Acadia Parish, LAGenWeb
Biographical Sketches - Page 3
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Hiram Waldmar Carver
October 27, 1894
Hiram Waldmar Carver came to Crowley in 1886 and engaged in general merchandising and buying rice. He began in a small way, but his business increased rapidly. During the season of 1892-93 he shipped 200 car loads of rice and for the year of 1893 sold over $30,000 worth of goods. He sold his business to his brother, W. H., in the latter part of 1893, and is now giving attention to the buying and selling of rice.
In 1886 Mr. Carver was appointed clerk of the Police Jury, a position he held until the administration of Gov. Foster. He has been twice elected a member of the town council and is prominent in K. of P. circles.
Mr. Carver was born in Assumption parish in 1862, where he had the benefit of only a common school education. At an early age he was engaged as clerk in a store and in 1884 opened up business on his own account in Iberville parish. He was married while there and has an interesting family of two boys and two girls.
William H. Carver
October 27, 1894
William H. Carver is at the head of one of Crowley’s largest mercantile establishments and enjoys a most substantial and constantly increasing trade. Mr. Carver is a native of the Pelican State, being born in Assumption parish July 29, 1867, and is the second son of Judge Hiram H. Carver and the late Emma Bourg. At an early age, possessing a natural taste and aptitude for commercial pursuits, he entered and served as a clerk in several mercantile establishments in lower Louisiana. Always laboring for his several employers with commendable industry, intelligence and integrity his advancement was rapid.
Mr. Carver came to Crowley in the early days of the town’s history, engaging in business on his own account. It is due to his good business qualifications and indomitable energy that he is now one of the leading business men of the town.
Mr. Carver is a married man, the proud father of a young son, and is quite prominent in social circles.
Jean Castex, Jr.
June 20, 1903
No more enterprising citizen can be found in Acadia Parish than Jean Castex, Jr., of Mermentau. He was born and reared in the town where he now resides, and is always ready to do all in his power to advance the interests of Mermentau and community. At present he is manager of the large estate left by his father, Jean Castex, who died Aug. 13, 1903. Jean Castex, Sr., was born in Paris, but lived in this country many years and was the builder of the Pelican rice mill at Mermentau.
Mr. Castex was married September 24, 1883, to Miss Clara E. Andrews. He received his early education in the parish public schools. Finishing his education, he entered his father’s general store as a clerk and looked after farming interests. Mr. Castex has also had some experience as an engineer.
Mr. Castex is a very busy man, as the J. Castex estate consists of a large general store, much real estate and farming property. He is well liked and very popular among the people of Mermentau and Western Acadia.
Dr. Homer Chachere
May 3, 1902
Dr. Homer Chachere, councilman for East Crowley, is a native of Opelousas and comes from one of the first families of that venerable old town. In 1896 he came to Crowley and has been an active spirit in municipal affairs ever since. Immediately upon taking up his residence here Dr. Chachere embarked in the drug business, a calling with which he is still prominently identified. He is a graduate of the medical department of Tulane and for twelve years previous to his coming to Crowley practiced medicine in Opelousas. For the past six years, however, other matters have so occupied his attention that medical practice was relegated to the background to make way for other interests. While he has always taken a deep interest in public affairs he never appeared as a candidate for office before. He has been twice, in fact, is a present, a member of the board of health, but each time his appointment was made by the city council without solicitation on his part. The valuable service he rendered during the late yellow fever scare of unpleasant memory demonstrated his fitness for the place and his work since in connection with the board has served to firmly establish the correctness of the impression the public then formed of his courage and skill.
Dr. Chachere is comparatively a young man yet, having entered this vale of tears in 1859, and has many years of active life before him. The unanimity with which his nomination was accepted by the mass meeting which selected the aldermanic candidates was an eloquent testimonial of the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow townsmen.
He is regarded as a conservative, yet broad-minded man and the city is considered fortunate in having him among the legislators whose duty it will be to keep watch and ward over her interests.
Anselm S. Chappuis
October 27, 1894
A. S. Chappuis, none other than whom have been more active in the development of Rayne and the surrounding country, came to this section in 1882 from Lafourche parish, La. He has since been engaged in the general hardware business, operating extensively in real estate, and now owning a large amount of property both in the town and the surrounding country
August Louis Chappuis
October 27, 1894
Away up in the front rank of the mercantile houses of this section stands the name of August L. Chappuis, who, though quite a young man, has established for himself a business which might well be envied by our most successful merchants. He is also a director of the Rayne State Bank and is very popular in the social circles of the town.
Mr. Chappuis was born on a plantation in Lafourche parish, this State, January 27, 1868, where his early years were spent in the common schools. Later he attended the Thibodaux College, and at the age of seventeen came to Rayne and accepted a position as clerk with M. Arenas. Two years thereafter he entered Soule’s Business College, at New Orleans, from whence he graduated with honors. Returning to Rayne he was for two years with his uncle, A. S. Chappuis, in the hardware business, the firm being A. S. Chappuis & Co. The succeeding two years he engaged in rice planting, at which was very successful. Selling his plantation he purchased the splendid business property that he now occupies and again embarked in the hardware business by purchasing of A. S. Chappuis his entire hardware stock.
Philip Jules Chappuis
October 27, 1894
Philip J. Chappuis is one of those broad-minded, whole-souled men who make friends and it was but natural that his fellow citizens should decide that he would make a good mayor. He was elected to the office in December last and the much good work already done and the many improvements that have been mapped out and are either under way or anticipated for the near future prove the wise choice of the people in their selection of a chief executive for the town.
Mr. Chappuis is the son of Julius Chappuis and Josephine Toups and was born near the town of Thibodaux, La., on September 26, 1865. During the early years of his life he attended the public and private schools of the neighborhood and at the age of fourteen matriculated in the Thibodaux College from which he graduated on July 26, 1883. After graduation he entered the employ of his uncle, A. S. Chappuis, one of Rayne’s largest merchants, in the capacity of book-keeper. Determining upon the study of law and finding that his position of book-keeping did not afford sufficient time for study, he in 1884 accepted a position as teacher in one of the public schools of St. Landry parish. A short while thereafter he removed to the parish of Lafourche and read law under the supervision of Hon. L. P. Caillouet, now Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District of the State. Mr. Chappuis was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court on July 9, 1887, and immediately thereafter opened an office in this parish. He has the advantage of an education in French and English, speaking both fluently. He had no difficulty in establishing for himself a lucrative practice, and his clientage is now one of the largest enjoyed by any attorney in this section of the State. His law library is one of the most extensive and complete in the State.
Mr. Chappuis has taken a deep interest in politics and an active position in political affairs in this section. His name was this year prominently associated with that of candidate for Congress from this district, many of his friends urging him to make the race.
Mr. Chappuis was married may 19, 1891, to Miss Eula Bourgeois, of Lafourche parish, and by that marriage is the father of a little son, Claude L.
Philip Jules Chappuis
May 3, 1902
It should be a sense of keen satisfaction that Mayor Hon. P. J. Chappuis, should feel as he seats himself in the mayorality chair and takes the reins of the city government in hand, to know and feel that he has been the unanimous selection of the major portion of the qualified voters of the municipality of Crowley. Mr. Chappuis has served this city in the same official capacity before and his work for the advancement of the city’s interests in its early days had a strong tendency in moving the people to insist upon his serving them at the present time. Mayor-elect Chappuis is too well known to need words from newspapers to convince the people of his sterling worth, as he has demonstrated by his actions from time to time his heartfelt interest in the city’s welfare.
Mr. Chappuis is a native of Louisiana, a gentleman, scholar, as well as a fine specimen of American manhood, and that this municipality will continue to advance under his guidance, there need be no question.
Charles Clark
March 5, 1904
One of the pioneers of Gueydan Pasture is Charles Clark, now one of the leading citizens of the hustling town that numbers scarcely six years of existence.
When Charles Clark came to Gueydan Pasture, in 1893, he had already been a resident of Louisiana about four years, having come to Lafayette parish from Iowa in 1889. He was born in Woodstock, Champaign Co., Ohio, in 1863, but his parents removed to Iowa immediately after the close of the Civil war, and here young Clark was educated in the public schools of Allamakee county, receiving excellent common school training that most Hoosier boys get.
After leaving school young Clark worked on a farm for some years. For a time he was a reporter on the Postville Advocate, of which his brother, F. D. Clark, was editor. In 1889 the Clark brothers came to Louisiana and located near Lafayette where they engaged in truck farming. Four years later, attracted by the fertility of Gueydan Pasture, and recognizing the great possibilities in rice culture, Mr. Clark removed to Gueydan. There were then only three houses in what is now the populous Gueydan district. Mr. Clark engaged in rice farming, which he followed successfully until 1897, when he engaged in the machinery and implement business and also in the general warehousing business. In both these lines he has been successful and has built up a reputation for business integrity and fair dealing.
Mr. Clark was married October 29, 1887, to Miss Cora A. Foster, and the pair have four children: Clyde, Goldie, Audley and Charles.
Mr. Clark is a member of the Drainage Board and of the town council. He is also a school director, and he is a strong advocate of the best educational advantages for children, and of everything that builds up a town and makes it better.
Frank D. Clark
June 27, 1903
The third house in the famous Gueydan Pasture was built by Frank D. Clark, the present secretary and manager of the Mutual Rice Mill of Gueydan, who came from Lafayette parish in 1891 to become a rice farmer.
Mr. Clark, like many of the rice farmers of Louisiana, is of Northern birth, having first seen the light of day in Woodstock, Champaign county, Ohio, Aug. 11, 1859. At an early age he moved with his parents to Postville, Iowa, where he received an excellent education in the High School, afterwards graduating from the State Agricultural College.
Soon after his graduation he became secretary of the Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Company, which position he occupied for several years. He also became connected with newspaper work and was editor of the Postville Advocate for some years.
In 1889, attracted by the glowing accounts of the opportunities in Louisiana for the investment of Northern energy and capital he came South, locating in Lafayette parish as a farmer. In 1891 he came to Gueydan Pasture and undertook the culture of rice, which he followed successfully until 1897, when he went to Roseland, La., and engaged in truck farming about a year and a half. Returning to Gueydan in 1899 he associated himself in the feed and warehouse business with his brother, Charles Clark, meanwhile operating his rice farm. In 1901 he became secretary and manager of the Mutual Rice Mill.
Mr. Clark was married October 19, 1888, to Miss Martha J. Foster and the couple have five interesting children, Earl, Jay, Essie, Fern and Ray.
Raymond Thurston Clark
October 27, 1894
R. T. Clark has served the people of Acadia in the recorder and Clerk of Court since the inception of a parochial government in 1887, and nothing could speak in louder praise of his executive ability and universal popularity than the fact that he has been twice reelected by the people to the office.
Judge Clark was born on April 23. 1855, at Plaquemine Brulee in this parish, and was raised on the farm. In his early years he attended the neighborhood schools, but went to Opelousas later and entered a boarding school under the supervision of Rev. C. A. Frazee. He engaged in farming and stock raising for a number of years, but was elected justice of the peace in 1884 and removed to Rayne in the same year. He was elected Clerk of Court in March of 1887, and was reelected in 1888 and again in 1892. In the spring of ’88 he removed his family to Crowley and has since made this his home.