USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Creole families of New Orleans > Part 29
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The first contract to pave the mud streets with cobblestones covered with sand and gravel was made under Roffignac, and a regular system of light- ing the city was introduced by means of large lamps with reflectors, hung from ropes fastened to high
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posts at the corners of the streets-an innovation hailed with delight by the citizens, who hitherto had been forced to furnish their own illumination by carrying lanterns on dark nights.
The city needed then just such an administrator. It was enduring then the roughest period of its existence. A never-ceasing influx of strangers poured through its streets-mostly traders from the wild West who came down the river in barges and flatboats, laden with flour and grain and immense quantities of cured beef to sell. They filled the streets at night with the noise of their drunken brawls. In their wake followed a horde of gamblers and disreputable men. Licensed gambling was per- mitted; the gambling dens were kept open all night. The night police were inefficient and too few in number for the size of the territory they had to guard. Assaults, robberies, crimes of all kinds were committed under the very eaves of the Cabildo; incendiary fires were of daily occurrence.
But all menaces to peace and order Roffignac met with the energy and courage of a soldier; and he imposed upon the lawless barbarians a regard for the dignity of the city. It was, however, toward the close of his administration that occurred a great civic misfortune-the terrible fire that consumed the State House. This was only a plain building on the lower corner of Toulouse and the Levee, with a broad gallery in front overlooking the river. A little garden at the side held a parterre of flowers and bouquets of tropical shrubbery. To the people, however, it was the stately "Hôtel du Gouverne- ment" of the French and Spanish administration, and consecrated as the stage of all the great political
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events of the colony's history. In it every Act of Cession of the colony had been registered, every "ordinance," or "Bando de Gobierno," promul- gated. Under its roof was signed the warrant that condemned Lafrénière and his followers to their glorious death. Within its walls Governor Claiborne and General Wilkinson held their conference to thwart the designs of Aaron Burr; and there General Jackson had followed up his victory over the English by conceiving his high-handed design of dispersing the State Legislature at the point of the bayonet to get rid of the "traitors," as he considered them.
It had been built in 1761, under the French régime, and at the time of the disaster was the official resi- dence of Governor Pierre Derbigny. In its upper chambers were held the Legislative Assemblies (the legislators and senators mounting to them by a rickety stairway that was always threatening to collapse). The State offices occupied the ground floor. Adjoining them was the public library, pos- sessing, in truth, but a scant collection of books, but rich in rare and valuable manuscripts and histor- ical records (to-day they would be considered beyond price). All were consumed, including an entire edition of the Code of Practice, and all but a hundred volumes of the new Civil Code.
On the day after the fire, the Legislature, which had been is session, assembled on the invitation of Mayor Roffignac in his public parlor to consult upon the selection of another building in which to con- tinue their deliberations. It was decided to take the Orleans Ballroom, offered by that good citizen, its proprietor, John Davis.
Not only did Roffignac make the city proud of his
E. Woodward
Porte-Cochère on Chartres Street.
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administrative ability; he flattered it by his undoubted position as a man of letters. He main- tained frequent communication with the leading statesmen of France and an unbroken correspondence with Lafayette, who in 1825, when he made his ever- famous and glorious visit to the city, was received by Roffignac under a great arch in the Place d'Armes with a speech that outshone Lafayette's reply.
He lived on Chartres Street between Dumaine and St. Phillippe, in close proximity to the Hotel de Ville and the Cabildo. He had married very hap- pily a daughter of the good old family of Montégut.
In 1828 he wrote his farewell address to the President and members of the City Council. It was a noble letter, which to-day, nearly a century later, moves the heart with its genuine and lofty sincerity, and true vision of the proper government of a city. His retirement from office was keenly regretted; he had devoted eight years of his life to the service of the city, and thirty to that of the State.
Roffignac retired to France, where he had inherited from an aunt a considerable fortune; but he never could be induced to resume his title. To the solicita- tions of his wife and children he would reply inva- riably that he would remain plain Mr. Roffignac in France as he had been in America. He was cor- dially welcomed in Paris, and invited to luncheon at the Tuileries by Louis Philippe, who remembered he was Madame de Roffignac's godfather, and that Dr. Montégut had entertained him hospitably in the old days of his exile in New Orleans.
Roffignac's daughter married the secretary of the King's sister and his two sons married into families of distinction. His wife, "an excellent and chari-
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table woman," says Gayarré, lived with her daughter in Paris.
He retired to his château, near Prigueux. There Gayarré visited him, when he was over eighty years old, describing him thus:
"He pressed me tenderly in his arms, but alas wept bitterly. In the course of conversation I saw that he was an incurable sufferer and that life had become to him an insufferable burden. He deplored that he had ever left Louisiana, which had become his real home, while his native country had ceased in his eyes to retain that character after so long an absence from it. Now it was too late! too late to go back! His face was woebegone when we parted; he pressed my hand with energy and said in a voice that sounded like a sob: 'My dear friend, if you wish to meet a friendly eye on your deathbed-buy a dog.' He died shortly afterward, in his chair, from the accidental discharge of his pistol that he was handling."
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CHAPTER XXXVII
ST. GÈME
T HE memory of St. Gème is preserved in two historical records. Gayarré, in a historical sketch of Pierre and Jean Lafitte, writes:
"Shortly after the war (1812), there was between two citizens of Louisiana an affair of honor which produced considerable excitement. Pierre Lafitte was the second one of them, and St. Gème of the other. St. Gème had no superior in New Orleans as to social position. He had distinguished himself under General Jackson as the captain of one of our uniformed companies, and was considered by the whole population as a sort of Bayard. Would St. Gème have consented to meet Lafitte in the capacity I have mentioned, if the latter had really been looked upon as a pirate?"
The other record leads us to the years before the Battle of New Orleans, when General Victor Moreau, condemned to exile by Napoleon, who was accused of being jealous of his brilliant rival, came to the United States, and in the course of his travels paid a visit to New Orleans, where he met with a reception of the best New Orleans kind.
The Governor, the military, the civil authorities, as well as the people themselves, turned out en masse in his honor, although the American authori- ties regarded him with a suspicious eye. He mingled freely with the French people, and was most cordial in greeting the French veterans in the city, many of whom had seen service in Egypt and on the Rhine. He played piquet with Pitot, discussed law with
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Derbigny, sipped wine with Claiborne, and played billiards with Marigny; and in every way made him- self agreeable to the enthusiastic citizens. He was fond of horseback exercise and would make short excursions in the surrounding country. It was dur- ing one of these jaunts that, in the company of Major St. Gème, a man who had seen service in Jamaica, he was struck by the peculiar fitness of a piece of ground which formed a natural bulwark against an invading land force from below the river. Sitting erect upon his horse he critically examined the spot and descanted with warmth on the many advantages the locality offered if fortified as an intrenched camp.
His companion never forgot the incident and related it to Livingston who, in turn, related it to General Jackson on the memorable night of Decem- ber 24th, 1814, when the first clash took place between the British and American forces. That spot was Rodriguez Canal, which Jackson selected and fortified-and immortalized by his heroic defense. "This," adds the author, "is a historical fact."*
The family of Henri, Baron de St. Gème, Marquis d'Ustou Montaubon, Chevalier of St. Louis, ascends to the year 1590. When St. Gème came to New Orleans is not recorded. It is known, however, that in the city he married the widow of Jean Fran- çois Dreux, who was a Demoiselle Delmas, and that they went to France where they lived in the Château de Barbazan. They had but one son, Henri. The connection with New Orleans was resumed in later years when this son married Eugenie de Puèch, the daughter of Louis de Puèch and Althée d'Aquin, who
* Henry Castillanos, "New Orleans As It Was."
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was born in New Orleans and baptized in the old St. Louis Cathedral. The marriage took place in Tarbes, France.
The Puèchs belonged to an old Huguenot family who, after the Edict of Nantes, emigrated to Boston and from there went to St. Domingo, where they acquired vast property. They were driven out by the insurrection of the negroes and took refuge in Philadelphia.
The three children of Louis de Puèch were regis- tered at the French consulate in Philadelphia as French subjects, and were sent to France for their education. Ernest was admitted to the school of St. Cyr, and was there when the Revolution of 1848 overthrew the republican government for that of Louis Philippe. He returned to New Orleans and thenceforth was counted among the foremost citizens of the place. He was the organizer and the first president of the Cotton Exchange. He enlisted in the Civil War and became a major of the Garde d'Orléans, and took part in several engagements. His age alone prevented his flying to France and offering himself in the last war. At his funeral, military honors were accorded him by a file of his old comrades of the Confederate Guards.
The Vicomte Henri de St. Gème died in 1901. His widow survived him many years. They had no children and she adopted Lucile, the granddaughter of her brother, Ernest de Puèch of New Orleans, and who at present is Madame Albin La Fonta.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
ALLAIN
F RANÇOIS ALLAIN, a native of Brittany, was the first of his family to come to America. He had been an officer in the French Army and had fought in 1745 at the Battle of Fontenoy. Why he left his country for Louisiana is not known nor why he selected a home in Baton Rouge, "le poste des Attakapas," as it was called.
He brought with him two daughters and two sons, one of whom, Augustin, Captain of Grenadiers, founded the branch of the family known in New Orleans. Two sons were Valérien and Soathène. Valérien, the better known of the two, married Céleste Duralde, the daughter of Martin Duralde, a Spanish officer stationed at the Poste de Attakapas. Of the three Duralde sisters, one married John Clay, the brother of Henry Clay; another, Soniat du Fossat; and the third (Clarisse), C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Louisiana.
The mother of the Duraldes was a Perrault. She was from Canada and a descendant of Charles Perrault, the immortal author of the Fairy Tales.
Valérien and Céleste Duralde had one son, Valér- ien, born and baptized in 1799, and three daughters, who became Mesdames Ursin Soniat, Valérien Dubroca, and George Eustis. Mrs. Eustis was the mother of Allain Eustis, who married Anais de Saint
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Manat. Her sons were James Eustis, late Ambas- sador to France; and George Eustis, in his day the "Beau Brummell" of New Orleans, who married Louise Corcoran, daughter of the Washington philan- thropist. The daughters of this last couple were Mathilde, who married an Englishman and lived abroad; and Celestine, still living, who is to-day cited as the "fine fleur" of what ante-bellum New Orleans could produce in the way of a grande dame. To the grace of the Creole she adds the intellect of a woman of letters, and she is the author of several books connected with the life of her family in New Orleans, the profits of whose sale she has given in charity.
Valérien, the son, was sent to France to complete his education. He spent some ten years abroad, most of the time in Paris, where he frequented the society of men of letters and indulged his cult for the stage. It is not surprising that, on his return to Louisiana, he found life on his father's plantation insupportably dull and resolved to live in the city, where he married Armantine Pitot, the daughter of Jacques Pitot de Beaujardière, the first American Mayor of New Orleans.
It was the day in Paris when gastronomy was an intellectual pleasure, and a good cooking a fine art. Gayarré used to say that the nearest approach to Parisian dinners that he had seen out of Paris were given by Valérien Allain. Fortunately he lived at a period when the old French market in the city and his father's plantation could supply the viands neces- sary. He seldom came home without two or three chosen friends to dine with him; and his wife, not to be taken unaware, was in the habit of stationing her butler in an advanced post of observation to give
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warning how many guests were with his master. During the meal, Allain, following the brilliant exam- ples he had known in Paris, would rise from the table and, tucking his napkin under his vest, would pro- ceed to the kitchen where, with the most perfect taste and skill, he would prepare such a chef d'oeuvre of culinary art as Dumas himself (Gayarré says) would have been proud of. His wines were all imported direct from France. His cook was the celebrated Gazoue, an African who had been the slave of Valérien's father on the plantation. Gazoue was sent to the best restaurants to finish him off in the art of cooking a dinner fit for gastronomes, and thus he contributed as much and even more, very likely, than his master to the success of the Parisian dinners.
Among the guests were such men as Victor Burhte, a poet as well as a good talker; John R. Grymes, a colossus of wit and learning; Etienne Mazureau, the finished orator who, it has been said by those who had heard both, surpassed even Henry Clay in eloquence -and always Gayarré, the host's intimate friend and schoolmate.
When his daughters grew up Allain gave a yearly grand ball, and every Thursday a small reception for intimate friends, following the custom of Paris again. The balls were ordered with the same fastid- ious regard to the Paris standard as his dinners; a full orchestra for the music, professional decorators for the rooms, and a supper that his guests thought could have set the standard for Paris.
Valérien was ruined by the Civil War and never recovered fortune, health or spirits afterwards. In the meantime, his uncle, Sosthène, lived on his great
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sugar plantation near Baton Rouge in the extrava- gantly generous style in force, at that time, among Louisiana sugar planters, until he was ruined. Ludicrously enough, he is remembered principally by the remarkable reputation achieved by one of his slaves; the bright, intelligent, good-looking mulatto born on his place, who was named Théophile, but called by his master "Soulouque," after the Haytien hero. He was his master's factotum, accompanying him everywhere.
After emancipation, Soulouque, as his talents demanded, quit menial service and entered the bril- liant arena of politics, at that time opened to the negro. He rose easily above his contemporaries, whom he dominated by his intellect and fine address. He was elected State Senator; and, at Baton Rouge, further distinguished himself as a parliamentarian and a speaker. A gentleman of the Allain family, with whom Soulouque remained always on the best of terms, went to Baton Rouge out of curiosity to hear him, and, astounded, asked him where he had learned to make such fine speeches. Soulouque answered magnificently: "Did I not stand behind Mr. Allain's chair for years listening to the most brilliant men of Louisiana express themselves on
public affairs? Hearing such talkers as Grymes, Hunt, Gayarré and Pitot, why should I not be able to speak better than these carpetbaggers up here?"
Celestine Eustis, in a paper published in the Courier des Etats Unis (Feb. 4th, 1912), adds another page to these good memories, which fits in with them like a leaf to its twig. Her aunt, Celestine Allain du Fossat, lived for years in Paris. She was pretty, aristocratic and distinguished looking. She was
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made to marry her cousin, Ursin Soniat, to effect a reconciliation between her father and his; "elle si peu raisonable, faisait un mariage de raison," exclaimed her niece. In consequence of a grave illness, her physician sent her to Paris, at that time the great remedy for all ills. She lived in an apartment in the Quartier de la Madeleine, in the same house that was occupied by Madame de Récamier. She seldom went out, except from time to time to make an appearance at a court reception, where Louis Philippe showed her the same friendship he did to all Louisianians. She received no society except a small group who were wont to gather around her on certain days, among them Chateaubriand and Lamartine. With Cha- teaubriand she formed a close friendship, and main- tained a correspondence. Miss Eustis gives quo- tations from several of the original notes in her possession.
But Madame Soniat-and this is the important detail-was in such delicate health that she required constant and diligent care, which was given her by her maid, Anna Léandre, a colored woman born on the plantation, who had been her maid since childhood and whose devotion was such that her mistress used to say that she prayed God to take her first so that she might be spared the sorrow of surviving Anna.
This affection prompted her to send Anna's name to the National Society of France for the promotion of virtue, and Anna was awarded a gold medal. Madame Soniat wrote the account of it to New Orleans:
"The ceremony was touching and handsome. I was thrilled with emotion at seeing my dear Anna taking the arm of a young and
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handsome officer to go to the platform, where were the thirty judges and presidents, and more than five thousand spectators to receive the recompense she so well deserved. Each recipient received applause, but Anna was more warmly applauded than any one else."
The official record of it is as follows:
"Madame Anna Léandre, a woman of color, seventy-five years old; born in Louisiana, living in Paris. This excellent woman has been in the service of Madame Vve. Soniat for fifty years as maid and nurse, always showing unalterable attachment. Her parents and grandparents have served the same family from father to son for one hundred and fifty years. We recompense this rare example of fidelity by the award of a medal of honor. Paris, May 22nd, 1881."
After the death of Madame Soniat, Anna retired to a convent as a boarder, her mistress and friend having left her a comfortable pension. They lie side by side in Père la Chaise.
CHAPTER XXXIX
BEAUREGARD
T HE great name of Beauregard rises out of and floats above the limits of city and State, like the genii of the "Arabian Nights" out of the fisherman's vase, never to be recaptured and put back into the small receptacle.
The earliest authentic records of the family go back to the year 1290, when Tider, surnamed "the Young," headed a party of Welsh in revolt against Edward I, King of England. Overcome and his followers dispersed, Tider took refuge in France and was received at the court of Philip the Fair; he there married Mademoiselle de Lafayette, maid of honor to Philip's sister, Marguerite, who afterwards married King Edward.
The entreaties of his wife induced the King to give Tider a post in Saintonge, the part of the British possessions in France. Eventually Tider lost the royal favor. He returned to the service of France and died in the neighborhood of Tours. « His son returned to Saintonge, and through powerful influ- ence he obtained a position under the English crown. To propitiate the King, to whom the name of Tider was odious, he changed it to Toutank, which gradu- ally was changed to Toutant.
Toward the close of the sixteenth century the last male descendant of the Toutants died, leaving only a
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daughter, who married Sieur Paix de Beauregard- hence the family name Toutant-Beauregard, the de having been dropped and the hyphen substituted.
Jacques Toutant-Beauregard was the first of his name to come from France to Louisiana. He was sent under Louis XIV as commandant of a flotilla to bring assistance to the colony and carry back timber for naval constructions. He succeeded so well in his enterprise that on his return to France he was given the Cross of St. Louis.
He afterwards settled in Louisiana, where he mar- ried Demoiselle Madeleine Cartier. Three sons were born to them; one of them, Louis Toutant-Beaure- gard, married Mademoiselle Victoire Ducros, the daughter of a planter in the parish of St. Bernard, who had filled several offices of trust under the French and Spanish governments of Louisiana. They had one daughter and two sons; the younger son married Hélène Judith de Reggio. Several children were born of this union; the third of them was Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, the Confederate General.
The Reggios of Louisiana descend from the Dukes of Reggio and Modena, of the illustrious house of Este. François Marie Chevalier de Reggio (akin to the reigning Duke) having distinguished himself under the Duc de Richelieu in the French Army, was given a captaincy by Louis XV, and was shortly afterwards sent to Louisiana with his command. When Louisiana became a part of the Spanish possessions, the Chevalier de Reggio was appointed Alfarez Real, or Royal Standard Bearer.
Of his marriage with Miss Fleuriau two sons were born; the younger one married Louise Judith Olivier
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de Vézin, who became the mother of Hélène Judith Olivier de Vézin, who became the mother of Helene Judith de Reggio, the mother of the future General Beauregard. He was born on his father's plantation in the parish of St. Bernard, near the city of New Orleans, on the 28th of May, 1818. When not more than eight years of age, he was sent to a small primary school near the city, where he commended himself by his studious habits and good disposition. His dominant trait even at that early age was a pas- sion for all things pertaining to military life. The sight of a passing soldier, the beating of a drum, would so excite him that he would forget everything else.
The oft-repeated anecdote illustrates this. At the age of ten he was prepared for his first commu- nion. The appointed day for the holy ceremony arrived; with his mother, his elder brother, and his teacher, he was seated in one of the front pews of the old St. Louis Cathedral, awaiting the solemn moment when he was to approach and kneel at the altar. The moment came; his mother touched him on the shoulder to admonish him that it was time to walk up the aisle. He arose, deeply impressed with the solemnity of the scene, and stepped reverently forward as he had been directed to do. Halfway up to the altar, the roll of a drum resounded through the Cathedral; he stopped, hesitated and looked toward the family pew, where anxious eyes kept urg- ing him forward. The roll of the drum was heard again, more distinct and prolonged. Hesitation vanished at once. Turning his back on the altar, he dashed through the church and disappeared at the door, to the utter horror and dismay of his loving relatives.
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At the age of eleven, he was taken to New York where he remained four years under the tuition of two retired officers of the French Army who had seen service under Napoleon. At sixteen, he entered West Point; his parents, who had persistently opposed his wish to obtain an appointment there, finally yielding, overcome by his entreaties. He went through his four years' course with no less distinction than success; and was graduated second in a class of forty-five. In the same year he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the United States Engineers.
His life now goes into the military history of the United States. His services in the Mexican War belong to the brilliant record of the army. From 1853 to 1861 he remained in charge of what was then called the Mississippi and Lake Defense of Louisiana. During that time he also superintended the building of the Custom House at New Orleans.
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