Document of the Month - 2022 Archive
We were pleased to begin these pages in April 2012 and have presented a variety of historical documents of interest to our members and visitors. This page is an archive of documents for the year 2021 in reverse chronological order.
Confederate Cotton for Salt, December 1862
(12/1/22) On December 24th, 1862, Confederate Governor Thomas O. Moore wrote to Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon regarding a telegram received from Collector F.H. Hatch asking permission to export cotton through Tangipahoa for "the purpose of introducing salt into the state." Believing Hatch intended the cotton to go to New Orleans, Moore strongly disapproved of this project, stating that if the cotton was to be sent under any pretext within enemy lines "we had better make up our minds to abandon the contest." He further noted that the salt works near New Iberia contained enough salt to supply the entire Confederacy and that the Yankees were making every effort to capture them. This document is found at the Louisiana State Archives in the Rebel Archives Collection (Accession P2003-25), Box 16, Folder 31. A detailed finding aid for this collection is available on the Members' Page of the website.
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Amede Ardoin (c. 1895-1942)
(11/1/22) Amede Ardoin was an accordionist, singer, and early Louisiana recording artist who laid the groundwork for today's zydeco music. Born around 1895 in the rural community of Chataigner, outside of Eunice, he was the youngest child of Thomas Francois Ardoin alias Thomas Bushnell and Aurelia Clintz (sometimes Clance, Alexandre, or George). He played music in Creole French throughout the 1920s and 1930s and recorded music with Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee in New Orleans in the 1930s. He is believed to have suffered a head injury following a racially motivated beating from which he never recovered. He died in 1942 in Central Louisiana Hospital, a state mental institution in Pineville, and was buried in an unmarked grave on the hospital grounds. In 2018, a bronze statue of him was unveiled in the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center in Opelousas. His death certificate is on file at the Louisiana State Archives (Statewide Deaths, 1942, vol. 504, #1993).
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Henry Luce Fuqua (1865-1926)
(10/1/22) Henry Luce Fuqua was elected 39th Governor of Louisiana in 1924. He was a native of Baton Rouge, where he operated Fuqua Hardware Company for nearly 40 years. Prior to becoming governor, he served as warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. During his term as governor, he advocated increased levee and road construction as well as the expansion of Louisiana State University. In addition, he worked to end the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, pushing through anti-Klan legislation that his predecessor, Governor John M. Parker, initiated. He died halfway through his term in office on the 11th of October 1926 from a gastric hemorrhage. He was married to Laura Matta and was the son of James Overton Fuqua and Jeanette Fowles. He was buried in Magnolia Cemetery, but was later moved to Roselawn Memorial Park. His death certificate is on file at the Louisiana State Archives (Statewide Deaths, 1926, vol. 28, #12139).
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William Sadler's Penitentiary Record
(9/1/22)
William Sadler, aka Fred Jaynes, was a Louisiana State Penitentiary prisoner who wrote a series of articles, "Hell on Angola," for The Item in New Orleans recounting the 1930s horridly brutal prison conditions while he was serving his first term at Angola from 1935 to 1942. Sadler was a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, and had been convicted in Calcasieu Parish in 1935 of the crime of confidence game and being a third felony offender. He nicknamed himself "Wooden Ear" after he lost his hearing in one ear from a blow received on his head while on corn-planting detail outside the levee at the penitentiary. In 1940, he founded The Argus, a weekly tabloid "by and for the inmates" printed at Angola. The Argus came to an end shortly after Sadler was released. Upon his return to Angola for writing a bad check, he petitioned the administration to start up a regular publication similar to The Argus in 1953. The Angolite was published weekly and Sadler was its editor until 1955. He was released in 1956 and spent the remainder of his life in and out of state and federal prisons and jails. He died in Los Angeles in 1989. The record can be found on file at the Louisiana State Archives in Convict Records, State Penitentiary Records: 1866-1960 (Accession P1980-353). The collection is also accessible on FamilySearch. For more details on Sadler's life, see two articles published in 2019 in The Angolite, issues two years and older of which are now available online through open JSTOR at American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside.
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John Bell Hood (1831-1879)
(8/1/22) John Bell Hood was a U.S. military officer who served as a Confederate general during the Civil War. A native of Kentucky and graduate of West Point, he joined the Confederacy in 1861 and served as commander in numerous campaigns and battles. He unsuccessfully defended Atlanta against the Union Army and subsequently suffered a series of bitter defeats. He spent the years after the war in New Orleans where he died of yellow fever on the 30th of August 1879 at the age of 48. His death certificate is on file at the Louisiana State Archives (Orleans Deaths, 1879, vol. 75, p. 399)
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Elenora Alcorn Peete (1882-1962)
(7/1/22) Born on July 16, 1882, Elenora Alcorn Peete was the founder and leader of the Domestic Workers Union, an African-American and female-led New Orleans union. This union advocated for greater workplace rights for domestic workers and provided an outlet for advocacy and means for assembly among Black women. Just a few months after its founding in 1918, Peete had recruited more than 1,000 members. In 2020, the New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission proposed renaming Behrman Highway the Elenora Peete Highway. Peete died 21 April 1962 at the age of 79. She was the daughter of Seymour Alcorn and Emma Fletcher and was married to Sylvester Peete, who preceded her in death, as did their son, Sylvester T. Peete. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in New Orleans. Her death certificate is on file at the Louisiana State Archives (Orleans Deaths, 1962, vol. 0, #2907).
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Newton Crain Blanchard (1849-1922)
(6/1/22) Newton Crain Blanchard served as one of Louisiana's representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives (1880-1893), an associate justice in the Louisiana State Supreme Court (1897-1904), and governor of the state (1904-1908). As chief executive, Blanchard worked to improve a dismal public education system. During his term, he increased appropriations for education and signed legislation establishing the certification of teachers. Blanchard also supported laws lowering property taxes and creating a board to assess property. He created a State Board of Forestry, encouraged the construction of a state reform school, and approved a law making state primaries mandatory, eliminating gubernatorial nomination by convention. He was a native of Rapides Parish, the son of C.H. Blanchard and Francis Crain. He died in Shreveport on the 22nd of June 1922 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. His death certificate is on file at the Louisiana State Archives (Statewide Deaths, 1922, vol. 12, #5662).
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David French Boyd (1834-1899)
(5/1/22) Students and faculty of Louisiana State University will recognize the name of David French Boyd as being the name of one of the original buildings on the LSU campus. He and his brother, Thomas Duckett Boyd both served as presidents of LSU and have buildings named after them. A native of Virginia, David was president in 1877 when the school officially became Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. He had previously served in the Confederate Army, rising from the rank of private to major. He was married to Ester Gertrude Wright, by whom he had eight children. This month's document is a page from the Baton Rouge Birth and Death Register, Part 1, 1874-1907, listing Col. D.F. Boyd who died at the age of 64 on the 27th of May 1899. This register and a microfilm copy are housed at the Louisiana State Archives (Accession No. P2001-10). A transcription with index published by Le Comité des Archives de la Louisiane in 2001.
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Edmund Pendleton Gaines (1777-1849)
(4/1/22) Edmund Pendleton Gaines was a career U.S. Army officer who reached the rank of major general by brevet. A native of Virginia, he joined the army in 1799 and advanced through the ranks, serving in the War of 1812, Seminole Wars, Black Hawk War, and Mexican-American War. He is known for having detained Aaron Burr in 1807 while in command of Fort Stoddert in present-day Alabama. At the start of the Mexican-American War in April of 1846, Gaines was stationed in Louisiana in command of the Southwest Military District. As soon as the volunteers he recruited for his army arrived in Mexico, General Zachary Taylor sent them home because they were considered poor soldiers. As a result, the phrase "Just like Gaines's army" came to refer to something useless. Gaines's third wife was Myra Clark Gaines (see her death certificate in the Document of the Month for January 2016). General Gaines died of cholera on the 6th of June 1849 at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans. He was buried in Mobile. His death certificate is on file at the Louisiana State Archives (Orleans Deaths, 1849, vol. 11, p. 1553).
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Act to Dyke Bayou Plaquemine, 1822
(3/1/22) Prior to 1822, Bayou Plaquemine formed two branches at its mouth. Citing inconveniences in navigation, the Louisiana Legislature passed an act in March of 1822 granting Giovanni Questi a ferry privilege in return for constructing a dyke or levee at the mouth of the upper branch to prevent the Mississippi River waters from flowing into the branch. Questi completed the dyke in November of that year. The upper branch is today known as Bayou Jacob. The act can be found in the 1822 Acts of the Legislature found at the Louisiana State Archives.
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Algiers Guards Formation February 1862
(2/1/22) The Rebel Archives consists of a broad array of records that document the activities of Louisiana's state government and military prior to and during the Civil War. This month's document is an order issued by Adjutant General Maurice Grivot dated 22 February 1862 instructing Major General John L. Lewis to detail the Algiers Guards under Captain Norbert Trepagnier for active duty. When the war began, the Algiers Guards went to Fort Moore where it joined the 30th Louisiana regiment under Colonel Gustavus A. Breaux. Trepagnier was severely wounded in the Battle of Baton Rouge, having been shot in the face and having his lower jaw fractured. He died in New Orleans in 1891 at the age of 67. This document is found at the Louisiana State Archives in the Rebel Archives Collection (Accession P2003-25), Box 11, Folder 30. A detailed finding aid for this collection is available on the Members' Page of the website.
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Key to 1722 New Orleans Map
(1/1/22) "Plan de la Nouvelle Orleans" is an early French manuscript dating to approximately 1722. It shows the location of existing buildings and assigned lots. A digital image can be found on the Library of Congress website (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4014n.lh000960/?r=-0.038,0.233,0.971,0.398,0). While translating and abstracting another manuscript collection at the Library of Congress, Judy Riffel discovered what is undoubtedly the key to this map. It is entitled "List of persons, marked by letters of the alphabet and numbers, for plots of ground in order to build, according to the plan of the City of New Orleans." The letters and numbers on this manuscript coincide perfectly to the letters and numbers on this map. The key provides the names of the original owners and contains notations about subsequent owners. This month's document is the first page of the key. The entire document can be found in the Louisiana Miscellany Collection, on microfilm (Reel 1) at the Louisiana State Archives. An abstract of the key is presented in Appendix A of Le Comité's Guide to the Louisiana Miscellany Collection, 1724-1837 (2006). A name index is available on the website (http://www.lecomite.org/indexes/lm_index.txt).
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