham, Old Mobile, Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702-1711 (1977); Succession of Derbanne, Natchitoches Parish Records Collection, Box 1, Folder 2, Louisiana State University Archives, Baton Rouge.
DERBIGNY, Pierre Augustin Bourguignon, jurist, governor. Born, Laon, France, June 30, 1769; son of Augustin Bourguignon d'Herbigny (president of the Directoire de l'Ainse and mayor of Laon) and Louise Angélique Blondela. Educated at Ste. Geneviève. Studied law. Left France in 1791 and travelled to Saint-Domingue, Pittsburgh, the Illinois country, New Madrid, Florida, and Havana before arriving in New Orleans in 1797. Married Félicité Odile de Hault de Lassus, daughter of Pierre-Charles de Hault de Lassus de Luzières (q.v.) in Pittsburgh, June 29, 1791. Children: Charles Zenon, Felix, Aimée, Odile, Lucie, Emile, and Blanche. Built home on 1500 acres of land on the right bank of Mississippi River at Nine Mile Point, 1826. Legal and business representative in Louisiana for his friend, General Lafayette (q.v.) of Revolutionary War fame. Partner in a company issued the first license to operate a ferry on the Mississippi River at New Orleans, 1820. Practiced law from offices on St. Louis Street and later Royal Street. Military service: private in Captain Chauveau's Company of Cavalry in the Louisiana Militia at the Battle of New Orleans. Early appointed positions: English-language interpreter for the Spanish authorities; secretary of Municipal Council of New Orleans, 1803; interpreter for the Territory of Orleans, 1803-1804; from 1804, clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and secretary of the Legislative Council of the territory. In 1806-1807, represented the city of New Orleans in a lawsuit brought against the city by Edward Livingston (q.v.) for possession of the waterfront area known as the batture; later, wrote pamphlets supporting the claim of the United States government to ownership of the batture in opposition to the claim of Livingston. In 1804 and 1805, one of three who carried a memorial from ancienne population of Louisiana to the United States Congress, protesting against the Act of Congress of 1804, which had provided for the closing of the slave trade into Louisiana and for the government of Louisiana without any representative assembly or elections; rewarded in 1805 with the establishment by Congress of a territorial legislature for Louisiana with an elected lower house. Was prominent among those who opposed the establishment of the British common law in Louisiana (1806-1807), and contributed to the retention of the civil law practices that had been established in Louisiana during the French and Spanish colonial periods. Was a leader of the movement which established the College of Orleans in 1811, the first institution of higher learning in Louisiana, and became a regent of that institution. Secretary of the senate of the state of Louisiana, 1812. Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, 1813-1820; assisted Livingston and Moreau-Lislet (q.v.) in compiling the Civil Code of Louisiana, 1819-1824. By 1820, was a moderate working to ease tensions between the American and French groups in New Orleans; by 1828, was a follower of John Quincy Adams on national political issues. In 1820, ran unsuccessfully for the governorship against J. N. Destréhan (q.v.), Abner L. Duncan and Thomas B. Robertson (q.v.); was strongly supported by Bernard Marigny (q.v.) and opposed by Livingston who supported Robertson, who won. Secretary of state, 1820-1828. Appointed regent of the Central and Primary Schools of New Orleans, 1827. Elected governor of Louisiana, 1828; ran against Thomas Butler (q.v.) and Bernard Marigny (Jackson men) and Philemon Thomas ([q.v.] an Adams supporter). As governor, urged that an effort be made to calm the passions that had prevailed in the recent election, urged economy in public expenditures, urged the appointment of an unpaid inspector of public schools to report annually on each school supported by public funds, urged that habitual drunkenness be forbidden by law, recommended regulation of steamboats to prevent accidents, and supported various public works. During his term, legislation was passed establishing the New Orleans Gas Light Company, incorporating the Barataria and Lafourche Canal Company, and incorporating the Lafourche and Terrebonne Navigation Company; instituting a major program for the regular inspection and repair of the levees and levee roads; and regulating the introduction of adult slaves into Louisiana (in an effort to protect the state from becoming a dumping ground for rebellious slaves from other states). Died, Gretna, La., October 6, 1829, from injuries sustained when thrown from his carriage; interred St. Louis Cemetery, New Orleans. J.F.G. Sources: Michel d'Herbigny, Pierre Bourguignon-d'Herbigny (1769-1829) Governor of Louisiana and His Descendants in U.S.A. (1979); Joseph Tregle, "The Governors of Louisiana: Pierre Auguste Charles Bourguignon Derbigny, 1828-1829," Louisiana History, XXII (1981); William Bass Hatcher, "The Political Career of Edward Livingston" (Ph. D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1937); Sidney Romero, ed., "My Fellow Citizens": The Inaugural Addresses of Louisiana's Governors (1980); Marion John Bennett Pierson, comp., Louisiana Soldiers in the War of 1812 (1963).
DE ROALDES, Arthur Washington, physician, surgeon. Born, Opelousas, La., January 25, 1849; son of Dr. Abel de Roaldes and Coralie Testas de Folmont. Education: Jesuit schools of France, receiving degree in letters, 1865, degree in science, 1866. Returned to New Orleans, studied medicine and entered Charity Hospital as resident student. Graduated from Medical Department, University of Louisiana, 1869. Returned to France to continue medical studies. Served in ambulance corps, Franco-Prussian War; awarded Legion of Honor for bravery and heroic acts. Returned to New Orleans, 1872; served as visiting surgeon, Charity Hospital. Returned to France, sojourned 1876-1880, for health reasons. Chosen, 1880, by Governor Wiltz (q.v.) to head Charity Hospital. Founded, 1889, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital of New Orleans, after a ten-year study of ailments of these parts of the body. Attended international medical congresses, 1890s. Awarded Daily Picayune Loving Cup for 1905. Contributed to American and foreign medical journals. Dubbed Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Pius X. Married (1), 1873, Laura Pandely (d. 1874); married (2), 1885, Annie E. Miller, daughter of Louisiana Supreme Court justice Henry C. Miller (q.v.). No children. Although blind for 20 years before death, remained active in practice through the eyes of others. Surgeon-in-chief of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital until two years before death. Died, New Orleans, September 17, 1918; interred New Orleans. G.R.C. Sources: Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942; New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 18, 1918.
DEROUEN, René Louis, businessman, politician, congressman. Born, near Ville Platte, St. Landry (now Evangeline) Parish, La., January 7, 1874; son of Fabius and Alma DeBaillon DeRouen. Education: public schools; St. Charles College, Grand Coteau; A. B. 1892, Holy Cross College, New Orleans. Married Christina Currie, 1896. Children: Mrs. L. V. Dupuis; Irene (Mrs. Alfred Tate); Louis R.; and Alvin F. Organize the Bank of Ville Platte and instrumental in organizing other banks in Southwest Louisiana; president, Evangeline Bank and Trust Company of Ville Platte; vice president, First National Bank of Ville Platte; farmer; merchant in Ville Platte. Active in the movement to separate Evangeline Parish from St. Landry Parish. Chairman, Democratic Congressional Committee from the Seventh District. Member, United States House of Representatives, 1926-1941 (chairman, Public Lands Committee; member, Rivers and Harbors Committee, and Education Commitee; assistant whip). Not a candidate for renomination in 1940. Louisiana banking department, 1941-1942. Died, Ville Platte, March 27, 1942; interred Roman Catholic cemetery. J.F.G. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 27, 1942; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961 (1961); Who Was Who in America; John D. Klorer, ed., The New Louisiana: The Story of the Greatest State of the Nation (n.d.); Marquis, Albert Nelson, Who's Who in America (1936-1937).
DESDUNES, Rodolphe Lucien, writer, civil-rights proponent. Born, New Orleans, November 15, 1849; son of Jeremiah Desdunes of Haiti and his wife Henrietta, a Cuban. Married Mathilde Cheval. Children: Wendell, Daniel, Coritza, Agnes, Lucille, and Jeanne. Served as messenger, then clerk, with the U. S. Customs Service, 1879-1885, 1891-1894. During this period helped organized the Comité des Citoyens which challenged the passage of Jim Crow laws, an effort highlighted by the unsuccessful attempt of Desdunes' friend Homer A. Plessy (q.v.) to end racial segregation in Louisiana railroad cars in the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case. Back with the customhouse in 1899, received a permanent appointment in January 1900. Meanwhile had been researching and writing a book on the achievements of Louisiana men and women of color in arts and letters, music, invention, philanthropy, and in all other areas of life. The book, Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire (Our People and Our History), was published in 1911, though it was probably completed at least ten years earlier. It remains an invaluable source of information on the creole of color community in Louisiana in the nineteenth century. Misfortune tempered the good news of the publication of his book. Around the same time, 1911, Desdunes, while performing his duties for the customhouse, suffered the tragic loss of his sight when some dust from a piece of granite being off-loaded from a ship blew into his eyes. Efforts to save his sight failed. In September, 1912, he was forced to retire from the Customs Service. Died, August 14, 1928, while visiting his son Daniel in Omaha, Neb.; interred St. Louis Cemetery II, New Orleans. D.W.M. Sources: Charles E. O'Neill, "Foreword," to Desdunes, Our People and Our History, trans. by Dorothea McCants (1973); Charles E. O'Neill, "Fine Arts and Literature: Nineteenth Century Louisiana Black Artists and Authors," in Robert Macdonald, John Kemp, and Edward Haas, eds., Louisiana's Black Heritage (1971); Edward Laroque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932).
DESHOTELS, Marcelus, musician (harmonica, violin), singer, storyteller. Born, Mamou, Evangeline Parish, La., April 14, 1882 As an informant for Paul Tate and Revon Reed, was instrumental in 1951 revival of country Mardi Gras celebration in Mamou. Influenced many Cajun musicians including twin sons Elby and Edward Deshotels. Died, Mamou, La., March 24, 1953. B.J.A. Source: Author's research.
DESSOMMES, Edward (Edouard) E., amateur portrait and landscape painter. Born, New Orleans, 1845. Scion of an aristocratic family. Education: New Orleans; Paris, France; studied medicine as well as art, the latter in the best studios of Paris. Circa 1888, returned to New Orleans and decided to give painting lessons. Being well disposed financially, did not practice extensively as a physician and concentrated on painting. In 1889 and 1890 exhibited at the fourth and fifth annual exhibitions of the Artists' Association of New Orleans and was a member of this organziation in 1890. The New Orleans City directories indicate that he was a teacher and professor (of art?) between 1890 and 1894. Obituary indicates that when he returned to New Orleans he took up residence in Covington, La. Died, New Orleans, February 21, 1908. C.S.B. Source: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987).
DESTREHAN DE BEAUPRE, Jean-Baptiste, administrator. Born in France; son of Jean-Baptiste Destréhan of Paris, treasurer to Kings Louis XIV and XV, and of Marguerite du Saunoy; brother of Jean-Baptiste Louis Destréhan who succeeded him in colonial office. Educated in Paris; arrived in New Orleans in 1722 to serve as treasurer of the Marine. Responsible for construction of the Harvey Canal on the west bank of the Mississippi River, completed in 1739, that gave New Orleans access to the Gulf of Mexico. Cultivated indigo on his land grant; appointed comptroller of the colony, 1746, which office he held along with that of treasurer until his death. Married Jeanne Catherine Gauvret (b. ca. 1728; predeceased her husband), daughter of Capt. Jean-Baptiste de Gauvret, an officer of Bienville's troops, and of Jeanne Catherine Pierre. Seven children lived beyond infancy: Jean-Baptiste Honoré (1749-1776), Jeanne Marguerite Marie (1754-1814), Jeanne Marie, Marie Isabel, Jean Noël (q.v.), Jeanne Catherine, and Jean-Baptiste Louis (1758-1766). Died, New Orleans, February 26, 1765; probably interred St. Louis Cathedral. R.L.W. & J.F.T. Sources: Louise Destréhan Roger D'Oliveira, et al., To Reach Afar: Destrehan and Harvey Families (1974); Stanley Clisby Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (1971); Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana (reprint ed., 1974); Herman de Bachelle Seebold, Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family Trees (1941).
DESTREHAN DE TOURS, Jean Noël, politician, planter, merchant. Born, New Orleans, 1754; son of Jean-Baptiste Destréhan de Beaupré (q.v.) and Jeanne Catherine Gauvret. Educated in France; returned to Louisiana, 1771. With brother, Jean-Baptiste Honoré Destréhan de Beaupré, purchased, 1776, a large plantation in St. Charles Parish. Plantation became solely his upon death of brother (1776). Married, 1786, Marie Claudine Eléonore Robin de Logny, daughter of Robert Antoine Robin de Logny (q.v.) and Jeanne Dreux. Fourteen children, nine surviving to adulthood: Jean Etienne, Guy Noël, Nicolas Noël, Eulalie, Zélia, Odîle, René, Amélie, and Céleste. Engaged in mercantile pursuits and as a planter. One of three Creoles who protested to Congress against the provisions of the first territorial government, which resulted in the formulation of a second government with more liberal provisions. Member, Legislative Council of the Territory of Orleans and served as its president, 1806, again in 1811. Although opposed to statehood, served as a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1812. Elected to the U. S. Senate, 1812, but did not take his seat in Congress. Served in the state senate, 1812-1817. Thereafter pursued his occupation as a planter. Purchased the home now known as Destréhan Manor from the estate of his father-in-law on December 16, 1792. House sold by his widow to son-in-law, Stephen Henderson (q.v.), 1824, and later, 1839, sold by Henderson heirs to Pierre Rost (q.v.), also a son-in-law. Destréhan's death date traditionally given as October 9, 1823; however, in a document in the St. Charles Parish archives dated October 8, his wife is referred to as the "Widow Destréhan." Interred St. Charles Parish. G.R.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950); Glenn R. Conrad, St. Charles: Abstracts of the Civil Records of St. Charles Parish, 1770-1803 (1974); Louise Destrehan Roger D'Oliveira et al., To Reach Afar: Destrehan and Harvey Families of Louisiana (1974); St. Charles Parish Original Acts, 1823-24.
DEUTSCH, Hermann Bacher, journalist, author. Born, Brüx, Austria-Hungary (now Czechoslovakia), March 16, 1889; son of Gotthard and Hermine Deutsch. Educated in Cincinnati where he was brought by his parents from Europe at age 2. Education: University of Chicago, B.A., M.A. and Ph. D. (Botany). Prior to completing university education, was an instructor at Bethany College in West Virginia. Military service: Army Air Corps during World War I. Never married. Career in journalism: Chicago Journal, 1915; New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1916; New Orleans States, 1918; New Orleans Item, 1918-1958; New Orleans States-Item, 1958-1970; associate editor, chief editorial writer, and daily columnist, 1949-1970. Non-fiction works: The Incredible Yankee (1931); The Kingdom of the Kingfish (1939); The Huey Long Murder Case (1963); Brennan's New Orleans Cookbook (1964); Jungle Gardens of Avery Island (n.d.). Novels: The Wedge (1935); Louisiana (1939). Died: New York City, June 25, 1970; body cremated. J.L. Sources: Obituaries, New York Times, June 27, 1970, and New Orleans States-Item, June 25, 1970; Herman B. Deutsch Papers; Mrs. Rosa Deutsch, interview, May, 1983.
DEVELLE, Louis Dominique Grandjean, painter and scenic artist. Born, Paris, France, ca. 1799; son of Dominique Louis Armand Grandjean Filbert dit Develle and Louise Clémence Savigny. Educated in France. Painter of church murals and theatrical settings there. Engaged as scenic artist at the Théâtre d'Orléans, season 1828/29; active in scenic design there and in other New Orleans theatres for the next thirty-nine years. Painted view of the French Market area, The Red Store (The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, La.), and other canvases. Married Marie Thérèse Deliège, of Spa, Belgium. Children: Louis dit Dominique, Louise Hypolite, (others?). Died, Mandeville, La., June 22, 1868; interred St. Louis Cemetery III, New Orleans. J.B.** Sources: New Orleans Bee, October 20, 1867; New Orleans Bee, June 24, 1868; New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 26, 1973; St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, La., baptismal records; St. Louis Cemetery No. 3, tombstone inscriptions; George C. Grace and David H. Wallace, "The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860".
DEVILLIER, Balthazar Ricard de la Chevalleraye, administrator. Born, France, ca. 1732; son of Gabriel Ricard de la Chevalleraye de Villier and Marie Jouart. Military service: Received as cadet à l'Eguillette, New Orleans, 1749; promoted to rank of second lieutenant, 1752; enseign en pied, 1754, and lieutenant, 1759; served under French regime at Balize, 1753-1764. Returned to France, 1764. Returned to Louisiana, 1768, as captain in Spanish militia; served as commandant at Natchitoches Post, 1768-1769, 1773-1774; Pointe Coupée Post, 1771-1773, 1774-1776; and Arkansas Post, 1776-1782. Took possession of the left bank of the Mississippi River opposite the Arkansas, White, and St. Francis rivers, as far as the boundary of the Natchez District for Spain on November 22, 1780. Married, New Orleans, Au¬gust 12, 1760, Marie Françoise Dorothea Voisin, daughter of Jacques Voisin and Françoise Claudine Denis de Bonaventure of New Orleans. Children: Marie Françoise Dorothea (1763-1835), Françoise Ricard (1770-1771), Jacques Gabriel (q.v.), and Marie Clothilde (1776-1804). Died 1782. J.R. Sources: France. Archives Nationales, Colonies, C 13a, 34:22-22vo; C 13a, 44:117; Herbert Bolton, ed., Athanase de Mezières and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780 (1914); C. Robert Churchill, comp., S. A. R. Spanish Records: Spanish-English War, 1779-1783 (1925); Winston DeVille, Louisiana Troops, 1720-1770 (1965); Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records, Vol. II, 1770-1803 (1980); Stanley Faye, "The Arkansas Post of Louisiana: Spanish Domination," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVII (1944); Elizabeth Ann Harper John, Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds (1975); Lawrence Kinnaird, ed., Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765-94 (1949); Spain. Archivo General de Indias, Papeles Procedente de Cuba, legajo 107, 771-780; St. Louis Cathedral Baptismal Books, IV, p. 59, Act 41; V, 59, 79.
DEVILLIER, Charles "Kinney," politician, farmer. Born, Happy Town, St. Martin Parish, La., July 26, 1878; son of François Baltazar DeVillier and Modeste Victoria LeBlanc. Elected town marshall, Krotz Springs, St. Landry Parish, La., 1934. Served until 1950, when he chose not to seek reelection. Married, November 21, 1911, Anaïs LeGrand, daughter of Louis LeGrand and Marie Ophelia Use. Three children: Evelyn (b. 1913), Cecile (b. 1917), and Ann (b. 1926). Died, Baton Rouge, February 20, 1962; interred Catholic cemetery, Krotz Springs. J.R. Sources: Donald Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, vol. XIII (1978); Opelousas Clarion-News, June 14, 1934.
DEVILLIER, Jacques Gabriel, soldier, planter. Born, Pointe Coupée Post, La., August 1, 1771; son of Balthazar Ricard de la Chevalleraye deVillier (q.v.) and Marie Françoise Dorothea Voisin. Military service: second lieutenant of the Louisiana Infantry Regiment, Spanish regime (retired 1791); captain Eighth Louisiana Regiment, War of 1812. Received Spanish land grants in Iberville Parish ca. 1797. Settled on land located near Bayous Plaquemine and Jacob and the Mississippi River. Married, September 10, 1791, Elizabeth Franchebois de Bertin of New Orleans, daughter of Jean-Pierre Franchebois de Bertin, surgeon, and Louise L'Agée. Children: Carmélite, Antoine, Laurent, Ricard Baltazar, Bernard Edward, Hyacinthe Armide, Adéline, Delphine, and Louise Honorine. Died Plaquemine, La., February 17, 1817. J.R. Sources: Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records, Vol. II, 1770-1803 (1980); Charles Maduell, Federal Land Grants in the Territory of Orleans (1975); Dispatches of the Spanish Governors; Iberville Parish Courthouse Records.
DE VILLIER, Pierre Joseph Neyon, administrator. Born in Lorraine to an impoverished noble family; brother-in-law of Gov. Louis Billouart de Kerlérec (q.v.). Military service: Commissioned ensign in Choiseul's regiment, 1735; discharged, 1738; returned to active duty ca. 1742; was a lieutenant in French service at Marainville, 1742; later promoted to captain; participated in Battle of Landfelt; wounded at Battle of Wisenbourg; adjutant in Lorraine, 1744; discharged, 1748; reactivated and assigned to Louisiana, 1749; stationed in Illinois; helped defeat Washington at Fort Necessity, 1754; named commandant of Illinois, 1755; awarded Cross of St. Louis, 1759. As commandant of Illinois during Seven Years War was effective in agitating Ohio Valley Indians against English and in mobilizing region's limited resources in support of French war effort. Became a victim of Kerlérec-Vincent Rochemore (q.v.) feud; recalled to France with Kerlérec; departed New Orleans ca. July 1764; resided in Paris, 1765-1772, to help exonerate Kerlérec of charges of malfeasance leveled by Rochemore and his cohorts; commissioned colonel of Guadeloupe Regiment; promoted to rank of brigadier general, 1775; named governor of Marie-Galant (a dependency of Guadeloupe), 1777. Died at sea, 1779. C.A.B. Sources: Marc de Villiers du Terrage, The Last Years of French Louisiana, trans. by Hosea Phillips, ed. by Carl A. Brasseaux and Glenn R. Conrad (1982); Joseph Wallace, The History of Illinois and Louisiana under the French Rule (1893); Carl A. Brasseaux, trans. and ed., A Comparative View of French Louisiana, 1699 and 1762: The Journals of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Jacques-Blaise d'Abbadie (1979).
DICHARRY, Benjamin Joseph, educator, journalist. Born, Convent, St. James Parish, La., 1893; son of Florian Dicharry and Estelle Jourdan. Education: Convent High; Jefferson College, Convent, A. B.; Loyola University, New Orleans, B. A.; Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, M. A. Principal at 19 years of age, Armant Elementary, Vacherie, 1912-1920. Married, September 7, 1914, Felicie Donaldson (1892-1982), daughter of Valsin Donaldson and Palymere Uzée of Convent. Children: Allen (b. 1915), Marjorie (b. 1916), Floreine (b. 1918), B. J. (b. 1920), Gerald (b. 1922), Geraldine (b. 1922), Lloyd (b. 1923), Donald (b. 1925), Dorothy (b. 1927), Merlyn (b. 1928), Elaine (b. 1930), Roy (b. 1932), Carey (b. 1935), Ralph (b. 1936). In 1921, became editor and publisher of The Interim, official journal of the parish, until its discontinuation in 1942. Principal, Romeville High School, 1920-1937; coached state championship basketball team, 1937. Active member of Gramercy Council #1817 Knights of Columbus. Supervisor of St. James Parish Schools, 1937-1954. Established audio-visual aid program (1944), Palmer Method of writing, optic test in parish, and non-discriminatory distribution of text books in parish schools. Served in this capacity until his retirement in 1954. Died, Lutcher, La., April 12, 1966; interred St. Joseph Cemetery, Paulina, La. M.B.D. Source: Author's research.
DICHARRY, Samuel Joseph, politician, religious leader. Born, Convent, St. James Parish, La., April 5, 1885; son of Florian B. Dicharry and Estelle Jourdan. Education: Sacred Heart Convent, Jefferson College, Convent, La. Married, April 26, 1911, Edna Faucheux, daughter of Cléophas Faucheux, cooper and merchant, and Arcise Vicknair. Children: Yolande, Lionel, Marietta (died at birth), Faucheux, and Marietta. Active in politics; member, Louisiana legislature, 1937-1940. Member: Roman Catholic church; trustee, Sacred Heart Church; charter member, Council 1817 of Knights of Columbus, Grand Knight and Deputy Grand Knight. Shipping superintendent of Colonial Sugars Company of Gramercy, La. Died, August 6, 1940; interred St. Joseph Catholic Church Cemetery, Paulina, La. M.B.D. Source: Author's research.
DICKEY, William W., businessman. Born, Osyka, October 4, 1899. Education: Jonesville Junior College, Laurel, Miss. Removed to New Orleans, ca. 1922. Married Mabel McGuire; one stepson, P. M. Ducros, and one stepdaughter, Mrs. Charles K. Peters. Founded Dickey Potato Chip Company in New Orleans, 1933 and often had to peel, cook, and bag the chips by hand. Later his plant was automated. First sold the chips from the rumble seat of his car because he had no money to buy a truck. Harry Weil and John F. Bosch at Canal Villeré, a New Orleans food store, helped give him his start in business. Later, under the name Dickey Foods Inc., it became a division of Sunshine Biscuits Inc. Subject remained president of the Dickey firm for almost forty years. An avid sportsman, enjoyed racing, fishing, and hunting. Member: Elks, International House, the Young Men's Business Club of New Orleans, Metairie Country Club, the Jerusalem Temple, the Masonic Order, the Grand Consistory of Louisiana, New Orleans Court Number 36, Royal Order of Jesters, and the Rising Glory Masons Lodge of Osyka, Miss. Died, January 3, 1972, the first day of his retirement. Interred St. John's Cemetery, Metairie, La. J.B.C. Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 4, 7, 1972.
DICKSON, Samuel Augustus, physician, business¬man, politician. Born, Rush Point Plantation, Bossier Parish, La., March 18, 1852; son of Michael Alexander and Martha Lipscomb Dickson. Education: local schools; Centenary College; Tulane University; interned at old Charity Hospital. Practiced medicine in Shreveport; in 1893 organized the business, Morris & Dickson, wholesale druggists. Elected member of the Shreveport City Council in 1902; elected mayor, 1908 and 1914, serving two terms. Appointed by Gov. J. Y. Sanders (q.v.) to Caddo Levee Board. Elected, 1912 and 1915, to state Democratic Central Committee. In 1916 elected delegate to Democratic National Convention. Married (1) Mildred Sentell, daughter of G. W. and Mildred (Dickson) Sentell of New Orleans. Children: Mildred, Carter Bickham, George S., Samuel Allen, Claudius Markham, and Susie. Married (2), July, 1911, Beulah Dillingham of Austin, Tex., daughter of Brice and Sarah (Woodward) Dillingham. Child: Brice Dillingham Dickson. Died on board train to St. Louis, Mo., where he was to attend National Democratic Convention, June 1, 1916. P.L.M. Source: J. Fair Hardin, Northwestern Louisiana: A History of the Watershed of the Red River, 1714-1937 (1939).
DIEBERT, Eve Butterworth, philanthropist. Born, Woodville, Miss., 1864; daughter of Alice Sophie Smith and Henry James Butterworth. Married: John Diebert (q.v.), January 1884, Orange, Tex. No children. Was decorated by the king of Italy for founding and equipping the Loyola Unit Base Hospital which operated in Italy in World War I; donated funds for the John Diebert Tuberculosis Hospital, completed in 1926, as a memorial to her husband; contributed to the construction of the Sisters of Charity residence next to the hospital; also contributed to Hope Haven, a home for boys; the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital; the John Diebert Memorial building fronting Hotel Dieu Hospital; St. Andrew's Episcopal Church; the John Diebert Public School, and flood relief work; total of her known donations approximated two million dollars. Member, Episcopal church, board of the New Dispensary for Women and Children and the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. Awarded the Times-Picayune Loving Cup, 1917; was the first non-Catholic woman in the South to receive the Bene Merenti medal, a papal award, in recognition of her services to Catholic institutions; the Eve Butterworth Diebert Memorial Building at Charity Hospital was named for her. Died, New Orleans, August 27, 1938; interred Metairie Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, August 29, 1938; editorial tribute, August 30, 1938.
DIEBERT, John, lumberman, philanthropist. Born, Tremont City, Ohio, January 4, 1844. Education: country schools of Ohio; learned trade from his father, a lumber and timber man. Married: Eve Christine Butterworth (q.v.) January 1884, Orange, Tex. No children. Arrived in New Orleans, 1870; entered lumber business as a grader; timber inspector for a Texas cypress lumber company; acquired a partnership in 1891 with Lutcher and Moore Cypress Company of Orange, Tex., which had large holdings in Texas and Louisiana; president of the Diebert, Ross, and Sinclair Company; vice president of Interstate Trust and Banking Company and New Orleans Casualty Company; director, Southern Cypress Manufacturers Association; held interest in twenty lumber mills in the South. John Diebert Public School commorates his seldom publicized philanthropies; the John Diebert Tuberculosis Hospital at Charity Hospital and the John Diebert Memorial Building at Hotel Dieu Hospital were funded in part by his wife as memorials to him. Died, New Orleans, June 5, 1912; interred Metairie Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); New Orleans Daily Picayune, obituary, June 6, 1912.
DILLARD, James Hardy, academic and pioneer in race relations. Born, Nansemond County, Va., October 24, 1856; son of James Dillard and Sarah Brownrigg Cross. Education: local schools and in the classical school of William R. Gault in Norfolk, Va.; Washington and Lee University, M. A. with honors, 1876; LL.B., 1877. Served on faculties of Washington and Lee, assistant professor of Mathematics; Rodman School, Norfolk, Va., principal, 1877-1882; Norfolk Academy, joint principal, 1882-1887; Mary Institute of Washington University, St. Louis, 1887-1891; Tulane University, professor of Latin, 1891-1907; dean of Academics 1904-1907; member, board of administrators, 1908-1913; University of Vermont; Phillips Exeter Academy; State Normal School in Oswego, N.Y. Removed to New Orleans, La., in 1891; president of the New Orleans Free Kindergarten Association, 1896-1905; Child Welfare Association; president, board of directors of the New Orleans Public Library, 1904-1913. Led a movement to establish a branch for Negroes. Served on the Louisiana State Board of Education, 1904-1908, and was a trustee of several state institutions and Negro colleges. First president and director of the Negro rural school fund, Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, 1907-1931; John F. Slater Fund, director, 1910-1940, president, 1917-1931; Phelps-Stokes Fund, vice-president, 1925; The Southern Education Board, trustee, 1906-1914; The General Education Board, 1918-1929; University Commission on Southern Race Questions; General Theological Seminary, trustee, 1916-1925; William and Mary College, rector, 1917-1940. Author of Exercises in Arithmetic (1887), Selections from Wordsworth (1890), Fifty Letters of Cicero (1902), Aus Dem Deutschen Dichterwald (1903), From News Stand to Cyrano (1935), and numerous published articles and papers. Married (1), July 5, 1882, Norfolk, Va., Mary Harmanson, daughter of Lafayette Harmanson. Children: James Brownrigg, Catharine Harmanson, Elisabeth Nicholson, Mary, Faye Harmanson, Lucy Tabb. Married (2), November 18, 1899, in Mt. Holly, N. J., Avarene Lippincott Budd, daughter of A. E. Budd. Children: George Budd, Hardy Cross, Ruth Ayson, Margaret Howe. Received honorary doctorates from Washington and Lee, 1889; Tulane, 1908; University of the South, 1910; Harvard, 1923; Southwestern University, 1932. Recipient of the Harmon Foundation Gold Medal in 1928 and the Roosevelt Medal from the Roosevelt Memorial Association for his 1924 survey for the Jeanes and Slater Funds of Education and Hygiene Among the People of East Africa. Member, Democratic party; Episcopal church; National Conference of Episcopal Church clubs, president, 1901-1902; Academy of Social Science; Century and Harvard clubs of New York City; Round Table Club of New Orleans; Arts Club of Washington, D. C.; and Colonnade and Farmington Clubs of Charlottesville, Va. Memorialized by Dillard University, New Orleans, La., 1930. Died, Charlottesville, Va., August 2, 1940; interred Riverview Cemetery. C.B.H. Sources: National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XXIV (1948); Who Was Who in America, I (1943); Dictionary of American Biography, XI (1944), Supplement One; New York Times, obituary, August 3, 1940.
DIMITRY, Alexander, educator, public official. Born, New Orleans, February 7, 1805; son of Andrea Dimitry from the island of Hydrea, Greece, and Celeste Dragon also of Greece. Education: New Orleans schools; graduate of Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. Married, 1835, Mary Powell Mills, daughter of Robert Mills of South Carolina, architect of Washington Monument. Among children were John B. S. (q.v.), Charles Patton, and Virginia. Teacher in Baton Rouge College, 1827-1829; editor of New Orleans Bee, 1830-1835; clerk, U. S. Post Office, Washington, D. C., 1834-1842; founder St. Charles Institute, 1842-1847; first superintendent of Louisiana schools, 1847-1851. State Department translator, 1854-1859; minister resident, Costa Rica and Nicaragua from August 15, 1859, to April 27, 1861. Assistant postmaster general, Confederacy, 1861-1865. Resided in New Orleans, 1867-1883; assistant superintendent, New Orleans schools, 1867-1868; instructor, Hebrew Education Society, New Orleans, 1869-1872; professor of Ancient History, Christian Brothers College, Pass Christian, Miss., 1870-1882. Honorary LL. D., Georgetown University, 1867. Owned library of 15,000 volumes when he died. Author of short stories in "annuals" published in New York and Philadelphia in the 1830s. Died, January 30, 1883; interred New Orleans. T.D.S. Sources: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, 2 vols. (1892; reprint ed., 1975); Clayton Rand, Stars in Their Eyes (1953); Dictionary of American Biography, V (1946); National Cyclopedia of American Biography, X (1900); U. S. Dept. of State, United States Chiefs of Mission, 1778-1973 (1973); C. M. Mouton, "Alexander Dimitry" (M. A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 1944).
DIMITRY, John Bull Smith, teacher, author. Born, Washington, D. C., December 27, 1835; son of Alexander Dimitry (q.v.) and Mary P. Mills. Education: College Hill, Miss.; Georgetown University. Secretary to father, U. S. Minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, 1859-1861. Civil War service: private, Company C., Crescent (La.) Regiment, March 5, 1862; discharged on August 9, 1862, owing to wounds received in Battle of Shiloh; chief clerk in the Confederate Post Office Department, Richmond, Va., until end of war. Married Adelaide Stuart, 1871. Newpaper correspondent in Europe. Professor of languages and belles-lettres, College Caldas in South America, 1873-1876. Returned to United States and worked as a newspaperman in the North. Professor of Letters, Montgomery College, Virginia, 1894-1895. Secretary to the state superintendent of education in Louisiana. Author of books and short stories, including School History and Geography of Louisiana. Assisted Varina H. Davis (q.v.) in preparing her biography of Jefferson Davis (q.v.). Died, New Orleans, September 7, 1901. A.W.B. Sources: Clement A. Evans, ed., Confederate Military History, 11 vols. (1899), Vol. X; Stanley C. Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (reprint ed., 1971); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana, Vol. I (1914); Confederate Veteran, XI (1903).
DINWIDDIE, Albert Bledsoe, academic. Born Lexington, Ky., April 3, 1871; son of William Dinwiddie, a farmer and Presbyterian minister, and Emily Albertine Bledsoe, daughter of Albert Taylor Bledsoe, assistant secretary of war for the Confederacy. Family removed to Virginia. Education: Potomac Academy, Alexandria, Va.; University of Virginia, B.A., 1889, M. A., 1890, Ph. D., 1892. Taught locally, then named professor of Mathematics, Southwestern Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tenn., 1896-1906. Post-graduate studies in Germany, 1902-1903. Named assistant professor of Applied Mathematics, Tulane University, 1906; named full professor and head of mathematics department, 1910. Later that year named dean, College of Arts and Sciences. Upon retirement of President Robert Sharp, became president of the university, October 1, 1918. Greatest contribution to university, expansion of facilities and programs, largely as a result of endowment drive of 1920. Married, July 22, 1897, Caroline Arthur Summey, daughter of the Reverend George Summey of Clarksville, Tenn. Five children. Trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; president, 1915-1922, Louisiana Council on Education; president, 1922, Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States; member, numerous professional and civic organizations. Died, New Orleans, November 21, 1935; interred Macpelah Cemetery, Pascagoula, Miss. G.R.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 22, 1935; Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942.
DITCHY, Jay Karl, academic. Born, Kelly Island, Ohio, 1886. Education: University of Michigan, B. A. (French), 1911; University of Illinois, M. A. (French), 1913; Johns Hopkins University, Ph. D., 1924. Taught at University of Illinois, Ohio State University, United States Naval Academy, University of Minnesota; professor of French at Tulane University, 1928-1952. Served as staff interpreter at General Headquarters of American Expeditionary Forces during World War II. Published several works on French studies, including La Mer dans l'oeuvre de Victor Hugo (1925), Le Thème de la mer chez les Parnassiens, Leconte de Lisle et Hérédia (1927), and Les Acadiens louisianais et leur parler (1932, an edition of the so-called anonymous Breaux manuscript of 1901). Died, Chicago, July 19, 1960. B.J.A. Sources: Author's research; obituary, New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 23, 1960.
DIX, Dorothy, (pseudonym of) Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, newspaper columnist. Born, Montgomery County, Tenn., November 18, 1870. Began career New Orleans Daily Picayune, compiling vital statistics, then editor of the woman's department, 1896-1901, contributing a series of articles called "Dorothy Dix Talks". Joined the New York Journal, 1901. Returned to New Orleans, 1917, for life. Joined Ledger Syndicate, 1923, the Bell Syndicate, 1933. Author of Mirandy; Mirandy Exhorts; Dorothy Dix, Her Book; How to Hold a Husband; Hearts à la Mode; and My Joy Ride Around the World . Best known for her advice column, often receiving hundreds of letters a day. Married George O. Gilmer, November 21, 1888. Died, New Orleans, December 16, 1951; interred Metairie Cemetery. H.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 21, 1976; April 5, 1936; State-Times, obituary, December 17, 1951; Harnett Kane, Dear Dorothy Dix (1952); Who Was Who, Vol. V, 1969-1973.
DIXON, Kenneth Lee (Ken), journalist. Born, near Colchester, Ill., April 3, 1915; son of Roy Lee Dixon and Martha R. Mourning. Education: Colchester public schools; Western Illinois State Teachers College, two-year teaching diploma. Taught rural schools and worked for MacComb (Ill.) Daily Journal, 1934-1936; reporter, Canton (Ill.) Daily Ledger; editor, Hobbs (N.M.) Daily News; editor, Carlsbad (N.M.) Current Argus, 1936-1942. Married, July 1, 1938, Ola Maye Montgomery of Hobbs, N.M. No children. Joined Associated Press in Washington, D. C., 1942; later was war correspondent in North Africa, Europe, and in the Pacific. Syndicated columnist and reporter for International News Service and King Features, 1946-1949; editor and columnist, Lake Charles American Press, 1949-1961; managing editor, Meridian (Miss.) Star, 1961-1964; syndicated columnist, United Features, 1964-1967; reporter and editorial page editor, Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, 1967-1971; free-lance writer, 1971-1986. Died, Baton Rouge, June 29, 1986; interred Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Colchester, Ill. J.F.* Sources: Ray Erwin, "Ken Dixon Becomes Roving Columnist," Editor and Publisher, April 25, 1964; Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, obituary, June 30, 1986; telephone interview with sister, Dorothy Dixon Burgard of Colchester, Ill., February 25, 1987.
DIXON, Margaret, journalist. Born, New Orleans, 1907(?); daughter of Roger W. Richardson and Josephine Pettit. Education: local schools; Louisiana State University, degree 1928. Career: State-Times reporter, 1928-1931; women's editor and general assignment reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1931-1937; part-time public relations assistant for the Louisiana State Library and as Baton Rouge correspondent for the then New Orleans Item and United Press, 1937-1938; city editor, Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, 1938-1942; assistant managing editor, 1942-1948; managing editor, 1948-1970. Headed the Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press Association, 1955; delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 1964; appointed to the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors, served 1951-1960; past president, Capital Correspondents; secretary, Mississippi River Parkway Commission, 1965; elected to membership in the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1966. Married J. Muncia Dixon, 1928. Awards/achievements: Headliner Award of the Theta Sigma Phi, professional journalism sorority; and the Women of Achievement Award from the Federation of Press Women. Initiated, Southeastern Louisiana Chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalism fraternity, 1970; Press Women of Achievement Award for Louisiana; Beta Sigma Phi's First Lady of the Year Award. Fought for prison reform and the mentally ill. Died, June 22, 1970. M.L.K. Sources: New York Times, obituary, June 23, 1970; Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, obituary, June 22, 1970.
DODD, Monroe Elmon, clergyman. Born, Brazil, Tenn., September 8, 1878; son of William H. Dodd and Lucy Williams. Education: Union University, B.A. and B.D. degrees, 1904, D.D., 1909, and LL.D. degree, 1930; Baylor University, D.D. degree, 1918. Correspondence work under University of Chicago and Crozer Theological Seminary. Served in Spanish-American War for one year. Was pastor in Fulton, Ky., Paducah, Ky., Louisville, Ky., and Los Angeles, Calif., before removing to Shreveport. Officer and member of Foreign, Home and State Mission Boards, Southern Seminary, Southwestern Seminary, and 75 Million Campaign. President of Louisiana Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention and on executive committee of Baptist World Alliance. Pioneer radio preacher. Was pastor of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, 1912-1950. Founded Dodd College for Girls. Wrote 14 books. Married, October 10, 1904, Emma Savage, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. George M. Savage of Jackson, Tenn. Children: Dorothy, Helen, Martha, Monroe, Jr., and Frances. Died, Aug¬ust 6, 1952. P.L.M. Sources: J. Ed Howe, comp., Shreveport Men and Women Builders (1931); Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, comps., History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (1937).
DOMBROWSKI, James Anderson, civil rights leader. Born, Tampa, Fla., January 17, 1897; son of William Dombrowski and Isabella Skinner. Education: public schools of Tampa and Newark, N. J.; Emory University, degree 1923; Union Theological Seminary; Columbia University, Ph. D., 1933. Student of Reinhold Niebuhr and Harry F. Ward. World War I service: U. S. Army Air Force, October 1917 to March 1919; airplane mechanic near Paris; promoted to rank of sergeant. Religion: Methodist. First secretary, Emory University Alumni Association and founding editor of Emory Alumnus. Assistant pastor of Methodist church in Berkeley, Calif., 1926. Married Ellen Krida of New York, daughter of Arthur Krida and Johanna Kunkel. No children. Co-founder and administrator, Highlander Folk School, Monteagle, Tenn., 1933-1942; founder, Conference of Younger Churchmen of the South, 1934; executive-director, Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW), 1942-1946; executive-director, The Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), 1946-1966; editor, Southern Patriot, 1942-1966; founder and officer, Southern Organizing Commitee for Economic and Social Justice, 1975-1983. Resident of New Orleans, 1946-1983. Primary defendant in landmark civil liberties case decided by the United States Supreme Court, Dombrowski v. Pfister (1965). The decision declared unconstitutional a Louisiana statute that tried to force members of anti-segregation groups to register as pro-Communist subversives. Joined Socialist Party of America in 1930s; became Democrat during New Deal; always denied charge of being a communist. Under his leadership, the SCEF, which was composed primarily of white Southerners, played an important role in ending segregation and the disfranchisement of black Southerners. Author of The Early Days of Christian Socialism in America (1937); engraver and artist; paintings donated to University of New Orleans. Died, New Orleans, May 2, 1983; body cremated. J.L. Sources: Beth Dawkins Bassett, "Love Without Boundaries," Emory Magazine (April, 1984); Anthony F. Dunbar, Against the Grain: Southern Radicals and Prophets, 1929-1959 (1981); Frank Adams, Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander (1975); obituaries, New Orleans Times-Picayune/ States-Item, May 3, 1983; New York Times, May 4, 1983; SCHW Papers (Tuskeegee Institute); SCEF Papers and Dombrowski MSS (Wisconsin State Historical Society).
DOMENGEAUX, James "Jimmy," attorney, politician, CODOFIL chairman. Born, Lafayette, La., January 6, 1907; son of Marthe Mouton and J. Rudolph Domengeaux. Education: attended Mount Carmel Academy, Cathedral High School, and Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Southwestern Louisiana); Loyola University, New Orleans; Tulane University law department, graduated 1931. Married Eleanor St. Julien; no children. Career: admitted to practice law, Louisiana bar, 1931; United States Supreme Court, 1962. Senior member of law firm Domengeaux and Wright, with offices in Lafayette, New Orleans, Hammond, and Opelousas, 1931-1984. Elected to Louisiana legislature, 1940; appointed chairman of Appropriations Committee. Served in the United States Congress, 1941-1944. Resigned to join the United States Army; served as a private in the combat engineers until his medical discharge. Reelected to Congress and served, 1944-1949. Was not a candidate for renomination; unsuccessful candidate for Democratic nomination to United States Senate. Resumed practice of law. Founder of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) which was authorized by an act of the state legislature, 1968; as its chairman (1968-1988) he worked toward the development, utilization, and preservation of the French language for the educational, cultural, economic, and touristic benefit of the state. Promoted the teaching of the French language in state public schools and was successful in securing legislative appropriations for employing teachers from French-speaking countries as instructors. Always controversial, he was frequently at odds with the educational establishment and with other individuals involved in the French renaissance movement. Hosted representatives from eleven countries at the eight-day convention of the International Association of French-speaking Journalists held in Lafayette, March 1974. Promoted student and teacher exchanges between Louisiana and French-speaking countries. Arranged to have French President Giscard d'Estaing visit Lafayette in May 1976. Honors: Presented a plaque in the United States House of Representatives, February 15, 1974, by the Louisiana congressional delegation and the Louisiana Society of Washington for his efforts to preserve the French language; Gold Medal honoree, Linguistic Society of Paris, France, 1975; Officer of the Order of Leopold, Belgium, 1978; Grand Prix du 3 juillet 1608, Quebec, 1978; commander, Ordre de la Pleiade, France, 1978; Certificate of Merit, Louisiana Department of Education, 1980; named outstanding citizen of the year by The International Relations Association of Acadiana, 1981. Was awarded the highest civilian decoration given by the French government when he was named commander of the Order of the Legion of Honor of the French Republic, November 11, 1986; that day was declared "Jimmy Domengeaux Day" by Lafayette Mayor Dudley Lastrapes and Governor Edwin Edwards. Honorary degrees: Doctor of Letters, Jonquière College, Quebec, 1970; Doctor of Humanities, College of Notre Dame, Manchester, N.H., 1973; Doctor of Civil Law, University of Moncton, Canada, 1975; Doctor of Humane Letters, Loyola, 1984; Honorary Doctorate, Université Sainte-Anne, Church Point, Nova Scotia, 1985; Doctor of Humane Letters, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1986. Memberships: state and national bar associations, 1931-1981; Tidelands Committee, State of Louisiana, 1968-1974; secretary, Louisiana Science Foundation, 1970-1974. Died, April 11, 1988; interred St. John Cemetery, Lafayette. The second Festival Internationale de Louisiane (1988) was dedicated to Domengeaux for his work in CODOFIL. The University of Southwestern Louisiana created an Eminent Scholar Chair in Foreign Languages in his name. J.B.C. Sources: Domengeaux's curriculum vitae; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, March 20, 1974; obituary, April 12, 1988; New Business, July 1983.
DORMON, Caroline Coroneos, botanist, horticulturist, preservationist, author. Born, Briarwood, family home in Natchitoches Parish, La., July 19, 1888; daughter of James L. Dormon and Caroline Trotti. Reared in Arcadia, La.. Never married. Developed early interest in flora and fauna of Briarwood. Became well-known botanist, ornithologist, prize-winning horticulturist, painter, archeologist, historian, and author. Education: bachelor's degree in literature and art, Judson College, Marion, Ala. Taught several years in Louisiana schools. Established home at Briarwood, 1918; began collection and preservation of native trees and shrubs. Appointed, 1921, to work with public relations, Louisiana Forestry Department. Attended Southern Forestry Congress, 1922; persuaded the U. S. Forest Service to establish a national forest in Louisiana. Kisatchie National Forest established 1930. Employed, 1941, Louisiana Highway Department as beautification consultant. Landscape consultant, Huey P. Long Charity Hospital, Pineville. Served as consultant for Hodges Gardens. Published first book, Wild Flowers of Louisiana (1934), then Forest Trees of Louisiana (1941), Flowers Native to the Deep South (1958), Natives Preferred (1965), Southern Indian Boy (1967), and Bird Talk (1969). Only female member of De Soto Commission established by Congress, 1935, to commemorate four hundredth anniversary of De Soto expedition. Honorary doctor of science awarded by Louisiana State University, 1965. Died, November 21, 1971. D.M.R. Sources: Caroline Dormon Collection, Watson Memorial Library, Northwestern State University; Donald M. Rawson, "Caroline Dormon: A Renaissance Spirit of Twentieth-century Louisiana," Louisiana History, XXIV, (1983).
DORSEY, Sarah Anne Ellis, author. Born, family plantation near Natchez, Miss., February 16, 1829; daughter of Thomas Ellis and Mary Routh. Privately educated with emphasis on languages and the fine arts, formal education completed by a tour of Europe. Owned a large personal library and always considered an intellectual by her associates. Married Samuel W. Dorsey, lawyer and overseer, 1853. Couple settled on a Routh family plantation in Tensas Parish, La. Wrote articles for the New York Churchman in the 1850s and wrote several novels in the 1860s and 1870s. Her novels, which were partly autobiographical, were written under the pen name "Filia." They describe Louisiana subjects such as antebellum plantation life and the hardships of the Civil War. The locales range from Northeast Louisiana to the Attakapas region to New Orleans. The books include a wide variety of Louisiana people. Most noted for her friendship with Henry Watkins Allen (q.v.) and Jefferson Davis (q.v.). Wrote Recollections of Henry Watkins Allen in 1866, a biography about Allen, a Confederate general and Civil War governor of Louisiana. Befriended Jefferson Davis in the 1870s providing him with a home in a cottage on her estate at "Beauvoir", near Biloxi, where she moved following her husband's death in 1875. Assisted Davis with his memoirs, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, and left "Beauvoir" to Davis. Died in the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, July 4, 1879, following an unsuccessful operation for cancer performed by Dr. T. G. Richardson, assisted by Dr. Rudolph Matas (q.v.). D.E.L. Sources: John Q. Anderson, "Louisiana and Mississippi Lore in the Fiction of Sarah Anne Dorsey (1829-1879)," Louisiana Studies, XI (1972); Vincent H. Cassidy and Amos E. Simpson, Henry Watkins Allen of Louisiana (1964); W. A. Evans, "Sara Ann Ellis Dorsey, Donor of Beauvoir," Journal of Mississippi History, (1944); Bell Irvin Wiley, Confederate Women (1975).
DOSTIE, Anthony Paul (A. P.), Unionist and true Radical Republican. Born, Saratoga, N. Y., June 20, 1821; father a barber of French descent, mother of German descent. Education: studied dentistry in Amsterdam, N. Y.; practiced in Chicago, then in Marshall, Mich. Married at age 19 to Eunice Hull. A Mason and member of The Society of Odd Fellows. Sources disagree over when he removed to New Orleans; some say in the late 1840s, others in 1852. Openly and loudly opposed secession and the Confederacy and in 1861 was forced into exile for his views. Returned to New Orleans in mid-August 1862 and began immediately to speak out against the Confederacy, addressing a Union meeting just a few days after his return. Soon thereafter was appointed to the Board of Education under Gen. Nathaniel Banks (q.v.), a board which, in an effort to find and oppose disloyalty in New Orleans, fired a number of principals and teachers for encouraging treason. Dostie and the other board members had less success with their order requiring the singing of Union songs in class. Similar Unionist zeal led to an incident at the Varieties Theatre in May 1863 when Dostie led members of the Union League there in an attempt to force the management to display the Union flag and have the orchestra perform patriotic airs. Dostie served as vice-president of a convention held January 9, 1864, to begin the process for the re-admittance of Louisiana to statehood. At the constitutional convention called for that purpose, Dostie read a speech into the record in which he contrasted the "free" North and the "slave" South. The South, he concluded, was the land of "ignorance, poverty and imbecility" while the North was the land of "freedom . . . intelligence, wealth, prosperity and happiness." Calling himself the "Robespierre of New Orleans" (without the violence), Dostie, also outspoken for civil rights, including suffrage for Negroes, became more and more controversial in Louisiana politics. When the 1864 constitution was ratified (February 1864) the new governor, Michael Hahn (q.v.), appointed Dostie state auditor. Although an organizer of the Free State Party, Dostie ran against that group's candidate for Congress, A. P. Field (q.v.), in the August 1864 election, denouncing Field as a "Copperhead." Dostie lost that election and, a year later, his job as auditor when the newly sworn in governor J. Madison Wells (q.v.) demanded his resignation. Dostie refused and was forcibly removed from his office on June 13, 1965. Later Dostie was appointed register of the Land Office of Louisiana, an office he then resigned to accept an appointment by President Johnson as surveyor of the Port of New Orleans, an appointment which was later withdrawn because of the outcry of Louisiana Democrats against it. Among Radicals Dostie was slow to attack President Johnson, though he eventually did, denouncing him in May 1866 as a traitor to liberty and loyalty. Political but not politic, Dostie continued publicly to rage against the unreconstructed South. On July 27, 1866, at a political rally in downtown New Orleans several Radicals addressed a predominantly black crowd advocating Negro suffrage and the disfranchisement of ex-Confederates. Dostie was among the Radical speakers that evening, delivering an address around which much controversy exists. Three days later on July 30, 1866, Radical Republicans with the support of Governor Wells had scheduled a reconvening of the 1864 constitutional convention, an action of questionable validity. Several hundred blacks and a few white Radicals, including Dostie, marched to the Mechanics' Institute to demonstrate support for the convention. A number of Democrats and the New Orleans police gathered there for the opposite reason. By 1:00 p.m. a riot had erupted. The mostly unarmed blacks and Radicals were attacked unmercifully. When it was over three white and thirty-four black Unionists were dead, seventeen white and 119 black Unionists were wounded. (On the other side ten policemen were injured and one young man killed, some sources claim by a policeman's bullet.) Dostie was a particular object of the mob's rage. Downed by a shot in the spine he was stabbed in the abdomen by a sword and beaten and kicked into unconsciousness. Died, New Orleans, August 5, 1866. D.W.M. Sources: Emily Reed, Life of A. P. Dostie; or, The Conflict in New Orleans (1868); John Rose Ficklen, History of Reconstruction in Louisiana (1910; reprint ed., 1966); Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (1974); Gerald M. Capers, Occupied City: New Orleans Under the Federals (1965); Donald E. Reynolds, "The New Riot of 1866, Reconsidered," House Reports, 39 Congress, 2 session, No. 16, "Report of the Select Committee on the New Orleans Riots."
DOUCET, Daly Joseph "Cat", law-enforcement official, politician. Born, Grand Prairie, St. Landry Parish, La., November 8, 1899; son of Lucius Doucet and Aza Lafleur. Education: schools of Ville Platte. Married, 1919, Anna Dorcey of Lafayette. Six children: Alberta, Harold, Yvonne, Louis Austin, Anna Dale, Daly Joe, Jr. Protégé of Huey P. Long. Elected sheriff of St. Landry Parish, 1936, became colorful and controversial character. Served as sheriff twenty years (1936-1940, 1952-1968), law officer for thirty-two years. Was early supporter of civil rights. Died, February 9, 1975. M.A.F. Sources: Mary Alice Fontenot and Vincent Riehl, The Cat and St. Landry (1972); selected issues of Opelousas Clarion and Opelousas Daily World, 1935-1969.
DOUCET, Julien Jérôme, attorney, conspirator in the revolt of 1768. A bachelor, native of Switzerland, Doucet seems to have arrived in New Orleans some time after 1765. The census of 1766 lists him as a attorney residing in the first district of New Orleans. Doucet was arrested August 19, 1769, and accused of conspiring against the Spanish crown. Witnesses accused him of authoring seditious tracts against the crown, of being in the company of armed rebels on the day Gov. Antonio de Ulloa (q.v.) was expelled, and of promoting the establishment of the Banque du Mont de Piété. Both Pierre Carresse (q.v.) and Nicolas La Frénière (q.v.) implicated him as a co-author of a memoir demanding Ulloa's expulsion. In his defense Doucet claimed he only drew up formal articles at the request of others and it was not his function to ascertain the truth of the charges. Denied he was armed or had joined the crowds during the revolt and appealed for clemency. Because of conflicting testimony Doucet escaped execution being sentenced to a ten-year prison term in a foreign colony. B.C. Sources: John Preston Moore, Revolt in Louisiana: The Spanish Occupation, 1766-1770 (1976); David Der Texada, Alejandro O'Reilly and the New Orleans Rebels (1970); copy of the "Memorial" and the statement of Doucet at his trial are in the Kuntz Collection, Special Collections, Tulane University.
DOUGLAS, Alvin Edward, physician, civic leader, politician. Born, Boatner, Jackson Parish, La., June 30, 1883; son of David Edward Douglas and Ada Cheeves. Education: local schools; Memphis Medical University, Memphis, Tenn., graduated 1909; seminars, Tulane University. Married, June 1909, Mae Laura Stovall, of Weston, La., daughter of George S. Stovall and Sarah Pyburn. Children: Osler (b. 1910), Tauvee (b. 1912), Edward, Jr. (b. 1916), George (b. 1918), Peggy (b. 1922). Practiced medicine in Columbia, Slagel, Sugartown, Old Camp Hoy, New Camp Hoy, 1911-1929. Removed to De Quincy, La., 1929, owned, operated Douglas Hospital. Active in Democratic party; member De Quincy City Council as alderman, mayor pro tem, 1936-1946; Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, 1952-1957. Member, Shrine and Masonic Lodge, Lake Charles. Douglas Road, De Quincy, named for subject. Died, Lake Charles, July 23, 1957; interred Perkins Cemetery, De Quincy. G.S.P. Sources: Ordinance Book No. 374-431, City of De Quincy; J. R. Southhard, Descendants of Geo. S. Stovall; NSDAR Ancestral Chart, Frances Flanders, genealogist.
DOUGLAS, Emmitt James, businessman, politician, president, Louisiana State Conference of NAACP Branches, 1966-1981. Born, Newellton, La., October 14, 1926; son of Samuel Frederick Douglas and Fannie Rose Armstrong Douglas. Education: Newellton Elementary, Tensas Parish High School; Xavier University, New Orleans. Military service: United States Army, 1950-1952, Anchorage, Alaska, Fort Worth, Tex.; rose to rank of master sergeant; honorable discharge. After military service, became U. S. postal carrier and salesman for Southern Barber and Beauty Supply, Baton Rouge. Married, July 24, 1949, Audrey Marie Daisy, of New Roads, La., daughter of Thomas Daisy, New Roads farmer, and Lillian Pourciau Daisy. One child: Kordice Majella (b. 1955). Active in Democratic party; president of New Roads Branch NAACP, 1965-1981; member of National Board of NAACP, 1967-1981; life member, NAACP. Appointments by Gov. Edwin W. Edwards: member, Prison System Study Commission, 1976; member, Commission on Judicial Compensation for City, Parish, and Municipal Courts, 1975. Awards and certificates: Golden Plate Award Region VI of Alburquerque, N. M., March 22, 1975; Honorary Deputy Attorney General of the State of Louisiana by Attorney General William Guste, Jr.; Honorary Citizen of Louisville by Mayor William B. Stansbury; Model Businessman Award, Louisiana State Conference, 1978; A Century Club Membership in the Xavier University Alumnae Annual Giving, 1969; Clairol Crown Club honors in recognition of outstanding sales achievement, 1969; Southern University Ladies Quarterback Club; Louisiana Progressive Association Foundation to Combat Poverty-Disease-Apathy-Despair; Pointe Coupée Education Association Distinguished Service Award; Honorary Citizen of the state of Florida; Honorary Citizen of the City of Las Cruces, N. M.. Member, St. Augustine Catholic Church, New Roads. Resident of New Orleans, 1942-1946; Baton Rouge, 1946-1949. Resident of New Roads, 1949-1981, district manager Standard Life Insurance Company and Supreme Life Insurance Company; proprietor of Douglas Barber and Beauty Supply and Douglas Fine Foods Grocery, Baton Rouge. Died, New Roads, March 25, 1981; interred St. Augustine Catholic Church Mausoleum, New Roads. R.J.S. Sources: Audrey Marie Daisy Douglas (spouse), and Kordice Majella Douglas (daughter); Douglas Family Papers.
DOUSE, George, planter, taverner. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., March 9, 1790, a free person of color. Arrived West Feliciana Parish, La., with wife Elizabeth, 1824. From earnings as steamboat steward acquired property and slaves near St. Francisville, 1831-1837; operated house of entertainment frequented by plantation gentry, 1836-1843. Died, September 7, 1843; interred by rector of Grace Church, St. Francisville, as were wife and children. E.K.D. Source: Grace Church Register; West Feliciana Public Records; Edwin Adams Davis, ed., Plantation Life in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana, 1836-1846, as Reflected in the Diary of Bennett H. Barrow (1943).
DOW, Lorenzo, clergyman, missionary. Born, Coventry, Conn., October 16, 1777; son of Humphrey Dean and Tabitha Parker Dow. Education: local schools. Married, September 3, 1804, Peggy Holcomb, of Granville, Mass. One child: Letitia (b. 1806 but soon died). Democrat who stormed against Whigs, anti-Masons, Catholics, especially the Jesuits, and eventually the Methodists, who had become tainted, he said, with popery. Member: Methodist church. Died, Georgetown, Md., February 2, 1834; interred Washington, D. C. M.S.L. Sources: The Dealings of God, Man, and the Devil; as Exemplified in the Life, Experience, and Travels of Lorenzo Dow . . . Together with His Polemic and Miscellaneous Writings Complete, To Which Is Added the Vicissitudes of Life, by Peggy Dow (1856); History of a Cosmopolite, or the Writings of the Rev. Lorenzo Dow, Containing His Experience and Travels in Europe and America Up to Near His Fiftieth Year; Also His Polemic Writings (1851); C. C. Sellers, Lorenzo Dow (1928).
DOWNS, Solomon Weathersbee, attorney, politician, U. S. senator. Born, Montgomery County, Tenn., 1801. Migrated with parents to Ouachita Parish, La.; son of William Weathersbee. Downs was thirty-three years old when his father gave him legal recognition. Early life obscure, but part of it spent in Ouachita Parish. Education: attended Davidson Academy, Nashville, Tenn.; Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., A. B. degree, 1823. Was shot through the lungs in a duel. Admitted to Louisiana bar, 1834; practiced law in Ouachita Parish. Senator from the Ouachita district in 1836; attended the state constitutional convention in 1845; was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1844; and a presidential elector the same year. Known as "political spokesman of North Louisiana," and a leader of Jacksonian Democracy. Favored universal manhood suffrage, more elective officials, and opposed a high tariff and the Bank of the United States. A United States senator, 1847-1853. Franklin Pierce appointed him collector for the Port of New Orleans. Died, Craborchard Springs, Ky., August 14, 1854. W.H.A. Sources: Minnie Markette Ruffin, "Solomon Weathersbee Downs," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XVII (1934); William H. Adams, The Whig Party of Louisiana (1973).
DRAKE, Benjamin M., clergyman, missionary. Born, Robeson County, N. C., September 11, 1800; son of Albrittain and Ruth Collins Drake. Education: local schools and individual study. Removed to Kentucky, 1810. Married, 1827, Susan P. H. Magruder of Jefferson County, Miss., daughter of James T. and Elizabeth A. Magruder. Twelve children, six of whom reached maturity, including H. Winbourne (1828-1876), lawyer and legislator from Tensas Parish, La. Licensed by Methodist church to preach, 1819; assigned to circuits in Tennessee, Alabama, and, 1822-1824, to the Rapides and Attakapas circuits in Louisiana. While assigned to New Orleans, 1824-1826, built the first permanent Methodist church there, which served both whites and blacks. A member of the American Colonization Society, in 1826 submitted the first proposal of reciprocal aid between the movement and Methodism ever made before a regional meeting of the Mississippi Conference. Besides missionary work among free blacks and slaves, he also preached among the Indian tribes of northern Mississippi. President of Elizabeth Female Academy (pioneer Methodist girls' school), Washington, Miss., 1828-1832; one of founders of Centenary College, which awarded him honorary D. D. degree, 1852; acting president of Centenary, 1853-1854. Served in New Orleans again, 1833-1835, and various circuits and churches in Natchez district, where he was presiding elder for sixteen years beginning 1835. Author of A Sketch of the Life of Rev. Elijah Steele (1843). Died at home near Church Hill, Miss., May 8, 1860; interred family cemetery, Mt. Ararat Plantation. W.M.D. & T.F.R. Sources: Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century (1905); Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, rev. ed. (1898), II; Laura D. S. Harrell, "The Genealogy of Benjamin Michael Drake, D. D., and His Descendants," Journal of Mississippi History, VI (1944); W. Winans Drake, "An Early Methodist Leader in the South: A Sketch of Rev. Benjamin M. Drake, D. D.," Methodist Review Quarterly, LXVII (1918); William Hamilton Watkins, "Character and Life of Rev. B. M. Drake, D. D.," in T. L. Mellen, ed., In Memoriam: Life and Labors of Rev. William Hamilton Watkins, D. D. (1886); Mrs. S. P. H. Drake, "Sketch of Rev. B. M. Drake," New Orleans Christian Advocate, February-May, 1878 (6-part series).
DREUX, Charles Didier, attorney, soldier. Born, New Orleans, May 11, 1832; fifth child of Didier Dreux and Marie Josephine Nathalie Livaudais. Family moved to Paris, France, shortly after his birth. Education: primary schools, Paris; Amherst College, Mass.; Western Military Institute, Blue Lick Springs, Ky.; and Frankfort Millitary Institute, Frankfort, Ky. After working briefly as a tutor, studied law at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., graduated, 1852. Accompanied Kentucky delegation to Whig convention of 1852 before returning to Louisiana. Practiced law; elected district attorney; elected state representative; captain of the Orleans Cadets, a militia unit. Married, 1859, Amanda Haynes, of Clinton, La. One child, a daughter, who, after the death of her parents, was adopted by the Louisiana state legislature. Civil War service: led company in the capture of the arsenal at Baton Rouge; ordered to Pensacola, Fla., and stationed at Grand Bayou; company was one of six formed into a battalion, of which he became lieutenant colonel and commanding officer as he was senior captain; known as Dreux's Battalion, the unit was promptly ordered to Yorktown, Va.; briefly commanded an ad hoc brigade under Maj. Gen. John Magruder. Led an expedition consisting of one hundred volunteers from his battalion, twenty cavalrymen and a mountain howitzer to curtail Federal depredations on nearby farms; a premature discharge of a musket warned the Federals, who promptly fired a volley and charged; during the ensuing struggle, Dreux was instantly killed by a Minié ball; the first Confederate officer killed in action. His body was recovered by his men and escorted to New Orleans for burial; reinterred in the tomb of the Association of the Army of Tennessee, Metairie Cemetery. L.L.H. Source: Just. M. Lamare, "Col. C. D. Dreux," Confederate Veteran, XXX.
DREW, Harrison C., businessman, farmer, politician. Born, West Newfield, Me., January 14, 1838; son of Winforn and Jane Drew. Entered the lumber business, removed to Lake Charles, La., 1878. A partner in Drew & Griffith sawmill operations. Built the Lake City mill on the south bank of Lake Charles, handling large quantities of timber until 1892 when he sold his operations to J. B. Watkins. Organized, 1893, the Vinton Mill Co. Sold timber interests, 1898, and purchased 14,000 acres of land in western Calcasieu Parish for the farming of rice. Operated the largest rice farm in the nation, with 8,000 acres under cultivation. An organizer of the Calcasieu State Bank, 1892; later, president and chairman of the board. A state senator, 1900-1912. Died, 1916. Set up an estate trust for the benefit of education in Calcasieu Parish. T.S. Source: Lake Charles American Press.
DREXEL, Mary Katharine, S.B.S., religious, educator, missionary. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., November 26, 1858; daughter of banker Francis A. Drexel (1824-1885) and Hannah Langstroth Drexel (1826-1859). Educated privately at home and abroad. Influenced by the charity of her step-mother, Emma Bouvier Drexel. Love of God, interest in Catholic Indian missions, and in the plight of the post-Reconstruction freedmen led her to found the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. While income from father's estate of over fifteen million dollars made possible benefactions to Catholic missions for these neglected races in every state, from 1893 onward, education for blacks in Louisiana was a special focus of her concern. In New Orleans she founded Xavier Preparatory, 1915, and Xavier Normal School, 1917, College, 1925, College of Pharmacy, 1927, and Graduate School, 1935—now Xavier University of Louisiana. In addition to teaching in eight Catholic grade schools in New Orleans and eight in Southwest Louisiana, her sisters supervised over twenty rural schools of the delta and Southwest Louisiana which she built and/or supported, staffing them with graduates of Xavier Normal and normal classes of St. Edward's High School, New Iberia. Graduates of the Sisters' normal school at Sacred Heart, Lake Charles, taught at black public schools in that area. She also supplemented salaries in some public schools at Jesuit Bend, City Price, and Pointe-à-la-Hache, so they might have a full school year. Eventually provided assistance for Negroes in Catholic churches and schools in forty-five places in Louisiana, often providing funds for the purchase of the land, or building the church or school. The income from her father's estate which made these benefactions possible ceased with her death. Died at the Motherhouse in Cornwells Heights, Pa., on March 3, 1955. The church indicated that it considered her practice of virtue heroic when Pope John Paul II declared her "Venerable" on January 26, 1987. S.P.L. Sources: SBS Archives, Cornwells Heights, Pa.; Consuela Marie Duffy, S.B.S., Katharine Drexel: A Biography (1965); Dolores M. Letterhouse, S.B.S., The Francis A. Drexel Family (1939); Reports of the American Board of Catholic Missions; SBS Golden Jubilee, 1891-1941.
DROST, Carl Jacob, civic and church leader. Born, Dutch Cove community of Carlyss, Calcasieu Parish, La., October 5, 1898; son of John J. Drost and Arcilla Ellender. Education: local schools. Served in tank corps, World War I. Married, January 27, 1920, Jane LeBlanc of Lake Charles, La., daughter of Cyprien Joseph LeBlanc and Rosina Boudreaux. One child: Doris (b. 1921). Elected to Calcasieu Parish School Board six terms (thirty years); president, eight years; retired, 1972. President, Louisiana School Board Association; president, Our Lady's Board, instrumental in plans for Our Lady's School; chairman, United School Committee for Louisiana, 1951-1959. Delegate, president's White House Conference on Education, 1955. Served on National Committee for Betterment of Schools, 1953, Evansville, Ind.; National Citizens Council, 1955, St. Paul, Minn. Member, American Legion; Veterans of Foreign Wars; West Calcasieu Association of Commerce, twenty-five years. Chairman, March of Dimes, four years; Civil Defense director for West Calcasieu. Retired, 1962, from Olin Matheson Company after thirty years; last twenty as a supervisor. Also worked for old Union Sulphur Company and Missouri Pacific Railroad. First grand knight of Sulphur Council, Knights of Columbus. Named Patriot of the Year, 1967 and 1968, in recognition of contributions to church, community, and state. Received papal medal of honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for service to Catholic church. Bishop's Service Medal awarded, 1971. Trustee, church parish, twenty-six years; representative, Sulphur Deanery Council for St. Theresa Church; delegate to Lafayette Diocesan Pastoral Council. Jake Drost School for Exceptional Children named for subject. Died, December 14, 1975; interred Dutch Cove Cemetery. G.S.P. Sources: Lake Charles American Press; Sulphur Southwest Builder, obituary, December 15, 1975; Drost Family Papers.
DRYSDALE, Alexander John, landscapist. Born, 1870. Painted bayou scenes and trees throughout southern Louisiana. One of the most prolific and best known artists for about forty years. Used blues and greens with touches of rose and amber, which characterize his work. He used oil paint liquified with kerosene on mat board, and mounted under glass to make paintings look like watercolors. Removed to New Orleans from Marietta, Ga., 1884, opened a studio at 320 Exchange Place. His father was a minister at the old Christ Church (Canal Street). Drysdale had little instruction in painting. Painted murals in the Administration Building at Shushan Airport. He also received a Gold Medal from the Art Association of New Orleans in 1909. Nature was his guide and his paintings were in bold style. He was something of an impressionist without being as ultra. Died, 1934. F.L. Source: Author's research.
DUBOURG, Louis Guillaume Valentin, clergyman, prelate. Generally listed as second bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas but technically the third (Francisco Porro y Reinado was named and consecrated to succeed Bishop Peñalver y Cardenas (q.v.) in 1801 but never took possession of the diocese because of the retrocession of the Louisiana territory to France). Born, Cap Français, Saint-Domingue, February, 1766; son of Chevalier Pierre DuBourg de la Loubère et St. Christaud, and Marguerite Armand de Vogluzan. Sent to France to be reared by grandparents. Education: Collège of Guyenne in Bordeaux; later enrolled Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris. Ordained priest 1790. Director, under Sulpician auspices, of a House of Studies for young men at Issy. Forced to flee France, 1792. Arrived, Baltimore, Md., from Spain, 1794. Joined Society of St. Sulpice same year. Appointed president of Georgetown College, 1796. In Baltimore founded what came to be known as St. Mary's College and Seminary, chartered, 1805. Encouraged Mother Elizabeth Seton to open a school for girls, 1806. Appointed administrator of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas by Bishop John Carroll, 1812. Difficulties in New Orleans with Fr. Antonio de Sedella (q.v.) and the Cathedral staff. Officiated at ceremony of Thanksgiving following Battle of New Orleans, January 23, 1815. Went to Rome, 1815, to report on state of religion in Louisiana. Consecrated bishop, September 24, 1815. Returned to his diocese, 1817, but resided in St. Louis, Mo., where he founded the Cathedral and the Seminary of St. Mary of the Barrens, Perry County, Mo. Founded the ecclesiastical parishes of St. Charles, Grand Coteau, La., and St. Joseph, Thibodaux, La., 1817, St. John the Evangelist, Vermilionville (Lafayette), La., 1821. Visited New Orleans for first time as bishop near end of 1820. Returned to St. Louis after six months. Fr. Joseph Rosati, C.M. (q.v.), assigned as coadjutor-bishop in 1823 with stipulation that after three years the vast Diocese of Louisiana was to be divided with Rosati becoming bishop either of New Orleans or St. Louis. DuBourg moved to New Orleans. Attempted to establish a seminary in Lower Louisiana but resisted by Rosati and the Vincentian Fathers. Made lengthy visitation to parishes in western and northern Louisiana, 1825. Object of renewed hostility in New Orleans and tendered resignation. Left New Orleans, 1826, and returned to France. Appointed bishop of Montauban, France, at the request of Charles X; promoted to archbishop of Besançon, 1833. Died, Besançon, December 12, 1833. J.E.B. Sources: Annales de la Propagation de la Foi (1825-1826), vols. 1-2; Roger Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana (1939); M. T. A. Carroll, A Catholic History of Alabama and the Floridas (1908); J. B. Code, Dictionary of the American Hierarchy (1964); V. M. Eaton, "Sulpician Involvement in Educational Projects in the See and Province of Baltimore," U. S. Catholic Historian, II (1982); W. B. Faherty, "The Personality and Influence of Louis William Valentine DuBourg, Bishop of 'Louisiana and the Floridas' 1766-1833," in John Francis McDermott, ed., Frenchmen and French Ways in the Mississippi Valley (1969); A. M. Melville, Louis William Du Bourg, 2 vols. (1986); J. Rothensteiner, History of the Archdiocese of St. Louis (1928), vol. I; J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States (1890).
DUBREUIL, Claude Joseph Villars, colonist, concessionaire; royal contractor. Born, Dijon, France, ca. 1690. With wife and two sons, along with craftsmen and servants, arrived from La Rochelle at Biloxi, ca. November 15, 1718. Settled, 1719, with a party of eighteen persons at his Chapitoulas concession directly above the extensive eastbank lands of Bienville (q.v.). Later acquired additional property on both sides of the river and, eventually, beyond the lower edge of the Vieux Carré in New Orleans, a plantation owned at the time of death. As royal contractor of public works, provided New Orleans with first effective levee. Also erected numerous buildings, one of which still stands: the Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street, New Orleans. Pioneered in planting and ginning cotton. Along with his Chapitoulas neighbors, successfully raised indigo, experimented with tobacco, cultivated sugar cane. First colonist to build a sugar mill. Member of the Louisiana Superior Council during the French regime; a contributor of materials for building the first church of St. Louis (completed in 1727); and a parish trustee. Died, New Orleans, 1757. H.C.B. Sources: Rosemarie Bauer, "Dubreuil Concession and Levee" (unpublished manuscript); Henry C. Bezou, Metairie: A Tongue of Land to Pasture (1973); Henry P. Dart, "The Career of Dubreuil in French Louisiana," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XVIII (1935); Betsy Swanson, Historic Jefferson: From Shore to Shore (1975).
DUBROCA, Sidney, C., law-enforcement officer. Born, West Baton Rouge Parish, La., May 30, 1884; son of Adolph Valerian Dubroca and Annette Ilon. Education: St. Vincent Academy, Baton Rouge; Chamberlin-Hunt Academy, Port Gibson, Miss. Married Catherine Rowcliff, 1913. One child, Jack Strickland. Served as sheriff of West Baton Rouge Parish from 1921 until retirement in 1960. Died, Baton Rouge, August 3, 1969. F.D.C. Source: Author's research.
DUBUCLET, Antoine, planter, state treasurer. Born a free man of color, Iberville Parish, La., 1810; son of Antoine and Rosie Belly Dubuclet. Married (1), mid-1830s, Claire Pollard (d. 1852). Children: Auguste, Pierre Pollard, François Louis (b. 1837), Clara Sophie (b. 1839), Claire (b. 1841), Eugenia (b. 1842), Eugene (b. 1845), Marie Regina and George. Married (2), Mary Ann Walsh (d. 1866), early 1860s. Three children: Rosaline D., Josephine, and Jean Oscar. Children were educated in France or by private tutors. Became a sugar planter in Louisiana. His estate in 1864, when combined with his wife's, was valued at $94,700 and included over 100 slaves. Politically he was the only black in the South to hold the office of state treasurer for more than one term during Reconstruction, serving from 1868 until 1878. His honesty and scandal-free career was favorably observed by his political opponents. Died, December 19, 1887; interred family tomb, Claiborne Street Cemetery, New Orleans. C.V. Sources: Charles Vincent, "Aspects of the Family and Public Life of Antoine Dubuclet: Louisiana's Black State Treasurer, 1868-1878," Journal of Negro History, LXVIII (1981); Succession Papers, Probate Court, Iberville Parish Courthouse; Albert Grace, The Heart of the Sugar Bowl: The Story of Iberville (1946); obituary, New Orleans Daily Picayune, December 21, 1887.
DUCHAMP, Eugène Auguste, planter, politician. Born, Morris County, N. J., July 5, 1837; son of Jean-Baptiste-Eugène Duchamp (q.v.) and Marie Louise Joséphine Sophie Martin Mérope de La Martinière. Removed with family to Martinique, 1846; returned to United States, 1850; removed to St. Martinville, La., 1853. Married, September 20, 1860, Marie Amélie Sandoz, daughter of David François Sandoz II (q.v.) and Claire Christine Labbé of St. Martin Parish. Children: Claire Marie Mérope (b. 1861), Marie Louise Elise (b. 1863), Marie Mathilde (b. 1864), Eugène David (b. 1866), Amélie Eugénie (b. 1868), Marie Adrienne (b. 1869), Marie Louise Mérope (b. 1871), Marie Emilie (b. 1873), Caroline Marie (b. 1877), David François Ernest (b. 1878), Charles Louis Joseph (b. 1880), Joseph Hypolite (b. 1886), Marie Emile Léo (b. 1888), Eugène (b. 1892). Member St. Martin Parish Police Jury, 1866-1898, president, 1888-1898; trustee of St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, 1868-1898, mayor of St. Martinville, La. Died September 6, 1898; interred, St. Michael's Cemetery, St. Martinville. J.G.B. Sources: Family notes originally compiled by Mrs. Virginia Duchamp, records of St. Martin Parish Police Jury, St. Martin de Tours archives, and author's research.
DUCHAMP, Jean-Baptiste Eugène, pharmacist, humanitarian. Born, St. Pierre, Martinique, August 27, 1806; son of Jean-Baptiste-Mathieu Duchamp and Charlotte Lalung Ferol. Education: University of France, Bachelor of Letters, 1826. Married, September 26, 1831, Marie Louise Joséphine Sophie Martin Mérope de La Martinière of Martinique, daughter of Louis Joseph Étienne Martin, sieur de La Martinière, and Louise Marie François Sophie le Merle de Beaufond. Children: Charles Louis (b. 1835), Eugène Auguste (q.v.), Pierre Arthur Egiste (b. 1839), Marie Louise Elisa (b. 1840), Louis Charles (b. 1842), Marie Caroline (b. 1843), Pierre Théobald (b. 1845), Marie Améline Stéphanie (b. 1847). Removed to St. Martinville, La., 1853; established and operated the pharmacy of Duchamp & Sons, 1853-1881. Donated first fire engine to Hall Volunteer Fire Co. #1, which he helped organize after great fire of 1856. Died, June 22, 1889, St. Martinville; interred St. Michael's Cemetery. J.G.B. Source: Author's research.
DUCHESNE, Rose Philippine, religious. Born, Grenoble, France, August 29, 1769; daughter of Rose-Euphrosine Perier (1748-1797) and Pierre-François Duchesne (1743-1814). Education: privately tutored; boarding student, Sainte Marie d'en Haut monastery, Grenoble, 1781-1783. Entered the Visitation of Holy Mary religious order, 1788. Returned home when the group was dispersed during the French Revolution. Joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, 1804. In 1817, Louis Guillaume Valentin DuBourg (q.v.), bishop of Louisiana, recruited her and four of her sisters to introduce the religious order to the United States. Their first convent and school was in St. Charles, Mo. An academy was founded at Grand Coteau, near Opelousas, La., in 1821 and is the oldest Sacred Heart-operated school in continuous existence in the United States. Another was started in what is now Convent, La., in 1825 and continued with the addition of white and black free schools until 1932. The New Orleans school was on Dumaine Street until 1903. The current academy is on St. Charles Avenue. During her lifetime she also saw the formation of Sacred Heart convents in Natchitoches, La., and Baton Rouge. Died, St. Charles, Mo., November 18, 1852. She was beatified May 12, 1940, and canonized July 3, 1988. J.B.C. Sources: Louise Callan, Philippine Duchesne, Frontier Missionary of the Sacred Heart, 1769-1852 (1957); New Catholic Encyclopedia, IV (1967); New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 7, 1988.
DUCLOS, Jean-Baptiste Dubois, commissaire-ordonnateur (administrative chief) of French colonial Louisiana. Born, France, 1683. Appointed commissaire-générale at Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), August 7, 1707; serving as commissary at Dunkirk, France, when named commissaire-ordonnateur of Louisiana, December 10, 1712. Commissioned first councillor of Louisiana's Superior Council, December 24, 1712; attempted to engage in smuggling in Louisiana in violation of trade monopoly of Antoine Crozat (q.v.). With Bienville (q.v.) engaged in bitter intragovernmental feuding with Governor Cadillac (q.v.) which paralyzed the colonial administration and contributed to the failure of Louisiana's proprietary regime. Dismissed with Cadillac, October 28, 1716. Named commissaire-ordonnateur, Saint-Domingue, August 7, 1717; named acting intendant in the event of the intendant's absence from Saint-Domingue, July 31, 1718; named second councillor of the Superior Council at Cap Français, Saint-Domingue, March 22, 1718; promoted to first councillor in the Superior Councils at Cap Français and Léogane, September 22, 1720; appointed assistant intendant, Saint-Domingue, September 3, 1726; promoted to intendant of Saint-Domingue, April 21, 1729. Retired, February 5, 1735. Died, December 2, 1737. C.A.B. Sources: Alphabet Laffilard, folio 78; Dunbar Rowland and Albert G. Sanders, eds., Mississippi Provincial Archives, 3 vols. (1927-1932), II; Carl A. Brasseaux, "The Cadillac-Duclos Affair: Private Enterprise versus Mercantilism in Colonial Mobile," Alabama Review, XXXVII (1984).
DUCLOT, Louis, journalist and third known printer in Louisiana. Arrived in New Orleans ca. 1794 as refugee from Saint-Domingue, probably via New York. Founded Moniteur de la Louisiane, early 1794; published it until 1795 or 1796; may have printed Moniteur after J. B. L. S. Fontaine (q.v.) resumed publication, 1797; worked as engraver, printer, and binder at least until 1814. Moniteur was first newspaper in Louisiana, in Gulf Coast region, and in Mississippi Valley. F.M.J. Sources: Samuel Joseph Marino, "The French-Refugee Newspapers and Periodicals in the United States, 1789-1825"; T. H. Whitney, Whitney's New-Orleans Directory, and Louisiana & Mississippi Almanac for the Year 1811.
DUCREST, Louis Armand, planter. Born, Delphinado, Haute-Savoie, France, March 2, 1722; son of Jean François Ducrest de Villeneuve and Magdeleine Moguette. Arrived in Louisiana, ca. 1750. Military service: lieutenant of Grenadiers, Legion of the Mississippi; major, Attakapas Post; Revolutionary War patriot (NSDAR). Recipient of Spanish land grant (722.98 acres) on Bayou Teche awarded by Spanish Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez (q.v.), 1777. Married, March 2, 1756, Catherine Wisse of Pointe Coupée Post, daughter of Nicholas Wisse and Magdeleine Pinter of Canton of Berne, Switzerland. Eight known children: Jean Laurent (b. 1758), Marie Philippe (b. 1761), Marie Magdeleine (b. 1767), Augustine (b. 1770), Julienne (b. 1773), Louise (b. 1777), Marguerite (b. 1782), Joseph (b. ca. 1785). Elected syndic in the Attakapas, 1773. Member: St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, St. Martinville. Died at home near present-day Parks, La., December 17, 1797; interred St. Michael's Cemetery, St. Martinville. W.F.D. Sources: Baptismal, marriage and death records, St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church; Marriage Records, St. Francis of Pointe Coupée Catholic Church, New Roads; Donald J. Hébert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records; C. Robert Churchill, "S.A.R. Records, Spanish-English War, 1779-1793, Revolutionary War Records" [1925]; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, March 25, 1980; Original Acts, Volume 1, non-paginated, St. Martin Parish Courthouse; Attakapas Gazette, IX, (1974); XII, (1977).
DUCROS, Joseph Emile, historian, genealogist. Born, Pecan Grove Plantation, St. Bernard Parish, La., February 15, 1865; son of Pierre Adolphe Ducros (q.v.) and Augusta Louise Coralie Fernet. Education: private, parochial, and public schools of New Orleans. Married October 26, 1893, Florence Olivia Patton, daughter of William Patton and Mary Leininger. Children: Joseph Emile (b. 1894), Hazel Patton (b. 1896), Joseph Marius (b. 1897), Coralie Augusta Louise (b. 1899), Florence Olivia (b. 1901), Marie Lucie (b. 1903), Pierre Adolphe (b. 1904). Activities: Copyist, U. S. District Court; steersman aboard the Marie Louise, steamboat; clerk on the Red River and Coast Line Vessel Jesse K. Bell; homestead clerk; rate and tariff compiler and statistician for railroads; rate clerk for the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad and later for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad in St. Louis; clerk for the M. L. & T. Railroad. Retired, 1935, to devote time to his avocation of genealogy and history, which he compiled from sources in Louisiana, Canada, and France. Compiled genealogies on the Denis, Ducros, Beauregard, DeLino de Chalmette and related families that included Villeré, Fernet, LeBlanc, Lacoste, Almonester, Pontalba, and many others. Cited by several authors in their historical and genealogical works for his contributions. Original manuscripts on file in the Manuscript Division, Howard Tilton Library, Tulane University; in the Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa; and in the Louisiana State Museum Archives. Died, New Orleans, March 2, 1946; interred St. Louis Cemetery III. C.G.D. Sources: Ducros Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Howard-Tilton Library, Tulane University; Charles Maduell, ed., "Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Marius Ducros," New Orleans Genesis, XV, No. 59 (July, 1976). Cited in (among others) Stanley Clisby Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana (1971); Francis Parkinson Keyes, Madame Castel's Lodger (1962); Herman de Bachelle Seebold, Old Louisiana Plantation Homes and Family Trees (1941).
DUCROS, Pierre Adolphe, attorney. Born, De La Ronde Plantation, St. Bernard Parish, La., March 16, 1827; son of Pierre Adolphe Ducros, and Adelaide de La Ronde. Education: New Orleans schools; Harvard College. After leaving Harvard, began study of law under Christian Roselius (q.v.); admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1849; formed a practice with Roselius. Elected district attorney of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, 1860. Established law partnership with Anthony Samboa, 1868. Elected state senator from New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish (First Senatorial District), 1877; practiced fifty-six years as an attorney. Married, December 21, 1850, Augusta Louise Coralie Fernet, daughter of Auguste Louis Fernet and Victoire Françoise Weber. Children: Christian Louis (b. 1851); Victoire Louise (b. 1854); De La Ronde Pierre (b. 1857); Louis Henry (b. 1858); Adolphe Victor (b. 1861); Joseph Emile (q.v.); Fernet Octave (b. 1866); Marie Coralie (b. 1869). Died, New Orleans, June 20, 1905. C.G.D. Sources: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, (Baton Rouge, 1975), Vol. I; Ducros Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Howard-Tilton Library, Tulane University; Charles Maduell, ed., "Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Marius Ducros," New Orleans Genesis, XV, No. 59 (July, 1976); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, June 21, 1905.
DUCROS DE LUCINGE, Joseph Marius, soldier, public official. Born, Passy, Haute-Savoie (now France), January 7, 1720; son of Joseph Ducros and Françoise Deroche. Left Passy for Paris, 1739; continued his studies. Emigrated to Louisiana during the French colonial regime; settled as a merchant in New Orleans and became active in the affairs of the colony under both the French and Spanish regimes. Appointed, 1757, by Gov. Louis Billouart de Kerlérec (q.v.) as captain major of the regular militia of New Orleans and charged with the task of organizing its defense; appointed captain aide major of the city militia of New Orleans, 1766; appointed a member of the Superior Council by Acting Gov. Charles Philippe Aubry (q.v.), 1768; upon arrival of Gen. Alexandro O'Reilly (q.v.) to take possession of Louisiana, Ducros was appointed perpetual regidor and life member of the cabildo, the governing body, and as general receiver (Depository General) whose duties were to take charge of all the monies and effects placed in the custody of the government; named by O'Reilly as a standard bearer of four companies of volunteer militia, 1770; dubbed a chevalier, 1783. His signature appears on countless documents in the notarial archives, the archives of Louisiana, and the archives of the cabildo. He resided on his plantation, located six miles above New Orleans (now Audubon Park area). Married, February 20, 1751, to Wilhelmina Wiltz, daughter of Jean Ludwig Wiltz and Marie Barbara Dolle. Children: Jean Joseph (b. 1752); Leopole (b. 1753); Rodolphe Joseph (b. 1755); Isidore Laurent (b. 1755); Emilie Theodora (b. 1758); Victoria Marie (b. 1760); Hortense (b. 1762); Hélène (b. 1764); Edouard Joseph (b. 1772). Died, New Orleans, July 26, 1780. C.G.D. Sources: Ducros Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University; Abbé Jean Louis Grillet, Dictionnaire historique litteraire et statistique des Departements du Mont Blanc et du Leman, contenant l'histoire ancienne et moderne de la Savoie (1807), Vol. III; John Edward Harkins, "The Neglected Phase of Louisiana's Colonial History, The New Orleans Cabildo, 1769-1803" (Ph. D. Memphis State University, 1976); Charles Maduell, "Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Marius Ducros," New Orleans Genesis, XV, No. 59 (July, 1976).
DUFILHO, Jean, pharmacist. Born, Mirade, Gascony, France, ca. 1760. Married Jeanne-Marie Bonnet. Arrived New Orleans, between 1800 and 1803. Listed in the 1805 directory as living at 12, Toulouse Street when he established his pharmacy. Before 1810 moved his apothecary business to Chartres Street. Died, New Orleans, ca. 1816. M.A. Sources: Charles L. Bradly, "A History of the Dufilho Family and Their Relation to Pharmacy" (B. S. in Pharmacy thesis, Loyola University, 1948); Stephen M. Houin, "The Dufilho Family in Louisiana," New Orleans Genesis, XXV, No. 97 (January, 1986).
DUFILHO, Louis-Joseph, the younger, pharmacist. Born, Mirade, Gascony, France, 1788. Educated in France where he received a pharmacy diploma. In 1816 became, along with François Grandchamps, also of New Orleans, America's first licensed pharmacist. Married, April 19, 1819, Emy-Adele Becnel, of St. John the Baptist Parish, La. By 1822, operated a pharmacy at 63 Chartres Street. In 1823, his address is listed as 138 Chartres Street, where he would operate a pharmacy until March 31, 1856, date at which he sold the establishment to Dr. J. Dupas for $18,000. Today, his pharmacy, renumbered 514 Chartres St., has been restored as The Historical Pharmacy Museum. Member of the Masonic Lodge: secretary of the W. Lodge Polar Star in 1822; first deacon of the Grand Lodge, 1823. Assistant secretary of the Société Médicale, 1822; appointed druggist for the First Municipality by the Howard Association, 1842. After selling his pharmacy, returned to France, April 1856. Died at La Rue, near Blois, April 15, 1856. His older brother Louis (b. Mirade, 1778), though not formally trained in pharmacy, may have operated the shop on Toulouse Street with their father and certainly was a partner in the shop on Chartres Street (1816 Directory lists "Dufilho Brothers"). Married, April 24, 1805, Delphine Bazonier Marmillion of St. John the Baptist Parish, La., and eventually became sugar planter. Died, New Orleans, September 1823. M.A. Sources: Charles L. Bradley, "A History of the Dulfilho Family and Their Relation to Pharmacy" (B.S. in Pharmacy thesis, Loyola University, 1958); Stephen M. Houin, "The Dulfilho Family in Louisiana," New Orleans Genesis, XXV, No. 97 (January, 1986).
DUFOUR, Cyprien, essayist, attorney. Born, New Orleans, September 16, 1819. Education: St. Mary's College, Mo. Read law in office of Pierre Soulé (q.v.). Wrote portraits of his contemporaries, published in Le Courrier de la Louisiane, and L'Abeille, later collected as Esquisses locales (1847), published under the pseudonym "L'Inconnu." District attorney of New Orleans; assistant attorney general of Louisiana; and member of the constitutional convention of 1851. Died, New Orleans, February 8, 1871. M.A. Sources: L'Abeille, February 9, 1871; Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Écrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932).
DUFOUR, Numa, journalist. Born, New Orleans, 1821, of a French father and a Creole mother, sister of Adrien (q.v.) and Dominique Rouquette (q.v.). Education: St. Mary's College, Mo. Finished law school but never practiced. Taught French in New Orleans public schools, then, along with several other young New Orleans writers, including his brother Cyprien (q.v.), founded a short-lived French weekly, La Louisiane. Joined the staff of L'Abeille, as reporter; in 1848, bought the newspaper in partnership with Sam Hardy, of North Carolina; editor-in-chief of the French section until April 1860 when he was replaced by Felix Limet, financial director until his death. Died, New Orleans, August 22, 1894. M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932); New Orleans Daily Picayune, August 22, 1894.
DUGAS, Dave, businessman, farmer, cattleman, politician. Born, Carlyss, Calcasieu Parish, La., January 26, 1893; son of Alca Dugas and Clara Vincent. Education: local schools. Married, April 16, 1913, Beulah Duhon of Hackberry, La., daughter, of Ludger Duhon and Hulda Vincent, descendants of Cameron Parish, La., pioneer families. Children: Bernice (b. 1915), Alton (b. 1917), Lettie (b. 1920). Employee Union Sulphur Co., 1910-1927; Calcasieu Oil Co., 1927-1932; store owner, 1933-1940; co-owner McMillian-Dugas Funeral Home, 1937-1945; developed Roselawn Cemetery, Sulphur. Active in Democratic party; member, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, 1928-1952, president, 1944-1952; colonel, governor's staff, 1928-1932; Louisiana Parole Board, 1954-1958. Member: Catholic church, Knights of Columbus; Chamber of Commerce; charter member, Rotary Club; Calcasieu Cattlemen's Association; Woodmen of the World; Sabine Watershed Committee. Original sponsor, Louisiana State High School Rodeo. Dave Dugas Road, Calcasieu Parish, named for subject; Sulphur Chapter FFA posthumous award (first given) for outstanding contribution to agriculture and community, 1959. Died, Sulphur, May 12, 1958; interred Roselawn Cemetery. G.S.P. Sources: Lake Charles American Press, obituary, May 13, 1958; February 20, 1959; Sulphur Southwest Builder, September 5, 1952; obituary, May 13, 1958; February 20, 1959; Sulphur Southwest Star, June 10, 1958; Dugas Family Papers.
DUGUE, Charles Oscar, journalist, poet. Son of François Dugué and Jeanne Marie Pligne. Education: College St. Louis, Paris, France; Transylvania College, Ky. Married, Elodie Augustine de Livaudais. Journalistic career: frequent contributor to L'Abeille, La Lorgnette, Le Propagateur Catholique; editor, L'Orléanais. Politically active: judge, district court for Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes. Educator: assistant superintendent, Orleans Parish schools; president, Jefferson College, St. James Parish. Author: Homo (poem); Philosophie Morale (1847); Essais Poétiques (1847); Mila ou la Mort de La Salle (1852). Died, Paris, August 27, 1872; interred St. Louis Cemetery II, New Orleans. C.A.B. Sources: Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896; Louisiana Union Catalog (1959).
DUGUE DE BOISBRIAND, Pierre Sidrac, administrator. Born, Montreal, Canada, February 21, 1675; son of Michel Sidrac, a Canadian seigneur, and Marie Moyen. Joined the French Navy in 1691 rising to the rank of ensign in 1694. Accompanied Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (q.v.) on his second expedition to Louisiana in 1700. Along with Bienville (q.v.) and Châteaugué (q.v.), his cousins, carried out numerous reconnaissances for Iberville. Became aide-major to Bienville, 1702 and made a trip to Pensacola to borrow supplies from the Spanish in 1703. Badly wounded in 1705 while accompanying a group of Chickasaw through hostile Choctaw territory and returned to Mobile on a stretcher. During recuperation nursed back to health by Marie-Françoise de Boisrenaud (q.v.), but was prevented from marrying her due to opposition from Bienville, who felt she was too closely allied to Nicolas La Salle (q.v.). Shortly before returning to France in 1717 appointed commandant of the Mobile and Dauphin Island district. Used his time in France to settle personal business affairs and to lobby in support of Bienville's return as governor. Lobbying may have contributed to Bienville's appointment as governor in March 1718. Returning from France Boisbriand rewarded by being named commandant of the Illinois district on April 17, 1718. As commandant supervised the building of Fort de Chartres. When Bienville fell from grace and was recalled in late 1724 Boisbriand named acting governor, remaining as such until the arrival of Perier (q.v.) on March 15, 1727. Now out of favor because of close ties to Bienville, Boisbriand left New Orleans, November, 1728. Reaching France in the spring of 1729, suffered censure and was dismissed from the royal service. Belatedly awarded a modest pension in 1730. Lived long enough, however, to see fortunes reversed and Bienville reappointed governor in 1733. Died in France, June 7, 1736. B.C. Sources: Jay Higginbotham, Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702-1711 (1977); Marcel Giraud, Histoire de la Louisiane française, 4 vols. (1953-1974); A. Krebs, "Pierre Sidrac du Gué de Boisbriant," Dictionnaire de Biographie française, XI; W. Stanford Reid, "Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, II (1969); Dunbar Rowland and Albert G. Sanders, eds., Mississippi Provincial Archives: French Dominion (1927-1932), I-III.
DUMARTRAIT, Adrien Michel Lambert, attorney, politician, businessman. Born, Paris, France, ca. 1778; son of François Dumartrait and Marie Jeanne Elénore Pepin. War of 1812, first sergeant Hussars of the Teche, 1812-1815. Married (1), December 22, 1808, Louise Grevemberg, daughter of François Grevemberg and Euphrosine Louise Boisdoré of Attakapas. Children: Louise Alexandrine (b. 1809), Clara (b. 1812), Jean Adolphe (b. 1813). Married (2), January 21, 1819, Françoise Céleste Collins of Opelousas. Children: Marie Elizabeth (b. 1819), François Marcel (b. 1828). Elected mayor of St. Martinville; member and president St. Martin Parish Police Jury; director-general of the Church Council of Attakapas and Opelousas. Died, July 20, 1855, St. Martinville, La.; interred St. Michael's Cemetery. J.G.B. Sources: St. Martin de Tours archives and author's research.
DUMAS, Francis Ernest, engineer, planter, politician. Born, France, 1837. Educated in France. Major in Union Army, commanded Third Regiment, Louisiana Colored Troops. Reputedly one of the wealthiest slave owners in Louisiana. Worked in New Orleans clothing store, 1860-1861; engineer, served as state engineer on Louisiana part of Federal project of levees and embankments to control Mississippi River, appointed, 1871. Sought Louisiana governorship in 1865; lost to Henry Warmoth (q.v.). Received 41 votes to 37 for Warmoth on first ballot, with 10 other votes scattered; on second ballot, 45 for Warmoth and 43 for Dumas. Dumas refused nomination for lieutenant governor on Warmoth ticket. Appointed minister resident and consul general to Liberia, April 21, 1869, refused; also recommended for appointment as minister to Haiti. Nominated for secretary of state at Louisiana Liberal Convention, 1872. Spoke French and had travelled in France and lived in Paris. T.D.S. Sources: P. McCrary, Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction: The Louisiana Experiment (1978); Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (1974); Henry Clay Warmoth, War, Politics, and Reconstruction: Stormy Days in Louisiana (1930) A. E. Perkins, ed., Who's Who in Colored Louisiana (1930); Goodspeed, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana (1892; reprint ed., 1975), II; Charles Harris Wesley and Patricia W. Romero, Negro Americans in the Civil War (1967); Charles Vincent, Black Legislators in Louisiana during Reconstruction (1976); U. S. Dept. of State, United States Chiefs of Mission, 1778-1973 (1973); David C. Rankin, "The Origins of Black Leadership in New Orleans during Reconstruction," Journal of Southern History, XL (1974); National Archives, Records of the State Department, RG 59, Recommendations for Public Office from the Grant Administration.
DUMAS, Jean, missionary. Born, Lyons, France, September 10, 1696. Entered the novitiate at age 15. Came to Louisiana, 1726, assigned to the Illinois mission. Returned to France and taught Hebrew at Lyons. Died 1770. M.A. Source: Author's research.
DUMESTRE, Marie-Constance, writer. Born, New Orleans, May 30, 1879; daughter of French-born René Dumestre and Constance Girod. Educated at Ursuline Convent. Taught at the Columbian Institute and at Ursuline Convent. Head of l'Ecole de l'Union Française for over forty years. Awarded gold medal by the Athénée Louisianais for her manuscript (published in Comptes-Rendus) on Victor Hugo, 1893. Awarded Les Palmes Académiques by the French government. Published occasional pieces in the Comptes-Rendus de l'Athénée Louisianais. Died, New Orleans, August 27, 1949. M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932); Les Comptes-Rendus de l'Athénée Louisianais (1949); New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 28, 1949.
DUMEZ, Eugène, journalist. Born, St. Juste, department of the Marne, France, 1824. Studied at the Dijon Royal College where Victor Hugo was his classmate. Participated in the Revolution of 1848. As editor of the Courrier Républicain de la Côte d'Or, supported the republican cause so ardently that Napoleon III proscribed him in 1851. Went to Belgium for three years, then to the United States, stopping first in Kansas and St. Louis. Removed to New Orleans where in 1857 he bought the newspaper of Hippolyte de Bautte (q.v.), Le Meschacébé, which he turned into a major French newspaper. Published many works by contemporary French novelists as well as Louisiana writers. Wrote voluminously for his paper. Interrupted publication during the Civil War, resumed during Reconstruction with his brother-in-law, Thomas Bellow, as co-editor. Le Meschacébé was a source of information of folklore for Lafcadio Hearn (q.v.) . Died of yellow fever, October 17, 1878. M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIX siècle (1932); Auguste Viatte, "Complément à la bibliographie d'Edward Larocque Tinker," Revue de Louisiane, III (1974); obituaries, Comptes-Rendus de l'Athénée Louisianais, I (November 1, 1878); I (March 1, 1879).
DUMONT DE MONTIGNY, François Benjamin, soldier. Son of Jacques Dumont. In Louisiana from 1719 to ca. 1737; traveled throughout the Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf Coast; made maps and drawings to illustrate his journals; all published in 1753, in Paris, as Mémoires historiques sur la Louisiane . . . , in two volumes, considered one of the more reliable accounts of eighteenth-century Louisiana. He served as a lieutenant and engineer at Forts Rosalie and St. Claude, and accompanied Bénard de La Harpe, in 1721, up the Arkansas River. J.A.M. Sources: The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860 (1860); Samuel Wilson, Jr., Bienville's New Orleans (1968); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana (1909).
DUNBAR, Charles E., attorney, teacher, author of Louisiana's modern civil service system. Born, McComb, Miss., December 26, 1888; son of Charles E. Dunbar, Sr., and Emma Bauer. Education: Tulane University, Phi Beta Kappa, B.A., 1910; Harvard University, graduate work; Harvard Law School, LL. B., 1914; Tulane University, LL. B., 1915; honorary LL. D., 1955. Military service in the U. S. Army during World War I. Accepted a teaching position on faculty of the Tulane Law School and gave twenty-five years of gratuitous service, 1916-1941, to that university. Active member of a New Orleans law firm, 1915-1959; partner from 1919. Devoted his talents and energy to many and varied causes relating to the practice of law and the establishment in Louisiana of a sound, non-political merit system of municipal and state civil service to replace a long tradition of spoils system political appointments. Drafted the first merit Civil Service Law, 1940, and worked to have it adopted by state legislature and, later, incorporated in the state constitution to prevent its future repeal. Among many other accomplishments, served on Council of the American Bar Association; president, Louisiana Bar Association; trustee, Southwestern Legal Foundation; director, American Judicature Society, and on council of the American Law Institute and the Louisiana State Law Institute. Served on board of advisory editors of Tulane Law Review from its inception until his death. President, Tulane University Alumni Association, 1923-1925; first chairman, Louisiana State Civil Service Commission, 1940-1947; vice-president, National Civil Service League. Founder, Louisiana Civil Service League, 1941. Recipient of the Times-Picayune Loving Cup Award, 1941. Recognized as "Mr. Civil Service of North America" by the Public Personnel Association, 1958. Married Ethelyn Legendre of New Orleans, June 1925. Children: Charles E. Dunbar III and George B. Dunbar. Died, New Orleans, April 17, 1959; interred Metairie Cemetery. J.B.** Sources: Files of the Louisiana Civil Service League, New Orleans, La.; William W. Shaw, "Charles E. Dunbar, Jr. and Civil Service Reform in Louisiana."
DUNBAR, George Towers, engineer, naturalist, painter. Born, Baltimore, Md., February 11, 1811; son of George Towers Dunbar, Sr. (b. 1774); and Frances McCannon (1788-1864). Married, July 11, 1837, Caroline Eliza Robinson (1811-1869). As civil engineer worked on Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Came to Louisiana with Major Ranny (Raney) as assistant surveyor for New Orleans & Jackson Railroad, later the Illinois Central. Appointed engineer of the Second Municipality of New Orleans. Instrumental in stopping Sauvé Crevasse in 1849. Shortly thereafter left New Orleans to survey a railroad across Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but died there upon arrival. Died, December 29, 1850; interred Isthmus of Tehuantepec. A naturalist of some note, and a painter of fishes of Louisiana. Paintings destroyed in San Francisco earthquake, 1906. M.E.B. & C.B.W.P. Sources: Various editions of the New Orleans Picayune and the New Orleans Times-Democrat; Dunbar diary, Maryland Historical Society Archives.
DUNBAR, William, planter, scientist. Born, Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland, 1749; son of Sir Archibald Dunbar. Educated in Glasgow and London. Removed to America, 1771, and entered fur trade in Philadelphia and at Fort Pitt. Married Dinah Clark. Children: Robert, Alexander, Archibald, Thomas, Helen Huntington, Eliza Surget, Ann Postlethwaite, Margaret Dunlop, and William. Established a plantation, 1773, near present-day Baton Rouge. House and plantation plundered by James Willing's expedition, 1778. Removed to the Natchez area in 1783 and started another plantation. Practiced scientific farming and made scientific investigations. Corresponded with Thomas Jefferson. Surveyor general for the Spanish in the District of Natchez. Served on the commission which located and established the boundary between the United States and Spain at 31o North Latitude. Elected as member, American Philiosphical Society, 1800. Wrote many scientific articles. Explored the Ouachita River country at Jefferson's request. Given general supervision of the Red River Expedition, 1805. Died, Natchez, October 1810. A.W.B. Sources: Mrs. Eron Rowland, ed., Life, Letters and Papers of William Dunbar (1930); Franklin L. Riley, "Sir William Dunbar—The Pioneer Scientist of Mississippi," Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, II (1899).
DUNBAR-NELSON, Alice Ruth Moore, sociologist, poet, author. Born, New Orleans, July 19, 1875; daughter of Joseph and Patricia (Wright) Moore. Education: local schools; Straight College, New Orleans; University of Pennsylvania; Cornell University; School of Industrial Arts, Philadelphia, Pa. Married (1) Paul Lawrence Dunbar, March 6, 1898. Married (2) Robert John Nelson, April 20, 1916. Republican. Memberships: National Federation of Independent Political Action; Woman's International League of Peace and Freedom; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Improve Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World. Delaware State Republican Committee, 1920-1922. Educational activities: Orleans Public Schools, Louisiana; New York City; head of Department of English, Howard High School, Wilmington, Del., 1902-1920; parole worker and teacher, Industrial School for Colored Girls of Delaware, 1924-1928. Offices held: secretary, American Interracial Peace Committee, Philadelphia, Pa., 1928-1931. Author of: Violets and Other Tales (1896); Goodness of St. Rocque (short stories [1899]). Works published in the following journals: Southern Workman, Messenger Opportunity, Leslie's Weekly, Monthly Review. C.T. Sources: Thomas Yenser, ed., Who's Who in Colored America (1937); Ora R. Williams, ed., An Alice Dunbar-Nelson Reader (1979).
DUNCAN, Johnson Kelly, engineer, soldier. Born, York, Pa., March 19, 1827. Education: United States Military Academy, West Point, 1849, fifth in a class of forty-three. Commissioned second lieutenant of artillery. Promoted to rank of first lieutenant, December 24, 1853. Served in campaigns against the Seminoles in Florida, 1849-1850. Assisted in the exploration for a railroad route through the Northwest, 1853-1854. Resigned, January 31, 1855. Removed to New Orleans and worked as an engineer and architect. Appointed chief engineer, State Board of Public Works, 1860. Appointed major, First Louisiana Heavy Artillery Regiment, February 5, 1861. Commissioned colonel of artillery and assigned to command of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip below New Orleans. Promoted to rank of brigadier general, January 7, 1862, and placed in charge of all Louisiana coastal defenses. Established his headquarters at Fort Jackson and led the defense of it and Fort St. Philip against Union naval squadron of Flag Officer David G. Farragut (q.v.). Surrendered April 27, 1862. Exchanged in August 1862 and assigned command of a brigade in army of Gen. Braxton Bragg (q.v.). Led his brigade during Bragg's invasion of Kentucky, August to October, 1862. Appointed chief of staff to Bragg, November 23, 1862. Died, Knoxville, Tenn., December 18, 1862; interred McGavock Cemetery, Franklin, Tenn. A.W.B. Sources: Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray (1959); Mark M. Boatner, III, The Civil War Dictionary (1959); Clement A. Evans, Confederate Military History, X (1899).
DUNCAN, William Cecil, clergyman, journalist, theologian, slavery critic. Born, New York City, January 24, 1824, son of a Scottish immigrant. Education: local schools, Grenada, Miss.; Columbia University, graduated 1843; studied divinity at Hamilton Theological Seminary. Removed to New Orleans in 1847 and established Southwest Baptist Chronicle, a weekly religious newspaper with office on Poydras Street. Ordained in 1848. Notoriety gained through his published political and theological views. In 1850, his newspaper condemned slavery as "an evil" which should be eliminated from the South; advocated gradual emancipation. He toured Europe in 1851 ostensibly for reasons of poor health; later elected to professorship of Greek; theological views later antagonized fundamentalists when he edited a second demoninational weekly, the New Orleans Baptist Chronicle, 1853-1855. During his pastorate at the Coliseum Place Baptist Church in New Orleans, received degree of D.D. from Columbia University, 1857. Unionist sympathies exiled him from his New Orleans congregation between 1861 and 1862. Returning from Chicago, he worked as an active Unionist until his death from tuberculosis in 1864. His major works include Life of John the Baptist (1853); History of the Baptists for the First Two Centuries of the Christian Era (1857), and The Tears of Jesus (1859). T.F.R. Sources: Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, ed. by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, II (1888); Timothy F. Reilly, "Slavery and the Southwestern Evangelist in New Orleans (1800-1861)," Journal of Mississippi History, XLI (1979).
DUNKLEY, Ferdinand Luis, organist and composer. Born London, England, July 16, 1869. Studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at Trinity College of Music with Sir Charles Parry, John Frederick Bridge, Francis Edward Gladstone, Herbert Francis Sharpe and John Francis Barnet. Organist of St. Jude's and St. Aubyn's in London, 1885-1893. Music director of St. Agnes' School, Albany, N.Y., 1893. Director of Asheville College at Asheville, N.C., 1899. In New Orleans, 1901-1909, as organist of St. Paul's and Touro Synagogue. 1909-1912, Christ Church in Vancouver; 1912-1920, in Seattle; 1920, (Birmingham?) Church of the Advent. Removed to New Orleans, 1924, as organist of Temple Sinai. In 1934, appointed to the Loyola School of Music. Conductor of the Bach Society and the Treble Clef Club. Gave his last public recital on his 82nd birthday. Published many compositions including secular and sacred songs, anthems, church pieces, choral, and organ works. Died, Waldwick, N. J., January 5, 1956. M.A. Sources: Louis Panzeri, Louisiana Composers (1972); Nicolas Slonimsky, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1984); New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 6, 1956.
DUNN, Henderson Hollowell, clergyman, teacher, writer. Born, Thibodaux, La., December 12, 1872. Received early education in a school organized and taught by his father in the Dunn residence, the only school for blacks in Thibodaux; he completed the college preparatory course at Straight College, 1896; received Bachelor of Arts degree, 1900; and Bachelor of Divinity degree, 1904; studied theology and education at University of Chicago. As Congregational minister, pastored the Howard and Central Congregational churches in New Orleans, 1904-1924. While pastoring Central Congregational Church, founded, 1914, the first day nursery for black children in New Orleans. Later named the Isabella Hume Child Development Service to honor Isabella Hume for her leadership in social-service endeavors among black New Orleanians. After Dunn resigned as pastor of the Central Congregational Church in 1924 to become the Southwest regional secretary of Congregational churches, his employer became the American missionary Society of New York. During his administration, Dunn organized the Colored Educational Alliance which became effective in obtaining more and better schools for black children. Became an instructor, 1929, at Milne Boys' Home in New Orleans, and taught there for twenty-one years. Aided citizens of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes to develop educational facilities. Delivered the Thanksgiving address to the Louisiana Educational Association Annual Convention. Wrote for the Times-Picayune and other New Orleans newspapers, becoming a familiar figure in the various local newsrooms. He also served as the secretary of the Negro Division of the Times-Picayune's Doll and Toy Fund. Died, New Orleans, January 5, 1955; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery. F.J. Sources: Editorial, New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 6, 1955; Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975).
DUNN, Oscar James, lieutenant governor of Louisiana, 1868-1871. Born, New Orleans, 1821(?); son of a free woman of color in New Orleans. Took the name Dunn from his stepfather. Education: learned to read, write, and play the violin from the actor/musician lodgers in his mother's boarding house; apprenticed in the plasterer's trade. Taught music. Enlisted, 1862, in the first regiment of Negro troops in Louisiana; attained the rank of captain. Became active in politics after resignation from the army; appointed to city council of New Orleans; member of the central executive committee of the Friends of Universal Suffrage; in 1865, was chosen to present to the governor that committee's petition to include Negroes in voter registrations; was a delegate to the September 1865 convention of the group which marked the beginning of the Republican party in Louisiana. Elected lieutenant-governor in April, 1868; adhered to the "customhouse faction" of the Republican party which supported civil rights; elected presiding officer of the Republican State Convention of 1870. Died, November 22, 1871; interred private vault in New Orleans. C.T. & J.B.C. Sources: Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (1982); Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (1974); Charles Vincent, Black Legislators in Louisiana During Reconstruction (1976).
DUPERIER, Frédéric Henri, merchant, town developer. Born, Philadelphia, Pa., September 11, 1802; son of Demourier Duperier and Eleanore Lonzier. Family may have been refugees from Haitian revolution. Subject orphaned while in Philadelphia and may have been reared by, and brought to New Iberia by, Henry Pintard, a French merchant with close ties to Philadelphia commercial circles. Pintard (and Duperier?) arrived in New Iberia, 1811. Pintard purchased, 1816, a tract of land two-and-one-half arpents wide by forty arpents deep, fronting on Bayou Teche, and having on it a general merchandise store, post office, and tavern facilities. Duperier's first recorded presence in New Iberia, May 1821, date of a purchase of land. Upon death of Pintard later that year, Duperier named as an heir, thus giving rise to speculation about relationship between the two men. Pintard's widow inherited land and business, remarried, but died shortly thereafter. In October 1825, Duperier purchased from the widow's estate the land and business acquired by Pintard in 1816. In July 1825, Duperier married Marie Hortense Bérard, daughter of Achille Bérard and Hortense Boutté. Children: Frédéric Henri, Jr., Alfred (b. 1826), and Marie Alphonsine (b. 1830). In January 1837, Duperier and wife donated a parcel of land for the erection of a Catholic church and, at the same time, commissioned surveyor William B. Jackson to plat the land around the church property into town lots. Then, with Duperier leading those seeking incorporation, the matter was put before the Louisiana legislature in 1839. On March 13, 1839, an act of the legislature incorporated the Duperier subdivision and adjoining lands into the Town of Iberia (act later amended to change town's name to New Iberia). Died, New Iberia, March 15, 1839; memorial, St. Peter's Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: St. Martin Parish Estate and Conveyance Records; Glenn R. Conrad, New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People (1986).
DUPLANTIER, Armand Gabriel Allard, soldier, planter. Born, Voiron, Department of Isère, France, June 26, 1753. Became cavalry officer; associated with the marquis de Lafayette (q.v.), probably as aide-de-camp. Fought in Revolutionary War; left army shortly before Battle of Yorktown and settled in Louisiana. Married (1) Augustine Gerard of Pointe Coupée Parish, La., July 5, 1781. Four children. Married (2) Constance Rochon Joyce of Baton Rouge and Mobile, January 4, 1802. Five children. Resided at Magnolia Mound Plantation, near Baton Rouge, the inheritance of second wife. Served as captain of militia under Spain. Later, appointed justice of the peace. Served as host to Lafayette during the general's Louisiana tour, 1825. Died, August 20, 1827, at Magnolia Mound; interred Old Highland Cemetery. G.E. Source: Magnolia Mound Research Files.
DU POISSON, Paul, missionary. Born at Epinal, France, January 27, 1692. Entered Jesuit novitiate at age 20. Arrived in Louisiana, 1726. Assigned to the Arkansas mission. Left New Orleans, May 25, 1727, along with Fathers Souel and Jean Dumas (q.v.), going up the Mississippi and stopping on the way at Choupitoulas, Les Allemands, the Houma, the Bayougoula, the Chitimacha, Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupée and the Tunica. Remained three years at the Arkansas Post. In 1729, was on his way to New Orleans and stopped at the Natchez Post. Because the Capuchin missionary stationed at Natchez had gone to New Orleans, Du Poisson tarried to administer the last rites to some dying parishioners and thus was caught in the Natchez uprising. Died, Natchez Post, November 28, 1729. M.A. Sources: Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (New York, 1959 reprint), LXVII, 341; Roger Baudier, The Catholic Church in Louisiana (1939; reprint ed., 1972).
DUPONT, Charles Iris, jurist. Born, Plaquemine, La., November 4, 1893; son of Charles I. and Dolesca Nereau Dupont. Education: local parochial and public schools; Louisiana State University, B. A., 1915, LL. B., 1920. Married Thelma G. Callais in Plaquemine, La., November 7, 1917. Children: Thelma Genevieve, Charles I., Jr., and May Constance. Served in World War I, Company H, First Louisiana Infantry. Began law practice in home town, 1920; tax assessor, Iberville Parish, 1924-1936; served as judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District, 1936-1960. Member: national, state, and district bar associations; LSU Alumni Federation, Tau Kappa Alpha, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Louisiana State Judges Association, and Knights of Columbus. Died, August 14, 1963; interred Grace Memorial Park, Plaquemine. J.B.C. Sources: Biographies of Louisiana Judges (1961); Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, obituary, August 15, 1963.
DUPRE, Edith Garland, educator. Born, Garland Plantation, near Opelousas, La., June 1, 1881; daughter of Marie Céleste Garland and Laurent Dupré. Education: attended the Haas Female Institute; graduated as valedictorian from the public school in Opelousas, 1896; was an honor graduate of Sophie Newcomb College, New Orleans, 1900. Taught at Fairmont School, Monteagle, Tenn.; joined the faculty of Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (now the University of Southwestern Louisiana), Lafayette, La., 1901; taught English and French and was head of English department; established and was counselor to the Attakapas and Avator debating societies, 1901-1902; helped establish college newspaper, The Vermilion, 1904; helped establish the college literary magazine, The Scribbler's Script. Did graduate work at Cornell, Johns Hopkins, George Washington, New York, and Michigan universities, and at the University of Washington; awarded masters degree from Cornell, 1908. Awarded membership in Tulane-Newcomb Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, 1916. Became member of Newcomb unit of Y.W.C.A., which volunteered for overseas duty in 1918; did canteen work in Rome, Italy. Returned to S.L.I.I., began college library and was responsible for it until 1920; continued to serve as library committee chairman. Helped create Lafayette city and parish library systems, and served as member of the library board for twenty years. Was a founding advisor to the Newman Club and advisor to the first student council, 1923. Awarded Lafayette Civic Cup, 1941. Served as registrar of the Institute, 1942-1944. Presented Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award by Pope Pius XII for meritorious religious work, 1943. Retired from the university, 1944. Operated Sans Souci Bookstore in Lafayette after retirement. A member of Beta Sigma Phi and Alpha Omicron sororities, the Catholic Daughters of America, and the Carmelite Guild; November 11, 1956, was proclaimed "Edith Garland Dupré Day" by city officials; Dupré Library on the university campus, named in her honor, was dedicated June 10, 1962. Died, Lafayette, October 17, 1970; interred St. Landry Church Cemetery, Opelousas. J.B.C. Sources: Rodney Cline, Pioneer Leaders and Early Institutions in Louisiana Education (1969); Lafayette Daily Advertiser, obituary, October 18, 1970; The Vermilion, October 23, 1970.
DUPRE, Gilbert L., politician, jurist. Born, Dupré Plantation, near Opelousas, La., September 20, 1858; son of Caroline Vanhille and Lucius J. Dupré; great-grandson of Jacques Dupré (q.v.). Education: local parochial and public schools; read law privately. Married Julia B. Estilette, May 30, 1881, in Opelousas. Children: Fannie Estilette, Marie Lucile, Ethel May, and Gilbert L., Jr. Was assistant and deputy clerk in the St. Landry Parish court clerk's office, 1875-1880; admitted to the bar, July 10, 1880; law partner of Judge E. D. Estilette in Opelousas; member of a cavalry company of state militia, 1887; elected to state house of representatives, 1888; elected district judge of St. Landry and Acadia parishes, 1896; served five months as postmaster at Opelousas, 1900; re-elected to the legislatrue in 1913 and served continuously for nineteen years; chairman of joint judiciary committee; member of constitutional convention, 1920; was among a group of house members who sought, but failed, to impeach Gov. Huey P. Long (q.v.), 1931; was known as the "watchdog of the treasury" for his opposition to salary increases for state officials. Member: Opelousas Elks lodge. Died, Opelousas, December 18, 1946; interred Myrtle Grove Cemetery. J.B.C. Sources: Henry E. Chambers, A History of Louisiana, 3 vols. (1925); Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984); Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, obituary, December 19, 1946.
DUPRE, H. Garland, attorney, congressman. Born, Opelousas, La., July 28, 1873; eldest of eight children of Marie Céleste Garland and Laurent Dupré. Education: local schools; Tulane University, graduated in 1892; law degree from Tulane. Admitted to the bar and began practice in New Orleans, 1895. Assistant city attorney of New Orleans 1900-1910; member, state house of representatives, 1900-1910, speaker for the sessions 1908 and 1910; chairman, Democratic state convention, 1908; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel L. Gilmore (q.v.). Had extensive knowledge of parlimentary law and served on the Judiciary Committee and the Rivers and Harbor Committee. Served in Congress from November 8, 1910, until is death in Washington, D. C., February 21, 1924. Never married. Was survived by his mother and seven sisters, one of whom was Edith Garland Dupré (q.v.); interred Dupré family vault, Catholic cemetery, Opelousas, La. J.B.C. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (Cecilia, La., 1977), X; New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, February 22, 1924.
DUPRE, Henry, radio personality. Born, New Orleans, 1906; son of Walter Bernard Dupré and Daisy Philips. Education: local schools; Jesuit College, New Orleans, La. Career: played character and juvenile roles with the St. Charles Stock Company, 1925; removed to New York, where he appeared in vaudeville and dramatic shows, 1927; returned to New Orleans and began work at WWL-radio, 1932; announcer, special events director and assistant manager, 1932-1937; created "Dawn Busters" program, 1937; host of the local "Popeye and Pals" television program; organized the Toys for Tots drive for the radio station, 1930s; retired from WWL-TV, 1964. Married Mildred H. Dupré. One child: Henry P. Dupré, Jr. Died, New Orleans, December 7, 1980; interred Metairie Cemetery. M.L.K. Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item, obituary, December 8, 1980.
DUPRE, Jacques, cattle rancher, politician. Born, New Orleans, February 12, 1773. The eldest son of Laurent Dupré, self-styled Terrebonne, and Marie Josèphe Fontenot, residents of Opelousas Post; baptized at Pointe Coupée Post. Father died in 1783 and mother remarried "Grand Louis" Fontenot, the largest cattle rancher in the Opelousas district. Recipient of Spanish land grant of forty arpents frontage on Bayou Boeuf, 1791. Skilled in the languages of nearby Indian tribes. Married Théotiste Roy of Pointe Coupée, at Opelousas, May 19, 1792. Children: Céleste Gadrate (1793-1818), Lastie (b. 1794), Célestin (baptized 1795), Onézime (1796-1819), Jacques (1797-1799), Valérien (baptized 1798), Cyprien (b. 1801). Established partnership with Pierre Heno of New Orleans in a commercial "boucherie," 1813; reputed to be largest cattle rancher in Louisiana by 1820s. War of 1812 military service: major, Sixteenth Regiment, Louisiana Militia from January 3 to March 15, 1815 (Battle of New Orleans). Louisiana house of representatives, 1817-1818, 1823-1825; Committee on Commerce and Manufacturing. Louisiana senate, 1828-1846; Committee on Claims, Committee on Elections, Committee on Unfinished Business, Committee on Internal Improvements, Committee on Commerce, Agriculture and Manufactures; president of the senate, 1830. Acting governor of Louisiana from January 14, 1830 to January 31, 1831. Whig elector for the presidency, 1832, 1836, 1840, 1844. Purchased several New Orleans lots with buildings, 1830s. Died, September 14, 1846; interred St. Landry Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Opelousas. J.F.G. Sources: Joseph Tregle, "The Governors of Louisiana: Jacques Dupré," Louisiana History, XXII (1981); Journal of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1816-1828; Journal of the Louisiana Senate, 1828-1846; Donald J. Hébert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (Eunice, Cecilia, and Baton Rouge, 1974-1984); Family Records in possession of Marie Celeste Robertson Spiess, Opelousas; Orleans Parish Courthouse Records.
DUPREE, James William, physician. Born, Jackson, La., June 4, 1842. Education: Centenary College; New Orleans School of Medicine, M. D., 1861. Civil War service: assistant surgeon, Pointe Coupée Artillery Battalion, 1861-1862. Removed to Baton Rouge in 1867. Served as Health Officer during the 1878 yellow-fever epidemic. Held several offices in the Louisiana Medical Society. Surgeon general of Louisiana. An expert bacteriologist and a leading authority on yellow fever. Studied mosquitoes and argued that they carried yellow fever. Died, 1906, Baton Rouge. A.W.B. Sources: Evelyn G. Mitchell, Mosquito Life (1907); John Duffy, ed., The Rudolph Matas History of Medicine in Louisiana, 2 vols. (1962).
DUPUY, Eliza Ann, novelist. Born, Petersburg, Va., ca. 1814; daughter of Jesse Dupuy and Mary Anne Thompson Sturdivant; descendant of Colonel Dupuy who led a band of Huguenot exiles to settle on the James River in Virginia. Education: studied to be a teacher. Career: was a governess, after her father's death, to the Thomas G. Ellis family of Natchez, Miss.; later taught in a nearby country school; began writing gothic thrillers to help with family finances; authored nearly thirty novels in which romances and intrigues are chief plot elements; many of her novels were originally written for publication as serials in magazines; plot twists and cliff-hanging elements indicative of this; also wrote under pseudonym, "Annie Young;" used historic information from her own family, in The Huguenot Exiles (1856); also used historic personages, such as Aaron Burr (q.v.) in The Conspirator (1850), and Marshal Ney in Michael Rudolph (1870). Other works include: The Cancelled Will (1872); All for Love (1873); and The Clandestine Marriage (1875). Lived entire life in the South, in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky; never married. Died, New Orleans, January 15, 1881; interred Flingsburg, Ky. D.H.B. Sources: J. W. Davidson, The Living Writers of the South (1869); M. Forrest, Women of the South Distinguished in Literature (1861); M. T. Tardy, The Living Female Writers of the South (1872); I. Raymond, Southland Writers (1870); L. C. McVoy and R. B. Campbell, A Bibliography of Fiction by Louisianians and on Louisiana Subjects (1935); American Women Writers (1979); New Orleans Daily Picayune, obituary, January 17, 1881.
DUQUESNAY, Adolphe Lemercier, writer, professor of music. Born, Kingston, Jamaica, May 1839. Education: Versailles and Paris, France. Considered a brilliant musician, studied under Malandan. Emigrated to New Orleans, 1860, became a music teacher. Published "Sursum Corda!" in L'Abeille de la Nouvelle Orleans, September 1891. In 1892, published a volume entitled Essais littéraires et dramatiques, his sole lilterary attempt. Volume includes three nouvelles written in poetical prose. Scenes of two are laid in Louisiana: Un été a la Grand'Ile, which also appeared in L'Abeille, September 25, 1898, and Le Chant d'Ipomoea or Legende créole. Died, New Orleans, 1901. M.D.* Source: Ruby Van Allen Caulfield, The French Literature of Louisiana (New York, 1929).
DUQUESNAY, Marie Arthur Guillaume, clergyman, educator. Born, Kingston, Jamaica, February 15, 1809; son of Philippe le Mercier duQuesney. Education: College of Montmorillion, Poitou, France; completed theological studies Grand Seminary, Rennes, Brittany; ordained a priest, June 1835. Appointed coadjutor to vicar apostolic of Jamaica. Curate of St. Augustine Church, New Orleans, 1845-1855; rector, St. Louis Cathedral, 1855-1858; appointed first canon of New Orleans by Bishop Blanc (q.v.); founder of La Société Catholique Education Religieuse et Litteraire, which gave corporate existence to the College of the Immaculate Conception, later known as Jesuit High School; counselor and director of the religious activities of the Sisters of Mount Carmel; active in formulating charter of Mount Carmel school. Remembered long afterward for heroic service during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1853. Died, October 20, 1858; interred St. Louis Cathedral. M.D.* Sources: Roger Baudier, History of the Catholic Church in Louisiana; André LaFargue, "A Man of God and a Servant of Humanity: The Reverend Marie Arthur Guillaume Le Mercier duQuesnay," Louisiana Historical Quarterly; letter of appointment signed by A. Cardinal Lambruschini, now the property of Prof. Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, of S.M.U.
DURALDE, Martin Milony, planter, administrator. Born, St.-Laurent Parish, Cambo (les Bains?), Diocese of Bayonne, France, ca. 1737; son of Pierre Duralde and Marie Delizzaque. Was in Louisiana in July 1769. Married, September 17, 1776, St. Louis [Missouri], Marie-Josèphe Perrault (1751-1813), daughter of Louis Perrault and Josèphe Baby. Children: Céleste (b. 1778), married Valerien Allain; Louise (b. 1781), married Joseph Soniat Dufossat; Julie (b. 1783), married John Clay (Henry Clay's brother); Martin Adrien (b. 1785), married Susan Hart Clay (Henry Clay's daughter); Joseph Valmon (b. 1787), married Gertrude Vahamonde (Bahamondes); Marie (b. 1789), apparently Clarissa, married William C. C. Claiborne (q.v.), governor of the territory and later governor of the state. Duralde served as a surveyor under Pedro Piernas (q.v.) in Missouri; was a merchant in St. Louis. Removed to the Opelousas Post sometime between 1779 and 1781; elected sindic of the post in 1785. Named commandant of Opelousas Post, 1795, and served in that capacity until the end of Spanish rule. Obtained a Spanish land grant in 1802. Wrote his observations of Chitimacha and Attakapas Indians and described local discoveries of fossils. Died on his plantation, November 21, 1822; interred St. Michael's Cemetery, St. Martinville, La. J.O.V. Sources: Civil and ecclesiastical records, Louisiana and Missouri; American State Papers, Public Lands; Jack D. L. Holmes, "Martin Duralde and the Dawn of Anthropology in Louisiana," Twenty-first Annual Meeting, Louisiana Historical Association, March 21, 1980, New Orleans, La.; published as "Martin Duralde Observes Louisiana in 1802," Louisiana Review, IX (1980).
DURAND, Gerome Charles, planter. Born, Nancy, France, 1806; son of René Durand and Perrine Moreau. Arrived in Louisiana, 1820 with parents. Education: schools of Nancy, France, and Louisiana. No record of any military service. Plantation owner and businessman, Durand acquired Pine Alley Plantation. Married (1) Marie Amélie Leblanc, daughter of Rosemond Leblanc and Marcellite Bourgeois, June 5, 1827, in St. Martinville. Children: Charles, Jr. (b. 1818), Amélie Virginie (b. 1829), Léontine (b. 1832), unnamed daughter (b. 1834), unnamed son (b. 1835), Elmire Marie (b. 1837), Irma Marie (b. 1839), Marie Rose (b. 1942), and 4 children who died in infancy. Married (2) Alida Eloise Verret, of St. Martinville, daughter of Nicolas Verret and Marie Louise Sennetière of St. Mary Parish, La. Children: Oscar Jerome (b. 1846), Marie Charlotte (b. 1847), Blanche Marie (b. 1849), Héloise Marie (b. 1850), Corinne Marie (b. 1852), Louis Benjamin (b. 1854), René Maurice (b. 1855), Stanislaus Joseph (b. 1857), Gustave Charles (b. 1858), Charles Fernand (b. 1859), Joseph Louis (b. 1860), and Marie Noélie (b. 1864). Credited with having planted the oak and pine trees of Pine Alley. Died, November 26, 1870, Pine Alley Plantation; interred St. Michael's Cemetery, St. Martinville. W.F.D. Sources: Baptismal, marriage and death records, St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church; Donald J. Hébert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records; George Bodin, comp., Selected Acadian and Louisiana Church Records; St. Martin Parish Conveyance Records, Book 14, p. 121, folio 9137; Attakapas Gazette, VII, (1972).
DURAND, Leonce, businessman. Born, Grand Bois Plantation, St. Martin Parish, La., December 9, 1879; son of John L. Durand and Emiline Marin. Education: local schools, St. Martinville. Established Pine Grove Canning Co., 1914. Products distributed in thirty-seven states and Canada. Also developed and managed lands for cultivation. Married, June 12, 1919, Louella Wiltz, daughter of Telesphar Wiltz and Lucie Judice. Children: Grace (b. 1920), Melba (b. 1921), Leonce, Jr. (b. 1923), Celine (b. 1925), Larry (b. 1926), Doris (b. 1928), Rita (b. 1930), Louella (b. 1932), Emeline (b. 1934), Frances (b. 1936), Marie Claire (b. 1938). Member: Catholic church; Knights of Columbus. Died, St. Martinville, January 27, 1969; interred St. Michael's Cemetery. H.E.D. Sources: William E. Skaggs and J. B. Lux, eds., Louisiana Business and Professional Directory; St. Martinville Teche News, January 30, 1969; Interviews with Mrs. Melba Duchamp and Mrs. Celine Willis, daughters, and Mrs. Leonce Durand, wife of Leonce Durance.
DURANT, Thomas Jefferson, politician. Born Philadelphia, Pa., August 8, 1817. Education: attended University of Pennsylvania but did not graduate. Removed to New Orleans, 1834, worked in the post office. Studied law, admitted to the bar, and practiced in the Crescent City. Elected to state senate as a Democrat, 1846. Appointed U. S. district attorney by President James K. Polk. Supported candidacy of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Appointed attorney general by military governor Gen. George F. Shepley (q.v.), 1863. Leader in the formation of the Friends of Universal Suffrage in New Orleans, advocating voting rights for Negroes. Leader of the radical wing of the Free State Party, 1863-1864. Removed to Washington, D. C., about 1866, and practiced law. Instrumental in winning the Slaughterhouse Cases, 1873. Counsel for the United States at the Spanish and American Claims Commission, 1881. Died, Washington, D. C., February 3, 1882. A.W.B. Sources: "Thomas Jefferson Durant," Dictionary of American Biography, V (1946); Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (1974); Philip D. Uzee, "The Beginnings of the Louisiana Republican Party," Louisiana History, XII (1972).
DURELL, Edward Henry, attorney, jurist. Born, Portsmouth, N. H., July 14, 1810; son of Congressman Daniel M. Durell and Elizabeth Wentworth. Education: attended Phillips Exeter Academy; Harvard College, graduated 1831; read law in his father's Dover law office and was admitted to the bar in 1834. Practiced briefly in Pittsburg, Miss., which he personally renamed Grenada, before settling in New Orleans in 1837. According to a friend's account, for the next twenty-five years he "devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of books," becoming by the Civil War a "profoundly read lawyer, conversant . . . with literature and history and the ancient classics," as well as becoming "a thorough scholar in . . . French, German, and Spanish." Yet during the antebellum years he did have time to establish a thriving law practice, author a book, New Orleans as I Found It (1845), compile a statistical pamphlet encouraging closer economic and political links between the South and the new West in 1854, the same year he was elected to the city council, and in 1856, he wrote and worked for the adoption of a new city charter. Served as president of the New Orleans Bar Association in the latter 1850s. As a Union Democrat he supported Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency and bitterly opposed secession; when it came, he withdrew from public life for the next year. After the Federal occupation of New Orleans, at the request of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler (q.v.), he formulated a bureau system of city government and headed the Bureau of Finance. In 1863, he was appointed mayor and later in the year U. S. judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana, and in 1864, in addition to these posts, he served as president of the state constitutional convention and as a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Baltimore. Although he favored the objective of the "conventioneers," in 1866 he refused to reconvene the 1864 constitutional convention, which he correctly predicted would cause great violence. Until 1872, he sought to avoid the struggles of partisanship raging in the state, but a decision of his from the bench that year eventually cost him his position as federal judge. In December, after a disputed election, he ordered the U. S. marshal to seize the statehouse and allow entrance only to those claiming election under the Republican custom house faction count. He perceived that the Republicans had won the election and declared an election board established by the Democrats illegal. For this action, considered high-handed and irregular by most, he was threatened with impeachment by Congress and resigned in 1874. Removed to Newburgh, New York, married Mary Gebhart in 1875 and removed to Scholarie, N. Y. During his last years he returned to his great love of literary pursuits, spending much of his time writing, but never completing, "History of Seventeen Years; from 1860 to the Retiring of the Federal Army from Louisiana and South Carolina." Died, March 29, 1887. J.A.B. Sources: The Granite Monthly, (April, 1888); Edward C. Billings, The Struggle Between the Civilization of Slavery and That of Freedom Recently and Now Going on in Louisiana (1873); Harper's Weekly, June 6, 1868; Dictionary of American Biography.
DURHAM, Allen Pinckney (Apple Pie), clergyman, missionary, evangelist. Born, near Cuthbert, Randolph County, Ga., September 29, 1853; son of James Durham and Eliza Crawford Davis. Self-educated. Removed to Atlanta, Winn Parish, La., 1859. Married (1), 1877, Jemima Porter of Winnfield. Children: Sarah, Cornelius, Spurgeon, Robert, Hallie, Birdie, and three sons who died in infancy. Married (2) Mrs. Bettie Carroll Moore of Pelican, La. Ordained into the Southern Baptist ministry in June, 1886. Served as an associational missionary 1897-1904, and as statewide evangelist, 1909-1913. Held meetings in every parish of the state. Pastored over forty rural churches, held 250 revivals and baptized over 2,700 people. Retired from his last full-time pastorate in 1936 at age 83, completing fifty years in the ministry. Died, Pelican, La., November 18, 1939; interred Pelican Cemetery. K.D. Sources: John P. Durham, A. P. Durham: Apostle of Sunshine (1952); John Pinckney Durham and John S. Ramond, comps. and eds., Baptist Builders in Louisiana (1934).
DURHAM, James Lucius, farmer, timber appraiser and buyer. Born, Cuthbert, Randolph County, Ga., May 21, 1848; son of James Durham and Eliza Crawford Davis. Illiterate until his wife taught him to read and write. Removed to Atlanta, Winn Parish, La., 1859. Married, January 2, 1868, Talitha Ann McIlwain of Atlanta, daughter of John McIlwain, Atlanta farmer, and Caroline Edwards. Children: James (b. 1868), John (q.v.), George (b. 1874), Joel (b. 1878), Caroline (b. 1881), Silas (b. 1884), Lula (b. 1886), Alma Vara (b. 1891). Active in the Democratic party. Member, Winn Parish Police Jury, 1885-1888; served as agent for paupers in Ward Six, 1885; served on parish finance committee, 1886; appeared as surety on bonds for various men for amounts up to $100.00, 1875-1880. Sworn in as deputy sheriff, Winn Parish, January 11, 1897. Active member of Atlanta and Winnfield Baptist churches; ordained a deacon at age 18. Known by his contemporaries as one who willingly gave of his resources to help those in need. Died, Winnfield, March 10, 1920; interred Winnfield City Cemetery. K.D. Sources: John P. Durham, Biography of James Lucius Durham (1961); John P. Durham and John S. Ramond, comps. and eds.,, Baptist Builders in Louisiana (1934); Proceedings of the Winn Parish Police Jury (1880-1891); Winn Parish Oath Books A & C.
DURHAM, John Pinckney, clergyman. Born, near Atlanta, Winn Parish, La., November 2, 1871; son of James Lucius Durham (q.v.) and Talitha McIlwain. Education: Atlanta school; private schools; Atlanta Institute; Baylor University, 1893, 1895, Keatchie College, 1898; Mt. Lebanon Baptist College, B. L. degree, 1900; and post-graduate work, Baylor University, 1904-1905. Taught school, Grant Parish, 1892; Winn Parish, 1893; Coolidge, Tex., 1894-1895; Mt. Zion near Montgomery, La., 1895-1897; Fairfield in Grant Parish, 1898; Verda, 1899-1900; Geneva, Tex., 1901-1903; president, Mt. Lebanon Baptist Academy, 1910-1911. Married, September 1, 1898, Minnie Estes, daughter of Reuben Fitzgerald Estes, Keatchie farmer, and Mattie Merrit. Children: A. Gordon (b. 1899), Kenneth (b. 1900), F. Manning (b. 1901), Lillian (b. 1905), Grady (b. 1907), James (b. 1910), Dorothy (b. 1913), John, Jr. (b. 1915). Ordained a Southern Baptist minister in September 1898 and pastored thirty-seven churches (most were part-time country churches) in or near Atlanta, Verda, Jennings, Winnfield, Opelousas, Vivian, Bernice, Bastrop, Queensboro (Shreveport), Ringgold, Springhill, Cheneyville, Longleaf, Junction City, Ark. Retired on January 1, 1941, at Joyce City, Ark. Served as recording secretary of the Louisiana Baptist State Convention, 1918-1932. Author of James L. Durham, A Biography, and A. P. Durham: Apostle of Sunshine. Lived in Shreveport from retirement until his death on October 1, 1962; interred Winnfield City Cemetery. K.D. Sources: Unpublished memoirs of John Pinckney Durham; John P. Durham and John S. Ramond, comps. and eds., Baptist Builders in Louisiana (1934); Durham family papers and photographs.
DUSON, Cornelius C., politician, land developer. Born, Webb's Cove, St. Landry Parish, La., August 31, 1846; son of Cornelius Duson and Sarah Ann Webb. Civil War service: private, Company D, Seventh Louisiana Cavalry; taken prisoner; paroled at Washington, La., June 17, 1865. Settled in Opelousas, La. Attended C. A. Frazee's school, Opelousas, 1867. Married (1), November 23, 1867, Isora A. Andrus, daughter of Joseph Elah Andrus, Jr. Children: Morton E., Walter W., Rodney R., Clayton C., Jesse C., Lola A., George M., Meta. Active in Democratic party: deputy sheriff, St. Landry Parish, 1867-1872; sheriff, St. Landry Parish, 1873-1887; state senator, 1888-1892. Partner, Southwestern Louisiana Land Co., 1886; founded Crowley, La., with W. W. Duson (q.v.), 1887. Removed to Crowley, 1892; active in railroad expansion in area. Married (2), June 1893, Eunice Pharr, daughter of E. W. Pharr of New Iberia. Children: Curley P. (b. 1894), William H. (b. 1895). Founded: Eunice, 1894, Iota, 1894, Mamou, 1907. Removed to Eunice, 1894; returned to Crowley, 1897. Joined Republican party; appointed U. S. marshal, Western District of Louisiana, 1906. Died, New Orleans, October 19, 1910; interred Crowley. J.L.F. Sources: Gilbert L. Dupré, Political Reminiscences, 1876-1902 [1917?]; Mary Alice Fontenot and Paul B. Freeland, Acadia Parish, Louisiana: A History to 1900 (1976); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana (1909); Robert Gahn, A History of Evangeline Parish (1972); William H. Perrin, Southwest Louisiana: Biographical and Historical (1891; reprint ed., 1971); Eunice News, September 11, 1969; October 5, 1976; Opelousas Daily World, November 3, 1965.
DUSON, William W., land developer, businessman. Born near Breaux Bridge, La., October 5, 1853; son of Cornelius Duson and Sarah Ann Webb. Education: rural schools, business school. Began career as rural merchant, entered real estate. Married (1) Anna McClelland, January 2, 1879. One child, Mamie Hilliard. Married (2) Julia I. Clark, April 7, 1882. No children. Married (3) Clara May Thayer, February 11, 1893. Children: Henry Thayer, Maxwell McNaughton, William W., Jr., Marguerite, and Mildred C. With older brother, C. C. Duson (q.v.), formed real estate company, bought first newspaper in Acadia Parish, La., was co-founder of Acadia Parish and Crowley. Engaged in multiple enterprises connected with irrigation and milling of rice, was president of first oil company in Acadia Parish. Member, Methodist church. Donated land to many churches and schools of Acadia Parish. Died, October 3, 1929; interred Crowley Protestant Cemetery. M.A.F. Sources: Freeland Archives, Acadia Parish Library, Crowley, La.; Gilbert L. Dupré, Political Reminiscences, 1876-1902 [1917?]; St. Landry Parish Records; Mary Alice Fontenot and Rev. Paul B. Freeland, Acadia Parish, Louisiana: A History to 1900 (1976).
DUTISNÉ, Claude-Charles, soldier, explorer. Born, Paris, France, ca. 1688. Following commissioning as an ensign in the French colonial regular army in 1705, stationed in Quebec, where he acquired experience in Indian affairs. In 1714 dispatched to the settlements of the Illinois country, and later to Lower Louisiana, where he demonstrated his skill as a frontiersman and participated in a number of unrelated projects, which included the construction of a fort at Natchitoches, 1717. Transferred to Kaskaskia, in 1719, led two expeditions to open trade routes between Upper Louisiana and the various Plains Indian nations: the first was a reconnaissance of the Missouri River to the village of the Missouri Indians, the second an overland trek to the Wichita villages in southeastern Kansas, which resulted in a treaty between the French and the Wichitas. Reports to Bienville contain a wealth of information on several important Louisiana Indian groups, including the Missouri, Osages, Wichitas (Panis), and Comanches (Padoucas). Original journals lost, but contents summarized by Bénard de La Harpe (q.v.) in his Journal du voyage de la Louisiane (1720). Rounded out his Louisiana career with postings as commandant at Fort de Chartres and Fort Rosalie, returning to the Illinois country in 1729. Died, 1730, from the effects of a gunshot wound inflicted by a Fox Indian. R.C.V. Sources: Mildred Mott Wedel, "Claude-Charles Dutisné: A Review of His 1719 Journeys," Great Plains Journal, XII (1972-1973); Anna Lewis, "Du Tisné's Expedition to Oklahoma, 1719," Chronicles of Oklahoma, III (1925); Dutisné's Relation in Bénard de La Harpe, Journal du voyage de la Louisiane (1720).
DYER, Joseph Matthew, businessman, civic leader, politician. Born, Baltimore, Md., 1868; son of Jeremiah Dyer (1824-1882) and Mary Clare Mudd (1834-1883). Married, February 24, 1892, in Morgan City, La., Alice Natali, daughter of Baron Randolph Natali and Marie Chassaignac, who lived in New Orleans before moving to Morgan City where the baron was public relations man and station agent for Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Co., later Southern Pacific. Children: Charles, Randolph, Jerry, Edwin, Joseph, Sam, Alice, Agnes and Ann. Owned and operated hardware and lumber businesses and steamboats engaged in logging along the Atchafalaya River and its tributaries; was president of Dyer-Lehmann mercantile firm. Appointed to city council in 1893 and in 1894 succeeded Mayor J. H. P. Wise as mayor of Morgan City, serving until 1897. In 1914 was king of an elaborate revival of the Mardi Gras in Morgan City. Member, Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Family removed to Houston in 1917 where Mrs. Dyer died in 1919. Dyer remarried and had two children by his second wife. Spent last years of life in Shreveport, La., where he died in April 1929. Interred Morgan City Cemetery. L.K.L. Source: Family papers, Morgan City Archives.
DYMOND, John, planter, publisher, historian. Born, Canada, May 3, 1836, of English parentage. Removed with family to Zanesville, Ohio. Education: public schools, finished at Bartlett's College, Cincinnati. Removed to New York, 1860. Married, 1862, Nancy Elizabeth Cassidy. Children: John, Jr., William, Richard, Florence Dymond, and Mrs. Charles Benedict. Entered brokerage business in New York, 1862; established branch of business in New Orleans, 1862, dealing in molasses, cotton, and sugar. Purchased Belair and Fairview sugar plantations in Plaquemines Parish, 1868. Removed to Belair Plantation, 1877; that year organized Louisiana Sugar Planters' Association, served as second president of organization. Engaged in research in agriculture and sugar planting; influential in establishment of Audubon Sugar Experiment Station; first president of Louisiana Scientific Agricultural Association. Politically active: delegate, National Democratic Convention, 1888; state representative, 1892-1900; state senator, 1900-1916; member, constitutional convention, 1898. With destruction of Belair Plantation by fire, 1907, removed to New Orleans, became editor and publisher. Published The Southwestern Farmer, The Louisiana Farmer, Trade Index of New Orleans, a Spanish-language sugar journal, and the Lower Coast Gazette. First editor, 1917-1922, Louisiana Historical Quarterly. Member, First Unitarian Church (honorary president), Masons, Boston, and Round Table clubs. Died, March 5, 1922; interred Metairie Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: Louisiana Historical Quarterly, V (1922); New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 6, 1922; John Alfred Heitmann, The Modernization of the Louisiana Sugar Industry, 1830-1910 (1987).
