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EADS, James Buchanan, engineer. Born, Lawrenceburg, Ind., May 23, 1820; son of Thomas C. Eads and Ann Buchanan. Named for mother’s cousin, James Buchanan who later became president of the United States Little formal education, but by ten years of age adept at constructing simple machines and models of sawmills and steamboats. Spent early life moving to various cities where father tried unsuccessfully to go into business. Lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville Ky., and finally settled in St. Louis, Mo., in 1833. Family’s lack of finances forced him to peddle apples. Later took a job as a dry goods clerk. At eighteen, he became a purser on a Mississippi River steamboat. Invented diving bell in 1842 and engaged in salvage of sunken cargo in partnership with Calvin Case and William Nelson. At twenty-five, sold his interests in the salvage business and opened the first glass factory west of the Ohio River. This business failed and returned to salvage operations in which he was successful. Married (1) Martha Nash Dillon (d. 1852), October 21, 1845. Children: Eliza Ann (b. 1845), James (b. 1848), and Martha (b. 1851). Married (2) Eunice Hagerman Eads (his cousin’s widow), May 2, 1854, in St. Louis, Mo. Her three daughters from a first marriage who became his step-daughters were Genevieve, Adelaide, and Josephine Eads. In 1861 summoned to Washington, D. C., by President Lincoln to discuss equipping a fleet of ironclad vessels for the Union Navy. Within one hundred days, constructed seven such which spearheaded Grant’s campaign against Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Later the ironclads were used at Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mobile Bay. They were the first ironclads in North America. Also built fourteen gunboats, and four heavy mortar boats for the Union. These vessels were vital to the success of Grant’s campaign along the Mississippi. Completed the building of a steel and masonry bridge with a 500-foot minimum center-span across the Mississippi at St. Louis in 1874. That same year offered a proposal to Congress to dredge a channel in the passes of the Mississippi River through use of jetties. Began work on this project the next year and completed the jetties by 1879. Recognized as one of the finest hydraulic engineers in America, he received an honorary degree of LL. D. from the University of Missouri and the Albert Medal from the British Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufacture and Commerce. Was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Proposed building a ship railway across Tchauntepec Isthmus in 1879, but this project never materialized. Sailed to Nassau for his health and died there, March 8, 1887; interred Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo. J.J.J. Sources: Florence Dorsey, The Story of James B. Eads: Road to the Sea and the Mississippi River (1947); Clayton Rand, Stars in Their Eyes (1953); Arthur Orrmont, James B. Eads: The Man Who Mastered the Mississippi (1970); Rosemary Yager, James Buchanan Eads: Master of the Great River (1968); National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, V (1907); New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 11, 1887.
EASTIN, Alton J., businessman, politician. Born, St. Martinville, La., October 17, 1910; son of Richard Taylor Eastin II and Clara Barras. Education: local schools; Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Southwestern Louisiana), B. S., Electrical Engineering. Manager and president, St. Martin Oil and Gas Company. Married, December 27, 1938, Pauline Ozenne, daughter of David B. Ozenne and Beulah Girouard, of St. Martin Parish. One child: Gayle Ann (Mrs. Calvin Landry). Member: St. Martin Parish Library Board of Control; charter member, St. Martinville Lions Club; Woodmen of the World; twenty-five years on board of directors, St. Martin Bank and Trust Co., five years as president; twenty-four years on St. Martin Parish Police Jury, thirteen years, 1963-1976, as president. Died, St. Martinville, July 28, 1984; interred St. Michael’s Cemetery. G.E.L. Source: Family interview.
EASTIN, William Butler, planter, politician. Born, St. Martinville, La., July 4, 1849; son of Richard Taylor Eastin and Marie Octavie Fontenette. Education: local schools; St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, La.; St. John’s College, Fordham, N. Y.; read law in office of Jules Gary. Planter; justice of the peace; chief deputy clerk of court, 1881-1896; clerk of court, 1896-1899. Married, 1872, Marie Gabrielle Guernière, daughter of Charles Guernière and Hersilie de la Houssaye. Children: Hersilie (b. 1873), Richard Taylor II (b. 1875), Albert Sidney (b. 1877), Joseph William (b. 1879), Joseph Edward (b. 1881), Robert Lee (b. 1883), Thomas Jefferson (b. 1885), Anita Marie (b. 1887), Patrick Henry (b. 1889), Marie Lena (b. 1892). Member, Catholic church; Knights of Honor; Knights of Pythias. Died, St. Martinville, August 6, 1900; interred St. Michael’s Cemetery. H.E.D. Sources: National Archives, 1880 Census of Louisiana, V. 15 St. Martin Parish, Micro T-9, Roll 470; St. Martinville Weekly Messenger, August 11, 1900; William Henry Perrin, Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical (1891; reprint ed., 1971); Donald Hébert, comp., Southwest Louisiana Records, 33 vols. (1974-1984); Eastin family papers.
EASTMAN, John H., businessman, mayor of Shreveport. Born Mansfield, La., September 23, 1861. Was a tinner; established Vordenbauman-Eastman Hardware Co., 1898. Served as mayor of Shreveport, 1910-1914, under first commission form of government. During his term, changes were made in street paving policies which resulted in a better product for less cost. His administration acquired the Cross Lake area (11,000 acres) at $1.00 per acre; oversaw the enlargement of the Louisiana State Fair grounds and the building of the grandstand; saw construction of Red River traffic bridge which opened January, 1915. Married Nellie Mayo of Lake Charles. Four children, of whom one survived: William M. Eastman. Died, November 14, 1938. P.L.M. Source: Lilla McLure and J. Ed Howe, History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders (1937).
EASTON, Warren, educator. Born, New Orleans, November 19, 1848; son of Andrew and Annie Easton, English immigrants. Education: local elementary, high school; graduated Louisiana State University, 1871. Taught in Baton Rouge two years; returned to New Orleans; taught at Fillmore Public School; became principal at Fillmore, Magnolia, Jackson, and St. Philip schools. As Louisiana superintendent of education, 1884-1888, established State Normal School (now Northwestern State University), Natchitoches. Elected superintendent, New Orleans Public Schools, by acclamation, October 11, 1888. System had 414 teachers, 24,800 students, 51 schools. In 1910, when Easton died in office, there were 1,122 teachers, 38,098 students in day classes, 87 schools; 105 teachers, 4,035 students at nine night schools. During twenty-two-year tenure Easton launched classes in calesthenics, drawing, music; submitted first typewritten superintendent’s report, January 11, 1889, some seventeen years before forty young men enrolled in public school short-hand, typing class, November 2, 1905; inaugurated fire drills, October 15, 1894; compulsory smallpox vaccination (no longer required), September 25, 1906. Worked hard to set regular paydays for teachers; endorsed Teachers’ Pension League; organized Louisiana Teachers Association, served as its president; active in National Education Association, New Orleans Educational Association, Public School Alliance. Married Camille Hart, New Orleans, July 6, 1887. No children. Died, New Orleans, October 17, 1910; interred Greenwood Cemetery. Warren Easton High School opened 1913. R.M.J. Sources: Obituary, New Orleans Daily Picayune, October 18, 1910; October 23, 1910; Rodney Cline, Builders of Louisiana Education (1963); Robert Meyer, Jr., Names Over New Orleans Public Schools (1975); New Orleans School Board minutes.
EBARB, Paul, businessman. Born, May 30, 1891; descended from Antonio Gil y Barbo (q.v.), one of the earliest settlers of the Spanish post Los Adaes. Life-long member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church; member of the Knights of Columbus; World War I veteran; charter member of Floyd Jordan Post 172, American Legion; school teacher; member of Sabine Parish School Board for thirty-six years; as chairman of finance committee was responsible for many school improvements. Member of Zwolle town council. Married Florence Ferguson. Children: Jesse Patrick Ebarb, Paul Frederick Ebarb, Joseph Donald Ebarb, Ruth Loupe, Kathryn Boudreaux, Theo Ezernack, Vivian Ebarb, Polly Moyer, Frances Bybee. Active in school and community activities. Died, April 27, 1966; interred St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Zwolle, La. J.H.P. Sources: Sabine Index, obituary; centennial issue, September 6, 1979.
EDENBORN, William, businessman, entrepreneur. Born, Plattenburg, Westphalia, Prussia, May 20, 1848; son of Jacob Edenborn and Antoinette Hessmer. Education: Prussian schools; commmercial college in U. S. Emigrated to America, 1867. First job as a mechanic at a small wire mill in Frankstown, Pa. Engaged by Globe Rolling Mill, Cincinnati, 1868. Married, October 4, 1876, Sarah Drain, of St. Louis, Mo., daughter of John Drain, St. Louis real estate dealer, and (?) Carpenter. Children: Antoinette (b. 1880), Lilly, adopted (b. about 1888). Majority stock owner of Harrison Wire Co., St. Louis, Mo.; 1881, first of many inventions patented by Edenborn (machine for pointing wire) which was also used in the nail industry. His inventiveness spanned thirty-nine years with the last (apparatus for extracting resin and allied products) while living in New Orleans in 1920. Majority stock owner of St. Louis Wire Mill, St. Louis, Mo.; joined with Clifford & Gates Southern Wire Co., 1884; stock owner and president in Braddock Wire Co. (including a galvanizing and rod mill plant), 1884; purchased controlling interest in Lambert & Bishop Wire Fence Co., Joliet, Ill., and Iowa Barbed Wire Fence Co., Allentown, Pa., 1885; incorporated into the Consolidated Steel & Wire Co. (president of same); later consolidations were effected and the American Steel & Wire Co. of Illinois was incorporated (president of same); then to the American Steel & Wire Co. of New York; 1899, principal owner and president of the American Steel & Wire Co. of New Jersey; 1901, on executive committee and advisory board of U. S. Steel; 1901-1909, director of U. S. Steel (forerunner of U. S. Steel Corporation). Originated the employee benefit and insurance association plan. 1898, business activities began in Louisiana with the construction of the Shreveport & Red River Valley Railroad; May 9, 1903, organized (president and owner) the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Co.; December 9, 1903, branch line from Aloha, La., to Winnfield, La., was completed; November 6, 1909, organized the Angola Transfer Co.; December 12, 1906, freight service established from New Orleans to Shreveport; April 14, 1907, passenger service established to same. April 1, 1923, acquired the Shreveport branch of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway (reorganized as the Louisiana-Arkansas & Texas Railway); April 1, 1928, opened the first railway-highway bridge over the Atchafalaya River at Simmesport, La.; the (Edenborn built) railroad is known as the Kansas City Southern (KCS), today. 1898, purchased the Urania Lumber Co.; later formed the Colfax Lumber & Creosote Co.; at one time was the owner of over one million acres of Louisiana timberland (including land in the Critchton-Lenzberg oil field); his most famous timberland (Coochie-Break or the Edenborn Cypress Break) in Winn Parish, in which the oldest living tree in Louisiana (and the South and East) was cut. Additional offices held: vice-president, Louisiana Central Construction Co., 1897-1913; vice-president, German Society of New York; executive capacity with the Pittsburgh and Southern Coal Co., St. Louis Iron & Machine Works, the American Musical Co., of New Jersey, and the Metropolitan Bank of New Orleans. Owner of several steamboats: The William Edenborn, Sarah Edenborn, Kellogg, and the U & I.. Named for subject: the Edenborn (ship) for U. S. Steel, Edenborn St. and Hessmer St. in Metairie, La.; there is Hessmer, La. today and there was an Edenborn Post Office (near Gonzales, La.) in the early 1900s. Louisiana residences: Alexandria, New Orleans and Emden (located fifteen miles south of Winnfield, La.). Religion: Salem Methodist in St. Louis. Died, Shreveport, May 13, 1926; interred Forest Park Cemetery (Lutheran). B.P.M. Sources: Glen Coleman, The Man Who Fenced the West (1984); Paul Sippel, A Brief History of the La. & Ark. Railroad and the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Co.; Maude H. O’Pry, Chronicles of Shreveport & Caddo Parish (1928); Corinne L. Saucier, History of Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana (1943); Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Elbert Gary (The Story of Steel); Transportation in Dixie, (vol. I, no. 7), November 1925; The Trade Index (vol. xxvi, no. 23), August 1915; Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXX (1947); Shreveport Times, May 7, 1926; May 14, 1926; New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 6, 1928; New Orleans Daily Picayune, April 12, 15, 1907; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 6, 7, 1984; City Hall, St. Louis, Mo.; Patent Office, Washington, D. C.; Conversations with Glen Coleman; Personal papers of Lutcher & Moore Lumber Co.; Edenborn papers (correspondence).
EDESON, Robert, actor. Born, New Orleans, 1868; son of George R. Edeson and Marion Taliferro. Married (1) actress Ellen Burg (d. 1906); married (2) Georgie Elliot, July 8, 1908. Educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y. Stage appearances in New York: “Fascination,” Park Theater, 1887; “A Night Off;” “The Dark Secret;” “Incognito;” “Under the Red Robe,” 1906. Starred in the following Broadway plays: “Soldiers of Fortune,” 1902-1904; “Ransom’s Folly” and “Strongheart,” 1905-1907; “Classmates,” 1907; “The Call of the North,” 1908; “The Noble Spaniard,” 1909; “Fine Feathers,” 1913.” Had the lead male role in “The Climbers.” Became an actor with the Famous Players-Laskey Corporation, 1921 and moved to Hollywood. Appeared in the following motion pictures: The Call of the North, Where the Trail Divides, 1914 ; How Molly Made Good, 1915; The Light That Failed, 1916; Extravagance, 1921; Any Night, The Prisoner of Zenda, Sure-Fire Flint, 1922; The Spoilers, Has the World Gone Mad?, Luck, The Silent Partner, Souls for Sale, The Ten Commandments, The Tie That Binds To the Last Man, You Are Guilty, 1923; Feet of Clay, The Bedroom Window, Don’t Call It Love, Mademoiselle Midnight, Men, Missing Daughters, Thy Name Is Woman, Triumph, Welcome Stranger, 1924; Blood and Steel, Braveheart, The Danger Signal, Go Straight, The Golden Bed, Hell’s Highroad, Keep Smiling, Locked Doors, Men and Women, The Prairie Pirate, The Rag Man, The Scarlet West, 1925; The Blue Eagle, The Clinging Vine, Eve’s Leaves, Her Man O’War, The Volga Boatman, Whispering Smith, 1926; King of Kings, Altars of Desire, The Heart Thief, His Dog, The Night Bride, The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, 1927; Tenth Avenue, Marriage by Contract, Chicago, The Home Towners, The Man Higher Up, The Power of the Press, Beware of Blondes, A Ship Comes In, Walking Back, 1928; George Washington Cohen, Marianne, The Little Wildcat, The Doctor’s Secret, A Most Immoral Lady, Romance of the Rio Grander Dynamite, 1929; Danger Lights, Big Money, Little Johnny Jones, Way of All Men, Cameo Kirby, Pardon My Gun, Swing High, A Devil with Women, 1930; Aloha, The Lash, 1931. Died March 24, 1931. C.A.B. Sources: Evelyn Mack Truitt, ed., Who Was Who on Screen: Illustrated Edition (1984); Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942 (1943).
EDMUNDSON, Ernest E., farmer, businessman. Born, Macon County, Ill., 1879. Removed to Crowley, La., 1901. Married Marelu Jopin of Elizabethtown, Ky., 1911. Child: Ernest E., Jr. Rice farmer and rice mill owner; assistant to food administrator in Washington, D. C., during World War I; helped establish the first standards for rough and milled rice; was official price administrator for rough rice in the Southern states; senior partner of Edmundson-Duhe Rice Mill, Rayne, La. Died, Tucson, Ariz., February 4, 1960; interred old Crowley Protestant Cemetery. J.B.C. Source: Crowley Daily Signal, obituary, February 6, 1960.
EDWARDS, Jay Dearborn, photographer. Born, New Hampshire, July 14, 1831. Removed to New Orleans, 1859. Specialized in outdoor photography. Took numerous photographs of Confederate troops and military installations at Pensacola, Fla., 1861-1862. Removed to Virginia after the war. Located in Atlanta, Ga., in 1886. Died, June 6, 1900, Atlanta. A.W.B. Source: Margaret Denton Smith and Mary Louise Tucker, Photography in New Orleans: The Early Years, 1840-1865 (1982).
EDWARDS, William Everett, attorney, planter, politician. Born, Nelson County, Ky., November 11, 1808; son of Travis Edwards. Removed to Iberville Parish, La., 1831. Married, 1835, Lavinia Wilson, widow of David Barrow and daughter of Nicolas Wilson and Eliza Erwin, granddaughter of Joseph Erwin (q.v.). Children: Eliza K. (b. 1837), married William A. Seay; Laura Jane (b. 1839), married John Bemiss; Lavinia Belle (b. 1841), died in the explosion of the steamboat Fashion; William Everett (b. 1842), married Marie Coralie Cormier, daughter of Valéry Cormier and Margaret Hebert; Joseph Whitall “White” (b. 1846); Travis Borne (1847-1876); Marie Dickerson (b. 1848), married James E. Wilson; Henry Lacy “Harry” (b. 1851); Ida Phereby (b. 1854), married Alfred H. Clement. Member, Plaquemine city council, 1838, 1847, 1849; third mayor of Plaquemine, 1846. A founder of the Sons of Temperance Society, 1849. Admitted to the Louisiana bar. Owner of Pecan Plantation and engaged in large sugarcane production. Three sons, William, Joseph, and Travis, served in Vincent’s Second Regiment, Company I, Louisiana Cavalry, during the Civil War. Died, January 1857; interred Plaquemine Protestant Cemetery. R.M.K. Sources: Alice White, “The Plantation Experience of Joseph and Lavinia Erwin, 1807, 1836,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVII (1944); William E. Clement, Plantation Life on the Mississippi (1952). Judy Riffle, Iberville Parish History (1985); New Orleans Genesis, XXV, No. 97; Iberville Parish Successions; Andrew Booth, Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers (1920).
EGAN, Bartholomew W., physician, educator. Born, Killarney, Ireland, 1795. Education: Trinity College (Dublin); Richmond (Va.) Medical College. Civil War service: appointed by Gov. Thomas O. Moore (q.v.) as surgeon general of Louisiana in February, 1863, with rank and pay of colonel; Gov. Henry W. Allen (q.v.) appointed him as superintendent of the State Laboratory in February, 1864, to make badly needed medicines. Married, November 6, 1818, Anne Eliza Cormick, daughter of John and Elizabeth Foley Cormick. Two children who survived to adulthood: James Cronan (b. 1822); William B. Giles (b. 1824). One of the electors of Jefferson Davis (q.v.) as president of the Confederacy. A founder of Mt. Lebanon University; an organizer of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, 1848. Member: Baptist church, Masonic Order. Died, Shreveport, 1881; interred Oakland Cemetery. M.S.L. Sources: History of Bienville Parish I (1984); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana (1890); Egan Family Collection, Watson Library, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, Louisiana.
ELAM, Charles Wheaton, attorney, politician. Born, Mansfield, La., March 18, 1866; son of Mary Elizabeth Stewart and Joseph Barton Elam, Sr. (q.v.). Education: local schools; Louisiana State University, graduated 1887. Practiced, DeSoto, Sabine and Red River parishes. Married, March 18, 1891, Lucy Belle Burden, daughter of John Charles and Emma Gertrude Barbee Burden of Baton Rouge. Children: Charles Wheaton (b. 1892), Daniel (b. 1898), Emma Gertrude (b. 1900). Served one term Louisiana house of representatives, 1892-1893. Member, Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors, 1904-1910; active in establishment of LSU Law School. Member, 1909 state constitutional convention; delegate, 1912 Democratic National Convention; state counsel for Kansas City Southern Railway. Mason; vestryman, Christ Memorial Episcopal Church. Died, Mansfield, September 5, 1917; interred Mansfield Cemetery. C.P.C. Sources: Alcée Fortier, Louisiana, III (1909); Mansfield Enterprise, obituary, September 7, 1917; Elam family papers.
ELAM, Joseph Barton, Jr., journalist, businessman. Born, Mansfield, La., June 1, 1878; son of Mary Elizabeth Stewart and Joseph Barton Elam, Sr. (q.v.). Education: local schools; Sewanee University. Worked as journalist in Louisiana; Chicago, St. Louis, and Oklahoma. Removed to Mansfield, studied law, and organized the DeSoto Abstract Co.; founded the Mansfield Progress and, following merger, served as editor of the Mansfield Enterprise. Married, June 25, 1912, Margaret Taylor, daughter of Johnetta Morgan and James Taylor of Nashville, Tenn., and Cleburne, Tex. Children: Joseph Barton III (b. 1914), Johnetta (b. 1915), Mary Stewart (b. 1917), Margaret (b. 1919). Mayor of Mansfield 1914-1920; president of Louisiana Mayors Association; founder and editor of Louisiana Municipalities; chairman of Louisiana State Democratic Central Committee, employed in the Land Development Department of Standard Oil of Louisiana; served as secretary of Louisiana-Arkansas Division, Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. Member, Kiwanis. Communicant of Christ Memorial Episcopal Church. Died, Shreveport, October 24, 1935; interred Highland Cemetery, Mansfield. C.P.C. Sources: Encyclopedia of Biography; Shreveport Times, obituary, October 25, 1935; Mansfield Enterprise, obituary, October 29, 1935; Elam family papers.
ELAM, Joseph Barton, Sr., attorney, politician, congressman. Born, Hempstead County, Ark., June 12, 1821; son of William Jefferson Elam and Cynthia Wheaton. At age five brought from Texas to Ft. Jesup, La., where father was surveyor and teacher. Education: Ft. Jesup; read law under cousin John Pamplin Waddill of Rapides Parish. Practiced law in Alexandria before settling in Sabine Parish. Served as president, parish police jury, district attorney, state legislator; present at Screamerville when DeSoto Parish organized. Removed to Mansfield, 1850; served as mayor 1856, and nine additional terms in state legislature. Twice widowed. Married (3) Mary Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of James T. Stewart of Mansfield. Children: Mollie (b. 1857), Ida (b. 1861), William J. (b. 1863), Charles W. (q.v.), Irene (b. 1868), Susan (b. 1871), Katie (b. 1874), Joseph Barton, Jr. (q.v.). Member, first vestry Christ Memorial Episcopal Church; active Mason. Delegate to secession convention; signer Ordinance of Secession. Financed Elam Guards at Battle of Mansfield. Speaker of Louisiana house during Civil War. Two terms in the U. S. House of Representatives, 1876-1880. Judge (special), Ninth Judicial District. Died, Mansfield, July 4, 1885; interred Mansfield Cemetery. C.P.C. Sources: Alcée Fortier, Louisiana, I (1909); Henry E. Chambers, History of Louisiana, II (1925); J. Fair Hardin, Northwestern Louisiana, I (1939); Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana (1892; reprint ed., 1975); Elam family papers.
ELDER, J. Walter, attorney, congressman. Born, Grand Prairie, Tex., October 5, 1882. Education: local public schools; Baylor University, Waco, Tex., 1895-1901. Studied law; admitted to the bar, 1903, began practice in Farmerville, La. Mayor of Farmerville. Removed to Monroe, and continued practicing law. Member of the state senate, 1908-1912. Elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1915); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1914. Returned to the practice of law in Farmerville until January 1, 1925. Removed to Ruston, La., and continued the practice of law until his death, December 16, 1941; interrred Greenwood Cemetery, Ruston. J.B.C. Source: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971).
ELDER, Susan Blanchard, poet, novelist, critic. Born, Fort Jesup, La., April 19, 1835; daughter of Lt. Albert G. Blanchard and Susan Thompson. Education: attended the Girl’s High School of New Orleans and St. Michael’s Convent of the Sacred Heart, St. James Parish. At sixteen began writing for the press under the name “Hermine.” Married Charles D. Elder of Baltimore, 1855. Removed to Selma, Ala., during the Civil War and turned their home into a Confederate hospital. Removed to New Orleans and became a teacher of natural sciences and mathematics at the Picard Institute and the New Orleans High School. Served on the editorial staff of the Morning Star and contributed to other Roman Catholic journals. Works include historical and literary criticisms, biographies, stories, poems, and dramas written especially for presentation in Roman Catholic colleges; chief published works include James the Second (1874); Savonarola (1875); Ellen Fitzgerald (1876); The Leos of the Papacy (1879); Elder Flowers (1912), a collection of poems; Character Glimpses of the Most Reverend William Henry Elder, D. D. (1911), anonymous; The Life of Abbé Adrien Rouquette (1913), a biography of the poet, priest, and missionary of the Louisiana Choctaw Indians; and A Mosaic in Blue and Gray (1914). Her husband died in 1890. Lived thereafter with her daughter, Mrs. E. D. Seghers, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Died, Cincinnati, November 3, 1923. J.B.C. Sources: Dictionary of American Biography, V (1946); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, November 4, 1923.
ELLENDER, Allen J., attorney, farmer, U. S. senator. Born, Hardscrabble Plantation on Bayou Terrebonne, near Bourg, La., September 24, 1891; son of Wallace R. Ellender and Victoria Jarveaux. Married Helen Calhoun Donnelly of New Orleans (d. 1949). One son, Allen, Jr. Education: attended local school, Bourg; St. Aloysius College, New Orleans; Tulane Law School, LL. B., 1911. Practiced law in Houma alone and then with brother Claude. Served as city attorney, Houma, 1913-1915; district attorney, Terrebonne Parish, 1915-1916; delegate, Louisiana constitutional convention, 1921; member, Louisiana house of representatives, 1924-1936; floor leader, 1928-1932, during Huey Long (q.v.) administration; speaker, house of representatives, 1932-1936; U. S. senator, 1937-1972. In Senate, served as chairman of Agriculture Committee, chairman of Appropriations Committee, and as president pro tempore. Death occurred during race for reelection to Senate. Funeral attended by President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro Agnew, and numerous congressional colleagues. Before entering Senate farmed Irish potatoes on Upper Bayou Coteau and at Mechanicsville. In Senate, interests centered on agriculture, public works, and conservation of natural resources; was a strong advocate of economy in government. Advocated that young people witness the operation of government first hand; since his death U. S. Senate funded “Closeup Program” in his honor, which enables high school students to participate in a well-planned study of federal government during a week-long stay in Washington, D. C. Ellender Room, Terrebonne Museum, Houma, re-creates the senator’s office in the Senate Office Building. Served in U. S. Senate for thirty-six years. Died, July 27, 1972; interred Magnolia Cemetery, Houma. F.W.W. Source: Author’s research.
ELLIS, Crawford H., civic and business leader. Born, Selma, Ala., August 26, 1875; son of Thomas Jefferson Ellis and Elizabeth Hatcher. Married (1) Inez Lucille Safford (d. 1932), Selma, Ala., April 24, 1895; child: Inez Lucille (b. 1900); married (2) Lilah Kelley, New Orleans, July 10, 1936. Education: Alabama public schools; graduated from the University of Kentucky, 1893. Business career: accountant, Nicaraguan branch of Orr and Laubenheimer Fruit Company, 1893-1898; manager, Mobile, Ala., office of Orr and Laubenheimer, 1898; assistant secretary and office manager, New Orleans office of Bluefields Steamship Company, ca. 1899; auditor and acting manager, United Fruit Company, 1899; manager, United Fruit Company, 1900; director, United Fruit Company, 1906; vice president, Southern Division of the United Fruit Company, 1917; founder, Pan American Life Insurance Company, 1911; president, Pan American Life Insurance Company, 1911-1961; member, board of directors, Whitney National Bank for fifty years; member, board of directors New Orleans and Pacific Railroad (later Texas and Pacific Railroad) for forty years. Military service: United States Navy recruiting officer during World War I; eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant commander in intelligence division, United States Naval Reserve. Civic activities: president, New Orleans Board of trade, 1909-1910; director, New Orleans Board of Trade for fifty years; chairman, Liberty Bond Drive, New Orleans, 1917-1918; chairman (several years), New Orleans Community Chest; chairman (two terms), Louisiana Civil Defense Council; president, Army-Navy League; organizer, New Orleans Joint Traffic Bureau; organizer, New Orleans Port Protection Committee; chairman, New Orleans Port Protection Committee for thirty years; vice president, Progressive Union (later the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce); founder and president, International House. Life member, New Orleans Traffic Club. Instrumental in securing initial funding for the New Orleans Dock Board. Member: New Orleans Traffic Club, Masonic order, Boston Club, Southern Yacht Club; New Orleans Athletic Club, founder and president, New Orleans Country Club. Honors: honorary member, Beta Gamma Sigma fraternity of the Colleges of Commerce of America, Louisiana State University chapter; recipient, Thomas F. Cunningham Award presented by International House for lifelong efforts to promote good will between the United States and Latin America; named star salesman of the year by Sales Executive Council of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, 1959. Died, Ochsner Foundation Hospital, New Orleans, November 4, 1966; interred, Metairie Cemetery. C.A.B. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 10, 1966; J. F. Hyer, ed., The Story of Louisiana (1960), 2:19-22.
ELLIS, Ezekiel John, attorney, congressman. Born, Covington, La., October 15, 1840; son of Judge Ezekiel Parke Ellis (q.v.) and Tabitha Emily Warner. Education: public schools of Covington and Clinton, La.; Centenary College, Jackson, La., 1855-1858; University of Louisiana (now Tulane University), law degree, 1861. Civil War service: commissioned a first lieutenant in Confederate Army, promoted to rank of captain in the Sixteenth Regiment, Louisiana Infantry and fought two years before being captured at the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Held prisoner of war on Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie until 1865. Returned to family home in Amite, La., and served as editor of the Amite Daily Wanderer until 1866. Married Josephine Chamberlain, June 29, 1869, in Adams County, Miss. Political service: member of Democratic party; state senator, 1866-1870; served in United States House of Representatives, Forty-fourth through Forty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1885). Was a key figure in the Wormley House Conference which helped to resolve the disputed election of 1876 in Louisiana. Staunch supporter of levee construction, the creation of the National Board of Health, and the Navy Yard in Algiers. Noted for his oratory, campaigned on behalf of Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1880. Died, Washington, D. C., April 25, 1889. interred Ellis Cemetery at Ingleside, near Amite, La. J.J.J. Sources: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Joy Jackson, New Orleans in the Gilded Age: Politics and Urban Progress, 1880-1896 (1969); Robert C. Tucker, “The Life and Public Service of E. John Ellis” (M. A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 1941).
ELLIS, Ezekiel Parke, jurist. Born, Columbia County, Ga., January 8, 1807; son of John and Sarah Johnston Ellis. As a young man, removed to St. Tammany Parish, La.; taught school and studied law in the office of Judge Thomas Cargill Warner. Married, July 28, 1831, Tabitha Emily Warner, daughter of Judge Warner. Children: three sons and three daughters. Sons were all lawyers: Thomas, a judge of the Civil District Court in New Orleans; Ezekiel John (q.v.); Stephen Dudley, served as judge of the state court of appeals. After marriage, practiced law in Covington. About 1847 moved to plantation about seven miles south of Clinton, La. In 1859, removed to Amite, La., practiced law there until elected judge of the then Sixth Judicial District in 1869, and served until 1873, when he became a victim of Reconstruction politics. Died, August 11, 1884; interred the family graveyard. M.E.B. Sources: Thomas C. W. Ellis Diary; Ellis family papers; E. Russ Williams, The Florida Parish Ellises and Louisiana Politics, 1820-1918 (1970).
ELLIS, Frank Burton, Sr., jurist, politician, and civic leader. Born, Covington, La., February 10, 1907; son of Harvey Eugene Ellis and Margaret Whiteside. Married (1) Alice Grima; children: Lillian Emerson, Stephen Grima, and Frank Burton, Jr. Married (2) Marjorie Wheatley. Education: graduated from the Gulf Coast Military Academy, Gulfport, Miss., 1924; attended University of Virginia, 1924-1926; entered Louisiana State University Law School, 1926; LL. B., Louisiana State University Law School, 1929. A member of the L.S.U. varsity football team while attending law school; captain of the squad his senior year. Admitted to the Louisiana bar, 1930; subsequently joined his father’s law firm in Covington. Established his own legal practice in New Orleans, 1943. Legal career: attorney for the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission, which supervised construction of the Lake Pontchartrain causeway; attorney representing the Interstate Oil Compact, early 1960s. Political career: elected to the Louisiana senate from the twenty-second district (St. Tammany and Washington parishes), 1940; president pro-tem, state senate, 1940-1944; unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor of Louisiana, 1944; Louisiana delegate, Democratic national conventions of 1952 and 1956; member, Democratic National Committee, 1952-1954; unsuccessful candidate for United States Senate against incumbent Allen Ellender, 1954; member, New Orleans Aviation Board, 1956-1960. President John F. Kennedy appointed Ellis director of the Office of Emergency Planning, 1961. Kennedy appointed Ellis to a federal district court judgeship in 1962. Civic, social and business activities: Member, board of directors: New Orleans Television Corporation, New Orleans Opera House Association, Magnolia Wirebound Box Company. Member: New Orleans Area Chamber of Commerce, New Orleans Young Men’s Business Club, Baton Rouge Elks Club, Louisiana State University Alumni Association, Foundation Hospital, Petroleum Club, Louisiana Bar Association, American Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, American Judicature Society, Boston Club, New Orleans Country Club, Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans Athletic Club, Newcomen Society, Reading Room (York Harbor, Me.), and the Beta Alumni Association of Zeta Psi fraternity (New York City). Founder, Greater New Orleans Opera Foundation, Inc. New Orleans chairman, Louisiana State University Alumni Drive, 1958-1959. Active in fund-raising events for the United Fund, Community Chest, American Red Cross, and the Greek War Relief Fund. Religious activities: superintendent, Covington Presbyterian Church Sunday School; deacon, Covington Presblyterian Church. Died, Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, November 3, 1969; interred, Ellis Family Cemetery, Amite, La. C.A.B. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 5, 1969; E.F. Hyer, ed., The Story of Louisiana, 2:98.
ELLIS, Robert Stephen, Jr., attorney, jurist. Born, “Belle Grove,” near Amite, La., September 29, 1899. Son of Robert Stephen Ellis, Sr. (q.v.), and Maud Sands Addison Ellis. Father was judge of the Twenty-First Judicial District for sixteen years. Grandfather, Thomas Cargill Warner Ellis, served thirty years on the bench. Great-grandfather, Ezekiel Parke Ellis (q.v.), served as a district judge of the Sixth Judicial District, later the Twenty-First Judicial District. Great-great grandfather, Thomas Cargill Warner, was first territorial judge of present-day St. Tammany and Washington parishes. Great-uncle, Stephen Dudley Ellis, served on the First Court of Appeals. Education: local schools; Tulane University; Louisiana State University, LL. B., 1924. Practiced law in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, St. Helena, Livingston parishes until elected district attorney of the Twenty-First Judicial District, 1930, serving in that capacity until election as district judge. Re-elected in 1942, served as district judge until elevated to First Circuit Court of Appeals in 1948. Married Eleanor Kemp, daughter of Congressman Bolivar E. Kemp (q.v.) and Lallie Conner. Children: Eleanor Dunbar Ellis, Martina Kemp Ellis, and Robert Stephen Ellis III. Member, Twenty-First Judicial District Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, American Bar Association, Louisiana State Law Institute, Judicial Council, American Judicature Society, Delta Kappa Epsilon, American Legion, Florida Parishes Skeet & Gun Club, Amite River Beagle Club, Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, the Louisiana Directors of Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Member and past senior warden of the Church of the Incarnation, Amite, Louisiana. Died, May 19, 1966; interred Ellis family graveyard, Amite, La. E.K.E. Sources: Biographies of Louisiana Judges, 1961, 1965 editions; Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Centennial, Official Souvenir Program, March 23-24, 1969; Ellis family famers.
ELLIS, Robert Stephen, Sr., jurist, businessman. Born, Amite, La., June 20, 1871; son of Thomas Cargill Warner Ellis and Martina Virginia Hamilton Ellis. Education: Staunton Military Academy, Virginia; Centenary College, Jackson, La.; and Tulane University, 1894. Member, Kappa Sigma fraternity. Admitted to the state bar, 1894; practiced law for two years in New Orleans; removed to Amite, La., practiced law. District attorney, 1900-1908; resigned to become judge of the then Twenty-first Judicial District, comprising the parishes of St. Helena, Livingston, and Tangipahoa; served four terms in this office. Member of the Democratic Committee, and in 1922, unsuccessful candidate for judgeship of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Married, June 17, 1896, Maud Sands Addison of Amite. Children: Robert, Jr. (q.v.), Lloyd, Martina, Maud, Heloise, and May. Member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, served as a steward. During World War I, chairman of the Legal Advisory Board of Tangipahoa Parish; vice-president of the Fluker Realty Company, Fluker, La.; president of the Amite City Gravel and Sand Company. Member of Amite City Lodge No. 175, Free and Accepted Masons, a past master; St. Helena, Chapter No. 43, Royal Arch Masons, a past highpriest, and Kenneth Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar, Hammond, La. Member, Dixie Camp, No. 119, Sons of the Confederate Veterans, and an ex-officio member of the Louisiana State Bar Association. Died, July 24, 1945; interred Ellis family graveyard, Amite, La. M.E.B. Sources: Henry E. Chambers, History of Louisiana, II, (1925); James M. Thomson, Louisiana Today (1939); Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Centennial, Official Souvenir Program, March 23-24, 1969; Ellis family papers.
ELLIS, Thomas C. W., lawyer, jurist, politician, soldier. Born, Amite City, La., November 26, 1836; brother of United States congressman Ezekiel John Ellis (q.v.). Married Martena Hamilton; six children. Educated at Clinton Academy and Centenary College; he received a law degree from the University of Louisiana Law School. Admitted to the Louisiana bar, February, 1858. Fought for the Confederacy with the 18th Louisiana Cavalry during the Civil War. Served as a state senator, 1865-1867; subsequently disenfranchised for his service to the Confederacy and forced to give up his position in the state senate. Member at large of the Democratic party’s State Central Committee, 1867-1878. Appointed judge for the state civil district court, Division A, 1888; reappointed, 1896; elected 1904; reelected, 1916. Taught admiralty law, constitutional law, and international law, Tulane University Law School, 1899-1909. Died at his home in Amite City, La., August 2, 1918; interred, Amite City, La. J.D.W. Sources: clippings, vertical file, microfilm #13, Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, Louisiana State University Library.
EMERY, Emma Wilson, poet. Born, near Canton, Tex., September 9, 1885; daughter of Henry David Wilson and Eula Gilmore. Removed with family to Zimmermann, La., a sawmill town northwest of Boyce. The piney woods environment is said to have inspired her poetry. Graduated from nursing school, Schumpert Hospital, Shreveport. During World War I, a registered nurse and supervisor of Red Cross nurses. Instrumental in the founding of the Shreveport chapter, American Red Cross. Married Robert Emery. One son: Robert. Lived in Chicago for five years; official writer for CBS radio program “Poetic Melodies.” Published three books: Velvet Shadow (1934), Bleeding Heart and Rue (1937), and Aunt Puss and Others. Best known poem is “Lovely Louisiana”; set to music by Oscar J. Fox. Her poem one of three chosen by Literary Digest to commemorate death of Thomas A. Edison. Poem “Pioneer Mother” entered into Congressional Record. First Poet Laureat of Louisiana, 1942-1970. Poem “Sorrow in the House” included in the John F. Kennedy Commemorative Anthology. Founder of Shreveport chapter, National Society of Arts and Letters; charter member, Shreveport Woman’s Department Club; past president, Shreveport Altrusa Club; past president, National League of American Penwomen; honorary member, International Mark Twain and Eugene Field societies. A Presbyterian. Died, January 11, 1970; interred Shreveport. P.K.B. Sources: Shreveport Times, interviews, her work and memoirs.
EMORY, William Hemsley, soldier. Born, Queen Anne’s County, Md., September 7, 1811; son of Thomas Emory and Anna Maria Hemsley. Education: local schools; U. S. Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., 1831, fourteenth in class of thirty-three. Resigned from army September 1836, worked as civil engineer, but returned to active duty, 1838. Mexican War service: chief engineer, Army of the West under Gen. Stephen W. Kearny; participated in skirmishes in California. Pre-Civil War service: as lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, conducted surveys of U.S.-Canadian boundary, 1844-1846, the California boundary, 1848-1853, and the Gadsden Purchase boundary, 1854-1857; author of Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth in Missouri, to San Diego in California (1848). During the Civil War and Reconstruction Emory served often in Louisiana. Civil War service: lieutenant colonel, various U. S. cavalry regiments, Indian Territory and Missouri, 1861; promoted to rank of brigadier general of volunteers, 1862; assigned as an infantry division commander in the Army of the Potomac and participated in the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia, 1862; 1862-1864, led an infantry division in the Union’s XIX Corps and fought in Louisiana at Port Hudson, March 1863, in the Teche Campaign at Bisland, April 1863, in the Red River Campaign at Mansfield, April 8, 1864, and Pleasant Hill, April 9, 1864; transferred to Virginia as commander, XIX Corps, and fought in several battles in the Shenandoah Valley; commissioned major general of volunteers, September 25, 1865. Post Civil War: commanded troops in Department of West Virginia, 1865; commanded garrison at Washington, D. C., 1866; commanded troops in Washington Territory in the Pacific Northwest, 1869-1871. Reconstruction duty: commanded soldiers in Department of the Gulf (which included Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi), 1871-1875, during which time Emory became one of the most important army generals to serve in Louisiana during the Reconstruction period; consistently acted in an objective fashion during increasing tensions between Republicans and Democrats; faced serious crises that threatened the peace, including dual gubernatorial inaugurations of Democrat John McEnery (q.v.) and Republican William P. Kellogg (q.v.), January 1873, as well as violent incidents at Colfax, 1873, Coushatta, 1874, and New Orleans (“Battle of Liberty Place,” in which Kellogg’s government was overthrown, September 14, 1874), the latter two events coming after troops had temporarily been relocated to Mississippi because of the threat of yellow fever. Removed from command of the Department of the Gulf, March 1875, and retired from the army, July 1876. Married, May 1838, Matilda Wilkins Bache, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. Children: two daughters; one son, Admiral William H. Emory, U.S.N. Member: Episcopal Church. Died Washington, D. C., December 1, 1887; interred Congressional Cemetery. J.G.D. Sources: Joseph G. Dawson III, Army Generals and Reconstruction: Louisiana, 1862-1877 (1982); Richard B. Irwin, History of the Nineteenth Army Corps (1985); John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana (1963).
ENTRIKIN, John Bennett, academic. Born, Canton, Kan., October 6, 1899; son of James Bennett Entrikin and Addie Mae Powers. Education: public schools of Canton and of Edna, Tex.; Southwestern University, Georgetown, Tex., B. A., 1922; M. A., 1923; Iowa State, Ph. D., 1929. Professor and chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, 1929-1966. Consultant, International Paper Co. and other industries, legal firms and individuals. Well known for his efforts to further the interests of chemistry and the chemist by addressing to civic organizations, study clubs, and student groups. Married Minnie Sue Stewart of Blanket, Tex., July 29, 1924. Children: Jean Marie (b. 1928), Connie Mae (b. 1931). Member, First Methodist Church, Shreveport (Official Board); American Chemical Society; American Institute of Chemists; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Louisiana Academy of Sciences (president); AAUP; Alpha Chi Sigma; Sigma Xi; Phi Lambda Upsilon; Kappa Alpha Social Fraternity; Omicron Delta Kappa; Fellow, The Chemical Society of London; Rotary International; the American Legion. Co-author, textbooks: Semimicro Qualitative Organic Analysis, with N. D. Cheronis and E. M. Hodnett; Identification of Organic Compounds, with N. D. Cheronis. Died, Shreveport, June 17, 1966. C.G. Sources: Archives of Centenary College: Records of the President, Personnel Series; Records of the News Bureau; Library Clippings File.
EPPS, Edwin, planter. Born, 1820(?). Lived near Bayou Boeuf, first gained recognition in Solomon Northup’s autobiographical Twelve Years a Slave (1853). Epps’ alleged cruelty made him a real-life personification of the greedy and sadistic Simon Legree, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s fictional slaveowner in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Epps’ character, as described in Northup’s personal account, together with the similar geographical setting in the lower Red River Valley helped to give Louisiana a singular literary and historical image—deserved or undeserved—in the annals of American Negro slavery. The civil rights movement of the 1960s and the new analyses of Southern history from a black perspective have revived the character of Epps and the sinister aspects of “the peculiar institution.” Died, 1867. T.F.R. Source: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, eds., Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon (1968).
ERATH, Auguste, businessman. Born, Morat, Switzerland, March 18, 1843. Emigrated to New Orleans, 1860; removed to New Iberia, La., 1876. Married Catherine Becht, 1874. Children: Anna Charlotte, Amelia, and Wilhelmina. Operated a hardware and beer distribution business in New Iberia. Served on the city council in 1880s; mayor, 1887-1889. President, Iberia, Vermilion and Western Railroad. Town of Erath, La., named for him. Died, New Iberia, September 11, 1900; interred St. Peter’s Cemetery. G.R.C. Sources: Glenn R. Conrad, New Iberia: Essays on the Town and Its People (1986); Glenn R. Conrad and Carl A. Brasseaux, comps., “Gone But Not Forgotten”: Records from South Louisiana Cemeteries, vol. I, St. Peter’s Cemetery, New Iberia, Louisiana (1983).
ERWIN, Joseph, planter. Born near Guilford Courthouse, N. C. Fought in the Carolina militia during the American Revolution and rose to rank of captain. Married Lavinia Thompson (1762-1836), a neighbor. Removed to Nashville, Tenn., following its founding as Nashborough in 1780. Farmed, raised horses, and traded land. Acquired a large tract three miles west of the settlement and built a large brick home called Peach Blossom. Children: John (b. 1783); Jane (b. 1787); Leodicia (b. 1789); Thompson (b. 1791); Eliza (b. 1793); Anne (Nancy) (b. 1796); Joseph (b. 1798). In 1806 Joseph Erwin’s son-in-law, Charles Dickinson (husband of Jane), was killed in a duel with Andrew Jackson when Dickinson maligned Rachel Jackson. Grieved and disgusted, Erwin travelled to Natchez, then to Iberville Parish on the Mississippi River, where he bought land, explored in flood-times and secured grants that gave him a small empire. He raised indigo, cotton, and sugarcane and built “Home Place,” known as “Erwin’s Castle” just below Bayou Plaquemine. Died, April 14, 1829; interred on his plantation. R.C.P. Sources: Alice Pemble White, “The Plantation Experience of Joseph and Lavinia Erwin, 1807-1836,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVII (1944).
ESHLEMAN, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, businessman. Born, Lancaster County, Pa., March 30, 1830. Removed to New Orleans, 1850, at invitation of uncle, I. H. Stauffer, to enter hardware firm. Civil War service: captain, Fourth Company, Washington Artillery. Fought at Manassas, wounded. Promoted to rank of major, 1863, fought at Gettysburg. Fought in many other well-known battles in Virginia and Maryland. Promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel and commanded Washington Artillery until end of war. After war returned to hardware business in New Orleans. Named vice-president of Stauffer, Eshleman, and Co., 1905. Married, December 22, 1868, Fanny H. Leverich. Six children. Charter member Pickwick and Boston clubs; member, several carnival krewes; president, New Orleans Board of Trade; officer, National Hardware Association; active in New Orleans Progressive Union; president, Benevolent Association, Army of Northern Virginia, Camp No. 1, United Confederate Veterans; president, Louisiana Historical Association. Vestryman and warden, Christ Episcopal Church. Died, July 6, 1909, at Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island; interred Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, July 9, 1909. M.B.O.† Sources: Military records, Jackson Barracks Library; New Orleans Daily Picayune, July 7, 9, 1909.
ESPELETA Y GALDEANO, José de, condé de Espeleta de Beire, soldier, administrator. Born, Barcelona, Spain, January, 1742; son of Joaquin de Espeleta y Discastillo and María Ignacia Galdeano. Career military officer: served in African and Portuguese campaigns, 1757-1763; assigned to Havana garrison, 1763; commander in Puerto Rico, 1765. Returned to assignments in Spain, 1765-1778. Assigned to Louisiana as colonel of regiment and participated in Battle of Pensacola, 1781; governor of Mobile, 1780-1781; acting captain general of Louisiana and Florida, 1783-1785; captain general of Cuba, 1785-1789; viceroy of New Granada, 1789-1797; returned to Spain, 1797; and served in campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars, 1798-1814; viceroy of Navarre, 1814-1820. Married, María de la Paz Enrile y Alcedo of Havana, 1782. Ten children. Died, November 23, 1823. L.T.C. Source: F. de Borja Medina Roja, José de Espeleta, governador de Mobila, 1780-1781 (1980).
ESTEVAN, Tómas, soldier, administrator. Born, Castilla la Vieja, Spain, ca. 1761; son of Antonio Estevan and Maria Ardonis Cevalles. Mustered into Royal Spanish Army, July 26, 1777; posted to Louisiana, 1782. Married, February 21, 1803, Marie Andrea Rivas, daughter of Capt. Francisco Rivas, commandant at Galveztown. Recommended for American citizenship by Dr. John Watkins after Louisiana Purchase but instead became commandant of District of New Feliciana, 1803; promoted to lieutenant prior April 3, 1804; ordered by army of West Florida Rebellion to surrender Spanish fort at Bayou Sara, September 20, 1810; retreated with garrison of six men and Father Francis Lennan (q.v.) to fort at Baton Rouge; when that fort was captured, September 22, 1810, escaped to his private residence above Baton Rouge. Died, March 6, 1828; interred St. Gabriel Cemetery, St. Gabriel, La. E.K.D. Sources: Joycelin Zaiontz, New Orleans; Estevan Family Papers; WPA Translations, Spanish Archives.
ESTOPINAL, Albert, Jr., attorney, politician. Born, Poydras, La., December 1, 1869; son of Albert Estopinal Sr. (q.v.) and Eliska Legier. Education: local school, Louisiana State University, graduated 1888; Tulane Law School LL.B., 1890. Married: Bernice Cambre, September 10, 1892. No children. Practiced law in St. Bernard Parish and entered political life: district attorney of Twenty-fifth Judicial District, 1892-1904, court of appeals judge, 1904-1909, sheriff, 1909-1924. With defeat in reelection bid for sheriff and rise of the Leander Perez (q.v.) and Dr. L. A. Meraux faction in St. Bernard Parish, he left politics and did not return until 1942 when, with Perez backing, he was elected judge of the Twenty-fifth District and served 1942-1948. He also served on the parish police jury, Democratic committee, Catholic church committees, hurricane relief committees, and New Orleans political clubs. Died, New Orleans, January 13, 1952. G.C.D. Sources: Glen Jeansonne, Leander Perez, Boss of the Delta (1978); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana, Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, 3 vols. (1914).
ESTOPINAL, Albert, Sr., farmer, politician, congressman. Born, St. Bernard Parish, La., January 30, 1845; son of Joseph Estopinal and Felicia Gonzales. Education: local schools and in New Orleans. Civil War service: entered St. Bernard Guards of the 28th Louisiana Regiment as orderly sergeant of Company G, 1862; served at Vicksburg, 1862-1863, in action at Chickasaw Bayou; from 1863 in Twenty-second Louisiana Regiment Heavy Artillery; saw action in Alabama and Mississippi; surrendered and paroled in Meridian, Miss., May 15, 1865. After the war, entered farming in St. Bernard Parish, which he pursued for several decades in addition to other activities. Married Eliska Legier, March 1868, daughter of Francis and Octavia Legier of New Orleans. Children: Albert, Jr. (q.v.), Fernando, Joseph, Benjamin, René, Clement, David, Leonidas, Frederick, and Lelia. Active in Democratic party in St. Bernard Parish: assessor, ca. 1868-1872, sheriff, 1872-1876, state representative, 1876-1880, state senator, 1880-1900, state lieutenant governor, 1900-1904, and U. S. congressman, 1908-1919, from Louisiana’s First Congressional District. Also president of St. Bernard Police Jury for many years, chairman of parish Democratic committee, in New Orleans political clubs, founder and member of Lake Borgne Levee District, member of the 1879 and 1898 constitutional conventions, and served on numerous state and local committees. Died, St. Bernard Parish home, April 28, 1919; interred St. Louis Cemetery III, New Orleans. G.C.D. Sources: St. Bernard Voice, May 3, 1919; Goodspeed, comp., Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, 3 vols. (1892), I; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971).
ETIE, Charles, businessman, civic leader. Born, Charenton, La., February 28, 1889; son of Adolph Etie and Amelia Butaud. Education: local schools; worked as bookkeeper for W. T. Burton Industries during its infancy. Married, June 1914, Cora Frances Sloane, of Lake Charles, daughter of Robert Claude Sloane and Mary Elizabeth Brunson. One daughter: Jeannette (b. 1915). Instrumental in incorporation effort for Sulphur, La., 1914. Opened Etie’s Store in 1917 in Sulphur as dry goods and ladies shop. Active in Democratic party; delegate to 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston. Elected mayor of Sulphur, 1920. Member, Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church. Served as secretary of the Calcasieu Parish Selective Service Board during and after World War II. Died, Sulphur, March 27, 1964; interred Mimosa Pines Cemetery. G.S.P. Sources: Lake Charles American Press, August 23, 1946; obituary, March 28, 1964; Erbon W. Wise, ed., Brimstone! The History of Sulphur, Louisiana (1981); Etie family papers.
EUSTIS, George, Jr., congressman, diplomat. Born, New Orleans, September 29, 1828; son of George Eustis (q.v.) and Clarissa Allain. Education: Jefferson College (La.); Harvard University Law School, 1844-1845. Married: Louise Corcoran. Three children. Active in the American (Know-Nothing) party; member of Congress, 1856-1859. Civil War service: secretary to Confederate legation in France; arrested, 1861, by U. S. Navy with Slidell and Mason while aboard the S. S. Trent, a British mail packet. After Civil War became an expatriot living in Paris. Was authorized by Elihu Washburne, American ambassador to France, to negotiate a postal treaty with the French government. Assisted the U. S. minister to France during the Franco-Prussian War, 1870. Died, Cannes, France, March 15, 1872; interred Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D. C. C.A.B. Sources: Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896, (rev. ed. 1967); Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949 (1950).
EUSTIS, George, Sr., jurist, benefactor of University of Louisiana (now Tulane University). Born, Boston, Mass., October 20, 1796; son of Jacob Eustis and Elizabeth Saunders. Education: local schools; Harvard University. Traveled abroad with uncle, William Eustis. Appointed by President Madison as U. S. minister to The Hague. Later, governor of Massachusetts. Removed to New Orleans; admitted to Louisiana bar, 1822. Married, 1825, Clarisse Allain. Children: three sons and three daughters, among whom were George, Jr. (q.v.), appointed secretary of Confederate legation to Paris, captured aboard Trent with Mason and Slidell; and James (q.v.), ambassador to France. State attorney general, 1830-1832; secretary of state, 1832-1834; while in latter position helped establish Medical College of Louisiana, chartered 1835; justice on state supreme court, 1838-1839; delegate to 1845 constitutional convention; secured convention approval for establishment of University of Louisiana, chartered 1847; “ex-officio” president of board of trustees; became chief justice of state supreme court, May 1846; retired 1852. Died, New Orleans, December 22, 1858. W.S. Sources: New Orleans Daily Picayune, obituary, December 23, 1858; New Orleans Daily Crescent, obituary, December 23, 1858; Dictionary of American Biography (1946); Alcée Fortier, Louisiana, I (1914).
EUSTIS, James Biddle, attorney, politician, diplomat. Born, New Orleans, August 27, 1834; son of George Eustis, Sr. (q.v.) and Clarisse Allain. Education: New Orleans schools; Harvard College LL. B., 1854. Military service during the Civil War: on the staffs of Confederate generals J. Magruder and Joseph E. Johnston. Married Ellen Buckner, daughter of prominent Louisiana planter, 1857. Seven children. Admitted to Louisiana bar, 1856; law practice in Louisiana, 1856-1861, 1865-1891; Confederate agent in France; Louisiana legislature, 1866-1868, 1872-1874; state senator, 1874-1877; U. S. senator from Louisiana, 1877-1879, 1885-1891; unsuccessful candidate for U. S. Senate in 1878. Professor of Civil Law, University of Louisiana (Tulane), 1879-1884. Law practice, Washington, D. C., 1891-1893; first ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to France from April 8, 1893, to May 24, 1897; law practice, New York City, 1897-1899. Active, Louisiana Democratic party and Tammany Hall (N.Y.), 1897-1899. Member, committee sent to Washington to confer with President Andrew Johnson about Louisiana affairs, 1866; opposed President Cleveland often during his second administration, allegedly arousing Cleveland’s personal resentment, but supported Cleveland vigorously in 1892 campaign. Died, Newport, R.I., September 9, 1899; interred Cave Hill Cemetery, Louiisville, Ky. T.D.S. Sources: Dictionary of American Biography, VI (1946); National Cyclopedia of American Biography, I (1906); Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1971 (1971); Goodspeed, comp., Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, I (1892; reprint ed., 1975); U. S. Dept. of State, United States Chiefs of Mission, 1778-1973 (1973); Beckles Willson, America’s Ambassadors to France (1776-1927) (1928).
EVANS, John Michael, fire chief. Born, New Orleans, La., August 18, 1874; son of volunteer fireman Michael Evans and his wife. Married Mary Catherine O’Brien, herself the daughter of a volunteer fireman; no children. Joined the New Orleans fire department, October 18, 1892. Served as ladderman, Hook and Ladder Company No. 4, 1892-1893; pipeman, Engine Company No. 13, 1893-1894; lieutenant, Company No. 13, September, 1894-1896; driver, Engine Company No. 2, December, 1996-1902; lieutenant, Engine Company No. 5, August, 1902-November, 1902; captain, Engine Company No. 8, November 1902-1911; appointed assistant chief, June 21, 1911; elevated to chief, December 18, 1921; served until his death. Fought more than 10,000 fires over his long career. Assisted the British government in establishing and training the first modern fire department in Belize, British Honduras. Honorary member: the Massachusetts Fire Chiefs’ Club, the New England Firemen’s Association, the North Carolina Fire Chiefs’ Association, the Dominion of Canada Fire Chiefs’ Association, and the Pacific Coast Association of Fire Chiefs. Active member: Louisiana State Firemen’s Association, the Southwestern Fire Chiefs’ Association, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and the Firemen’s Charitable Association. Served as second vice president, first vice president, and president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, 1928. Died, October 25, 1945; interred, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, La. J.D.W. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 16, 1945.
EVANS, Nathaniel, businessman, planter. Born, Sprigfield, Ireland, March 6, 1776. Arrived New York City, 1798; joined U. S. Army under Gen. James Wilkinson (q.v.). Married, March 11, 1800, Sarah Bloomfield Spencer, daughter of Col. Oliver Spencer and Anna Ogden, in Cincinnati; appointed agent of commissioner of U. S. Army in Tennessee and Mississippi Territory, 1801. Resigned from army and began mercantile career with Abijah Hunt at Fort Adams, Mississippi Territory, 1802; named postmaster Loftus Cliffs (Ft. Adams), 1804. Intimate of Samuel Swartwout, James Sterrett, the Ogdens, and others involved in Burr Conspiracy, including Harmon Blennerhassett whom he knew in Ireland and for whom he agreed to stand as second in affair of honor arising from Blennerhassett’s Burr connection, 1806-1807; purchased land and began planting cotton in Feliciana, 1811. Died, October 5, 1819; interred family cemetery, Oakland Plantation, present-day West Feliciana Parish, La. E.K.D. Source: Evans Papers, Louisiana State University Archives; West Feliciana Parish Public Records.
EVERSHED, Emilie Gabrielle Poullant de Gelbois (popularly known as Mme Evershed), artist, educator, poet, author. Born, France, 1800. Married (1) M. Guesdon, 1817. One daughter. Removed to New Orleans with Guesdon and was soon abandoned by him. Married (2) Thomas Evershed, of England, 1821; widowed soon thereafter. Opened and operated a school at the corner of St. Charles and Canal streets in partnership with one Fiske. In 1825, school moved to Dryades Street and partnership dissolved. Opened boarding and day school at 16 Bourbon Street. Literary publications: poetry in L’Abeille de la Nouvelle Orléans and Revue Louisianaise, 1840; Eglantine ou le sécret (novel, 1843); Essais poétiques (poetry, 1843); Esquisses poétiques (poetry, 1846); Une Couronne blanche (novel, 1850). Books published in Paris. Died, New Orleans, January 18, 1879. K.M. Source: The Historic New Orleans Collection, Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (1987).
EVIA, José Antonio de, navigator. Born, Galicia, Spain, 1740; son of Simon de Evia and Felipa de Gantes y Pravio. From a maritime family, began his life-time career in the Real Armada on January 1, 1753. In 1779, during the war with England, he exhibited his ability repeatedly in naval activity in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River; and again during the siege of Mobile in 1780. Major contribution is the Reconocimientos del Golfo de Mexico, a series of cartographical surveys and descriptions of the Gulf of Mexico. Named captain of the port of New Orleans, April 1, 1787. Changed the spelling of his family name to “Hevia” during 1788. Married Francisca Ruiz Delgado, a native of Havana. Two sons, Francisco Emeterio de Hevia and José Bernardo de Hevia had distinguished military careers. A.E.L. Source: Jack D. L. Holmes, José de Evia y Sus Reconocimientos del Golfo de México (1968).
EWING, Fayette Clay, physician, writer and lecturer, dog breeder. Born Ariel Plantation, Lafourche Parish, La., May 28, 1862; son of Fayette C. Ewing and Eliza Josephine Kittredge. Education: University of the South, University of Mississippi; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Interned New York and London hospitals. Married (1) Martha Macdonald. Three children. Married (2) Rowena Annette Clarke. Practiced medicine, Washingotn, D. C., 1885-1893; St. Louis, 1896-1918. Entered U. S. Army, 1917; chief, Department of Ophtalmology and Otolaryngology, U. S. Rehabilitation Hospital, Camp Beauregard, 1919-1927. A founder of American Academy of Opthalmology and Otolaryngology, 1896; joint founder, Scottish Terrier Club of America. Made honorary member of The Scottish Terrier Club of Scotland (only American so honored to that time). Lecturer and writer on Shakespeare’s works. Author: Hamlet, An Analytical and Psychological Study (1934); The Book of the Scottish Terrier. Died, Pineville, La., April 15, 1956. G.R.C. Sources: Who Was Who in America, III, 1951-1960; Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, April 16, 1956.
EWING, John, public official, businessman. Born, Mobile, Ala., June 24, 1857; son of James Lindsay Ewing of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Margaret Ann Hunter. Education: private schools in Mobile; unfinished study of law in Robert H. Smith’s offices. Married Helen Toulmin, daughter of Edmund Pendleton Toulmin, December 22, 1880. One son, four daughters. Deputy register of chancery, Mobile, 1878-1892; deputy collector of customs, 1893-1897; 1906 retired from federal service; real estate business in Mobile, 1906-1909. Removed to New Orleans, 1909; worked on New Orleans States, 1909-1913, owned by his brother Col. Robert Ewing (q.v.); envoy extraordinary and minister plenepotentiary to Honduras from September 10, 1913, to January 18, 1918. Died, Havana, Cuba, June 24, 1923. T.D.S. Sources: National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XXIV (1906); U. S. Department of State, United States Chiefs of Mission, 1778-1973 (1973).
EWING, Fayette Clay, Jr., doctor. Born at Ariel Plantation, Lafourche Parish, Ewing, La., May 28, 1862; son of Fayette Clay Ewing, Sr., and Eliza Josephine Kitteridge Ewing. Educated at the University of Mississippi; University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.; and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn. After graduation, he practiced in Washington, D.C., for four years before pursuing further studies in New York City and London. Upon returning from abroad, he located in St. Louis, Mo., where he practiced for twenty-five years, before joining the Army as a major in the Medical Reserve Corps during World War I. After the war, Dr. Ewing settled in Pineville, La., and became chief of the eye, ear, nose and throat department of the veterans’ rehabilitation hospital in Alexandria, La. In 1947 his alma mater, Jefferson Medical College, honored him for his sixty-three years of continuous medical practice. He was a founder of the American Academy of Opthalmology and Otolaryngology, a member of the American Medical Association, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the British Royal Society of Medicine. In addition to his medical career, Ewing was a noted lecturer and writer on Shakespeare and a breeder of Scottish Terriers; he published The Book of the Scottish Terrier, which was the standard reference on the breed for many years. Died, April 15, 1956. N.P.W. Source: Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, April 16, 1956; New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 16, 1956.
EWING, John Dunbrack, journalist. Born, New Orleans, February 13, 1892; son of Robert Ewing (q.v.) and May Dunbrack. Education: Virginia Military Institute, B.S., 1913. Military service: captain, Thirty-second (Red Arrow) Division in France, World War I. Awarded Croix de Guerre with Star, and Purple Heart. After two years as circulation manager of the New Orleans Daily States, he removed to Shreveport as associate publisher of Shreveport Times in 1915; became editor and publisher of both the Times and the News-Star-World of Monroe upon father’s death, in 1931. President, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, 1938-1939. President, International Broadcasting Corp., owners and operators of KWKH radio station in Shreveport. Director of Kansas City Southern and Louisiana and Arkansas railroads. Married Helen Hamilton Gray, December 27, 1919. Children: John D. Ewing, Jr., and Helen May Clay. Died, May 18, 1952. P.L.M. Sources: “John D. Ewing Dies; Publisher in South,” New York Times, May 18, 1952, p. 92; Margaret Martin, Col. Robert Ewing, “Louisiana journalist and Politician” (M. A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 1964).
EWING, Robert, journalist, political leader. Born, Mobile, Ala., September 27, 1859; son of James Lindsay Ewing, a cotton merchant, and Martha Hunter. At thirteen Ewing served as messenger for Western Union Telegraph Co.; at seventeen, telegrapher for the Associated Press. In 1879 assisted in establishing the Union Telegraph Company, managing the Mobile division. Blacklisted in Mobile for having joined a strike of the Order of Telegraphers, went to New Orleans where he managed the Morning Chronicle, a journal owned by the conservative Democrat Henry J. Hearsey (q.v.) who also published the New Orleans Daily States. In 1888 Ewing was associated with the reform, anti-machine faction; under the administration of Mayor William Shakespeare (q.v.) he served as an innovative city electrician and superintendent of the police telegraph and fire-alarm systems. As Hearsey’s protege and political ally, became telegraph editor, circulation and business manager, editor and proprietor of the Daily States. Nationally prominent in the Associated Press in later years, serving two terms as vice-president. Purchased the Shreveport Times, 1908; in the late 1920s bought the Monroe Morning World and Monroe News-Star. Elected to the Louisiana constitutional convention of 1898 as a city ward leader of the regular Democrats. Participated in organizing the Choctaw Club, which opponents identified as the nucleus of machine control over Louisiana politics until 1920. Served as municipal tax collector, and through most of the period from 1908 to 1930, served as national Democratic committeeman from Louisiana. A manager of William Jennings Bryan’s campaign for president in 1908, Ewing claimed to have been influential in securing the nomination of Woodrow Wilson in 1912. After 1912 Ewing was among the most powerful political figures in Louisiana, inconsistently espousing Wilsonian progressive reform and conservative planter or machine interests. In 1928 Ewing broke with the New Orleans Regular Democratic faction to support Huey P. Long (q.v.) for governor. His relationship with Long was a stormy one: Ewing supporting impeachment; Long claiming the Ewing opposition resulted from the latter’s ambition to dictate the governor’s policies. Ewing married (1), in 1883, May Dunbrack of Nova Scotia (d. 1904). Married (2), 1917, Grace Nolan Mackay of Kansas City. Children: James Lindsay, John Dunbrack (q.v.), Toulmin H., Robert, and Wilson. Died, April 27, 1931. M.J.S. Sources: Margaret Ann Martin, “Colonel Robert W. Ewing: Louisiana Journalist and Politician” (M.A. thesis, Louisiana State University, 1964); T. Harry Williams, Huey Long (1969); New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 2, 1955; obituary, April 28, 1931.
EYMA, Louis, jurist. Born in Martinique. Studied in England and Paris. Admitted to the Paris bar. Contributed articles to Parisian periodicals. Immigrated to New Orleans, 1837. Contributed numerous articles against the death penalty to the Courrier de la Louisiane. Founder of the First Municipality of New Orleans public schools. Died, New Orleans, 1851. M.A. Source: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIXe siècle (1932).
EYMA, Louis Xavier, journalist, novelist, playwright. Born, St. Pierre, Martinique, 1816. Educated in France. Clerk at the Ministry of Marine. Published a novel and poetry and contributed articles to periodicals. In 1846 travelled to the West Indies on a fact-finding mission for the ministry. Visited his father in New Orleans and became Paris correspondent of the New Orleans Chronique. Returned to New Orleans as editor of the French section of l’Abeille, 1858-1859. Travelled throughout the United States. Returned to France, May 1859, and published numerous works on America. Founded Le Journal de Nice, then returned to Paris ca. 1866 and continued writing for literary publications. Editor-in-chief of L’Epoque. A prolific writer, he produced novels: Emmanuel (1841); Cascarinette (1847); La mansarde de Rose (1867); Le roman de Flavio, Naples en 1798 (1862); Les poches de mon parrain (1863); Les Gamineries de Mme Rivière (187?). Plays: Capitaine … de quoi? (1850); Le Renard et les raisins (1851); Le Mariage au bâton (1853). And especially numerous studies of American life: Le Masque Blanc (1853); Les Deux Amériques (1853); Les Femmes du Nouveau-Monde (1853); Les Peaux Rouges (1854); Les Peaux Noires (1857); Le Trône d’argent (1860); La République américaine (1861); Aventuriers et corsaires (1861); Scènes de moeurs et de voyage dans le Nouveau-Monde (1862); Légendes, fantômes et récits du Nouveau-Monde (1863); La Chasse à l’esclave (1866); and La Vie aux Etats-Unis, Notes de voyages (1876); Excentricités américaines (n.d.), among others. Died, Paris, March 29, 1876. M.A. Sources: Edward Larocque Tinker, Les Ecrits de langue française en Louisiane au XIXe siècle (1932); Auguste Viatte, “Complément a la bibliographie d’Edward Larocque Tinker,” Revue de Louisiane, III (1974).
EYRAUD, Jean-Marie, clergyman. Born, Le Glaizal, France, November 11, 1880; son of Zozine Eyraud and Frances Gonsonil-Chevillon. Educated at the Rondeau in Grenoble, France; at the Major Seminary in Gap, France. Ordained at Gap, June 29, 1904. Military service: Twenty-second Infantry Regiment as a private, for one year. Arrived in America in June, 1910. First pastorate: St. Thomas, Pointe-à-la-Hache, La. Arrived at St. Peter, Reserve, June, 1916. Erected St. Joan of Arc Chapel in Laplace, 1922-1923. Established St. Peter Parochial School in 1931 and St. Catherine Parochial School for blacks in 1932. Named domestic prelate, December 25, 1937. Presented the Palmes Académique by Pierre Mathivet de La Ville de Mirmont, counsul general of France, for his work in preserving the French culture in Louisiana. Died, Reserve, February 5, 1968; interred St. Peter’s Cemetery. M.G.K. Sources: Jean M. Eyraud, A History of St. John the Baptist Parish, with Biographical Sketches (1939); Southeast Louisiana Historical Association, IV (1977); Rev. Lester C. Lacassagne, Fifty Golden Years (1954).