New Orleans Louisiana Genealogy – Page 2 of 4

Why Not Bigger Than London

The great Creole city’s geographical position has always dazzled every eye except the cold, coy scrutiny of capital. “The position of New Orleans,” said President Jefferson in 1804, “certainly destines it to be the greatest city the world has ever seen.” He excepted neither Rouge nor Babylon. Put man’s most positive predictions are based upon contingencies; one unforeseen victory over nature bowls them down; the seeming certainties of tomorrow are changed to the opposite certainties of today; deserts become gardens, gardens cities, and older cities the haunts of bats and foxes. When the early Kentuckian and Ohioan accepted nature’s highway … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ernest M. Post

Post, Ernest M.; insurance; born, Avoca, Louisiana, Sept. 1, 1862; son of Ralph B. and Ellen Deming Post; educated, Norwalk, Conn., and Hanover, Va.: married, Milwaukee, Wis., March 27, 1894, Alice C. Paine; 1882 to 1892, connected with the firm of R. B. Post & Son, wholesale grocers, New Orleans; in 1892, entered the employ of The Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York, in New Orleans; was transferred to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1893; in 1903, was made mgr. of the company for the territory of Northern Michigan and Northern Wisconsin; the following year, was put in charge of the … Read more

Society of Mississippi Choctaw 1916

A sharp distinction is to be drawn between the Indians in Mississippi and the so-called Mississippi Choctaw “claimants.” The former are few in numbers and easily ascertainable, while the latter are numerous and scattered from Bayou Labatre, Alabama on the east to Mesa City, Arizona on the west. A number of these claimants are banded together in an organization known as “Society of Mississippi Choctaws.” Bayou Labatre, Alabama Sarah E. Bosarge Andrews Armenia Bosarge Andrews Claral Bosarge Akridge Bessie Golman Bosarge Amile Bosarge Hubert Bosarge Hubbard Bosarge John J. Briant George H. Briant Albert L. Demore Nora Wintzell Golman Mac … Read more

Slave Narrative of Mrs. M. S. Fayman

Interviewer: Rogers Person Interviewed: Mrs. M. S. Fayman Location: Baltimore, Maryland Place of Birth: St. Nazaire Parish LA Date of Birth: 1850 Reference: Personal interview with Mrs. Fayman, at her home, Cherry Heights near Baltimore, Md. “I was born in St. Nazaire Parish in Louisiana, about 60 miles south of Baton Rouge, in 1850. My father and mother were Creoles, both of them were people of wealth and prestige in their day and considered very influential. My father’s name was Henri de Sales and mother’s maiden name, Marguerite Sanchez De Haryne. I had two brothers Henri and Jackson named after … Read more

Slave Narrative of James Cornelius

Person Interviewed: James Cornelius Location: Magnolia, Mississippi Place of Birth: Franklin Louisiana Age: 90+ James Cornelius lives in Magnolia in the northwestern part of the town, in the Negro settlement. He draws a Confederate pension of four dollars per month. He relates events of his life readily. “I does not know de year I was borned but dey said I was 15 years old when de War broke out an’ dey tell me I’se past 90 now. Dey call me James Cornelius an’ all de white folks says I’se a good ‘spectable darkey. “I was borned in Franklin, Loos’anna. My … Read more

Biography of Job Francis Dye

Among the figures who stand prominently forth on the pages of western history is the gentleman whose name introduces this review. His was a marvelous record of long connection with the events which go to make up the annals of the Pacific coast. He was one of those honored pioneers who blazed a path for future cavalcades to follow; who bravely turned their faces from the cities of the east, with all the advantages of wealth and civilization, and cast their fortunes with the western frontier, in all its wildness and primitive modes of life; who, rather than enjoy the … Read more

Slave Narrative of Mrs. Phoebe Bost

Interviewer: Frank Smith Person Interviewed: Phoebe Bost Location: Campbell, Ohio Place of Birth: Louisiana Place of Residence: 3461 Wilson Avenue, Campbell, Ohio Youngstown, Ohio. Mrs. Phoebe Bost, was born on a plantation in Louisiana, near New Orleans. She does not know her exact age but says she was told, when given her freedom that she was about 15 years of age. Phoebe’s first master was a man named Simons, who took her to a slave auction in Baltimore, where she was sold to Vaul Mooney (this name is spelled as pronounced, the correct spelling not known.) When Phoebe was given … Read more

Missionaries among the Native Americans

According to traditional authority, the morning star of the Choctaws religious era, (if such it may be termed) first lit up their eastern horizon, upon the advent of the two great Wesley’s into the now State of Georgia in the year 1733, as the worthy and congenial companions of the noble Oglethorpe; but also, it flashed but a moment before their eyes as a beautiful meteor, then as quickly went out upon the return to England of those champions of the Cross, leaving them only to fruitless conjecture as to its import; nor was seen again during the revolutions of … Read more

Cora Livingston, Mrs. Thomas Pennant Barton

Cora Livingston was born in New Orleans, “the little Paris of America,” on the 16th of June, 1806, the year of the great eclipse. Her father, writing to announce her advent to his sister in New York, said God had given him so fair a daughter that the sun had hidden its face. Though she was a great belle with a national reputation during the decade from 1820 to 1830, those who attempted an analysis of her charm declared that she lacked that attribute which many would esteem the first requisite to belleship, beauty. Yet she was a notable example … Read more

Hubert Grey Todd of New Orleans LA

Hubert Grey Todd9, (James A.8, Alfred7, Caleb6, Caleb5, Stephen4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Sept. 1, 1872, in Sherman, Mich., married Jan. 16, 1907, Annie Lee, daughter of Frederick A. and Lee J. (Guice) Dicks, who was born Oct. 30, 1876, in Natchez, Miss., her father having been born in Mississippi and her mother in Minnesota. He went with his parents in 1874, to Burr Oak, Mich., where he attended school and graduated from the High School there in 1888. He took a commercial course in 1892. He began learning the printing business in March 1888, when he secured a position … Read more

Slave Narrative of George Taylor Burns

Interviewer: Lauana Creel Person Interviewed: George Taylor Burns Location: Evansville, Indiana Ex-Slave Stories District #5 Vanderburgh County Lauana Creel THE LIFE STORY OF GEORGE TAYLOR BURNS [HW: Personal Interview] Ox-carts and flat boats, and pioneer surroundings; crowds of men and women crowding to the rails of river steamboats; gay ladies in holiday attire and gentleman in tall hats, low cut vests and silk mufflers; for the excursion boats carried the gentry of every area. A little negro boy clung to the ragged skirts of a slave mother, both were engrossed in watching the great wheels that ploughed the Mississippi river … Read more

Vaundreuil and the Chickasaws

At this juncture of affairs, May 10th 1743, the marquis of Vaudreuil arrived at New Orleans, and assumed command of the colonies, Bienville having been again deposed. As soon as the Chickasaws learned that Bienville had been superceded by a new governor, they sent four of their chiefs, at the close of the year 1743, to sue for peace; but Vaudreuil informed them he would enter into no treaty with them, unless they would drive all English traders from their territories; and not even then would he treat with them unless in concert with the Choctaws. Thus again were the Chickasaws … Read more

Biography of Benton O. Johnson

Benton O. Johnson, one of Redlands best known and highly respected citizens, is a native of Connecticut, born at Bethlehem, April 20, 1855. His parents were David and Sophia (Stone) Johnson, both of whom came of old Connecticut families, and the father a merchant. B. O. Johnson was but two years of age when his parents removed to the South. They resided at various places throughout the Southern country, among them New Orleans, Matamoras, Brownsville, etc., and the outbreak of the civil war found the elder Johnson carrying on the dry-goods business. In 1863 the family left the South and … Read more

Biography of Isaac N. Cromwell, M.D.

ISAAC N. CROMWELL, M.D. – Perhaps there is no calling of men with which the issues of life and death are so intimately connected s with that of the physician: hence it is that popular sentiment demands a class of men to take up this profession who are in every sense of the word the leaders of their fellows, and especially endowed with keen perception, careful and discriminating judgment, alert faculties and sympathy, with perfect self-possession and steady nerve. The subject of this sketch is one of the votaries of the medical muse, and is today one of Union county’s … Read more

Views on the Choctaw and Fables – North American Indians

The territories of the Choctaws in 1723, in which year the seat of the French government in Louisiana, then under Bienville, was definitely transferred from Natchez to New Orleans, then containing about one hundred houses and three thousand inhabitants, extended from the Mississippi River to the Black Warrior, east: and from Lake Pontchartrain to the territories of the Natchez, west, and Chickasaws, north. They possessed upwards of sixty principal towns, and could muster, as was estimated, twenty-five thousand warriors. The Choctaws called all fables Shukha Anump (hog talk) as a mark of derision and contempt. Some of their fables, handed … Read more

Slave Narrative of Dave Taylor

Interviewer: Jules A. Frost Person Interviewed: Dave Taylor Location: Tampa, Florida A Marine In Ebony From a Virginia plantation to Florida, through perils of Indian war-fare; shanghaied on a Government vessel and carried ’round the world; shipwrecked and dropped into the lap of romance – these are only a few of the colorful pages from the unwritten diary of old Uncle Dave, ex-slave and soldier of fortune. The reporter found the old man sitting on the porch of his Iber City shack, thoughtfully chewing tobacco and fingering his home-made cane. At first he answered in grumpy monosyllables, but by the … Read more

Earliest Known Traders on Arkansas River

With the help of contemporary records it is possible to identify some of the early traders at the Mouth of the Verdigris. Even before the Louisiana Purchase, hardy French adventurers ascended the Arkansas in their little boats, hunting, trapping, and trading with the Indians, and recorded their presence if not their identity in the nomenclature of the adjacent country and streams, now sadly corrupted by their English-speaking successors. French Influence in Arkansas One of the first of the French traders up the Arkansas whose name has been recorded was Joseph Bogy, an early resident of the old French town, Arkansas … Read more

Biography of Thomas J. Delaney

THOMAS J. DELANEY. To become distinguished at the bar requires not only capacity, but also sound judgment and persevering industry. These qualifications are combined in no gentleman at the Greene County bar to a greater extent than in Thomas J. Delaney. A careful and accurate adviser, and an earnest and conscientious advocate, his success at the bar has been achieved by the improvement of opportunities, by untiring diligence, and by close study and a correct judgment of men and motives. Like so many of the eminent men of the present day his early career was not a very auspicious one … Read more

Prominent White Men among the Chickasaws

At an early day a few white men of culture and of good morals, fascinated with the wild and romantic freedom and simplicity of the Chickasaw life, cast their lot among that brave and patriotic nation of people. I read an article published in Mississippi a few years ago, which stated that a man by the name of McIntosh, commissioned by British authorities to visit the Chickasaw Nation and endeavor to keep up its ancient hostility to the French, was so delighted with the customs and manners of that brave, free and hospitable people that, after the accomplishment of his mission, he … Read more

Biography of James B. Coakley

Among the enterprises of Weiser which are alike creditable to the city and to their proprietors is the Vendome Hotel, which was built by its present owners and managers, Messrs. McGregor and Coakley, and by them opened for business in February, 1891. Since that time the hotel has gained a very favorable reputation with the traveling public and enjoys a large patronage. It is a brick structure, two stories high, and contains twenty-eight rooms, well finished, well furnished, well ventilated and nicely kept. Great care is given to the perfection of all arrangements which will contribute to the comfort of … Read more