Acadia Parish, LAGenWeb
Biographical Sketches - Page 8
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Dr. Nimrod Bascom Morris
October 27, 1894
The subject of our sketch is well known to all citizens of Crowley and throughout the parish as a leading and prominent member of the medical profession.
Dr. Morris comes of old Tennessee stock and is himself a native of that State, having been born at Morris’ Chapel, Hardin county, on the 4th of May, 1862. His father was the Rev. John H. Morris, then a prominent minister of that State, but both father and mother died before Dr. Morris was ten years old, leaving him on the world without money, and we might add, almost without friends. Being endowed with exceptional courage and energy he worked his way through the public schools until he was sixteen years of age. He then went to Clinton, Ky., where for a time he attended private school. In 1879 he moved to Louisiana and entered college at Lake Charles, where he remained two years. He then took up the study of telegraphy and followed that occupation for five years. Possessing a natural inclination for the medical profession and his occupation proving distasteful, he abandoned it and entered the Louisville Medical College October 1, 1887. The year following he spent at the Memphis Hospital Medical College. His third year was spent at the Kentucky School of Medicine, of Louisville, from which he graduated June 20, 1889. He began the practice of his profession in Cameron parish, this State, where he remained one year. From there he went to Welsh, Calcasieu parish, and in a short while established for himself an excellent practice. Desiring to locate in a larger town and being a firm believer in Crowley’s future greatness, he removed to this place in September of 1892, and has built for himself a fine practice in both town and parish. He is a member of the order of Chosen Friends, K of P. and F. and A. M.
Dr. Morris was married to Miss Josie Clark, of Memphis, Tenn., April 30, 1890, two bright children now adding to the happiness of their home.
Dr. George Clinton Mouton
October 27, 1894
The subject of our sketch is distinctly a self made man, and is the oldest practicing physician in Rayne, having located here in July of 1883. None stand higher socially, while his practice is one of the most extensive enjoyed by any physician in the parish. He is also the examining physician for the Mutual and New York Life Insurance companies and is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythius.
Dr. Mouton was born at Lafayette, La., September 13, 1853, and obtained an elementary education in the schools of the town. At the age of nineteen he went to the Shenandoah Valley Academy at Winchester, Va., but his funds giving out he was unable to remain but two years. In the fall of ’74 he secured a position as book-keeper in the freight department of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Philadelphia, and while there devoted his spare time to the study of medicine. In 1880 he matriculated in the medical department of Tulane University, from which he graduated in March of 1883. On the day of graduation he was married to Miss Laurance Voorhies, daughter of Judge Albert Voorhies, of New Orleans, and three months thereafter established himself in Rayne.
Jesse H. Nordyke
April 4, 1903
Iota is fortunate in getting for a postmaster to succeed Mr. Adolph Bauman, who resigned the postmastership a few weeks ago to take effect April 1, a young man of thorough education, good business training, and excellent moral and business qualifications.
Jesse H. Nordyke, the new postmaster of Iota, was born in Clinton Co., Ohio, December 25, 1876. Perhaps the fact that he is a native of Ohio has something to do with his selection for public office, for it is noticeable that citizens of the great State of Ohio seldom get left when offices are being passed around. The Ohioan, however, has other qualifications for public office besides the fact that he was born in Mark Hanna’s State. [Editor’s note: Mark Hanna was one of the most powerful U. S. Senators of that time.]
Mr. Nordyke was educated in the common schools of Ohio and Illinois. At an early age he moved with his parents to Illinois and in due time entered the Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Illinois, where he graduated. After having graduated he taught school in Illinois for three years.
Four years ago he came to Iota and bought farming land and commenced raising rice. He had eight hundred acres of rice under cultivation until last year. This was one of the largest and best farms in the parish. In 1901, he helped to organize the Iota Implement Co., of which he has since been manager. Mr. Nordyke was married August 11, 1897, to Miss Nellie Richhart and has two children, Glen and Carl.
Mr. Nordyke is reckoned as one of the rising young business men of Acadia parish and has the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
J. M. Pintard
October 27, 1894
J. M. Pintard, one of Crowley’s most popular young citizens, is a native of Mississippi, being born at Rodney, December 27, 1864. He was educated in the schools of the town until the age of fifteen, when he entered the Jefferson College, near Natchez, Miss. After three years here he accepted a position as clerk until his parents removed to Natchez in 1882. He there secured a lucrative position as book-keeper for an extensive cotton broker, but after a time resigned it and went to Kansas, locating at Wichita. In 1887 he returned to Natchez, remaining there until he came to Crowley in November of 1892 to accept the position of book-keeper and assistant cashier of the Crowley State Bank. He has in this capacity rendered valuable service to this institution, which has not been without due appreciation on the part of the directorate.
Mr. Pintard is prominent in social circles and is now president of the Crowley social club.
Phillip Sidney Pugh
May 3, 1902
Another of the new regime is Phillip S. Pugh, of the widely known law firm of Story & Pugh. He came here nine years ago when Crowley was but a hamlet and commenced the practice of law. Other fields were more inviting at the time but he, in common with many others, recognized the shadow of the events that were to be and cast his lot with Crowley with an unfaltering faith in the future of the town.
Mr. Pugh was born in Assumption parish in the year that witnessed the beginning of the fratricidal struggle between the North and South and his boyhood was spent amid the stirring scenes that followed the advent of the “Carpet Bagger” in the South. He received his early education at Baton Rouge and later graduated from the law department of Tulane University.
On account of his legal knowledge and his well known probity he was selected as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1898 and two years later was elected to the state legislature. While serving with the latter he offered the bill designed to regulate the conduct of the canals in Louisiana and compel them to furnish water to the farmers in their respective territory. This bit of legislation aroused no end of opposition but endeared Mr. Pugh to the rice planters, whose interests he was striving to protect.
Mr. Pugh is not a “reformer” in the common acceptance of the word, but does not hesitate to declare himself on questions affecting the town’s future. He has already announced that he is in favor of municipal ownership and that he will devote a part of his time to working for an improvement of the electric light and waterworks systems. The latter especially will receive his attention and it will be his aim to extend the service all over the city.
Worthy Quereau
April 11, 1903
One of the names that is identified with that which is best in the achievements of Southwestern Louisiana is Worthy Quereau. The surname indicates French ancestry. The Christian name shows Puritan stock. Mr. Quereau’s ancestors were Huguenots, who sought refuge in England after the Edict of Nantes, and migrated to North America in the seventeenth century.
Born in Cayuga county, New York, September 9, 1853, Worthy Quereau attended the common schools of his native states until his fourteenth year, when his parents moved to Missouri. Here he went to school for a year or two, and when his parents moved to Illinois he entered the Jennings Academy, at Aurora, where he graduated in due time. After graduation he taught school five years, and then read law and was admitted to the bar. He practiced law successfully for two years at Fairmount, Nebraska, and in 1889 came to Vermilion parish, where he purchased land in what was then known as “Gueydan Pasture,” being one of the earliest settlers of that rich tract. He has been a rice planter from the beginning of his experience in this section, and has been uniformly successful.
Mr. Quereau has been president of the Police Jury of Vermilion parish for two terms and is now the presiding officer of that body. He is also president of the Bank of Gueydan.
He was married in 1880 to Miss Cora Curtis, and has one child, Friend.
Mr. Quereau is regarded as one of the strongest men of his parish and one of the leading men of the rice belt.
Rev. August Francis Rogers
May 9, 1903
Somehow we expect clergymen to be different from other men. We expect them to be of finer clay and finer mold. We expect them to be better than other men. They are, as a rule, better than other men. They are of finer mold. They are of clearer moral fiber. There is no real good substantial reason why a minister of Christ should be a better man than any other follower of the Man of Sorrows, but we expect them to be better.
This sketch has to do with a clergyman who is not only a good man morally, but one of the real flesh and blood men that all men like.
August Francis Rogers is a Breton by birth. He was born in the ancient city of Rennes, in Brittany, Jan. 21, 1874. Brittany is one province of France that clings to the ancient religion, and the boy who was born beneath the shadow of ancient Breton oaks early imbibed a deep reverence for the faith of countless generations of his French sires.
His early education and his classical training were gained in the schools and in the seminary of his native tow. After completing his education in Rennes, the young Breton said to his father “I will be a priest, but not in France. It is too narrow here. I shall go to Louisiana where I may have my gun, my horse and my dog.” In 1894 he went to Cincinnati and entered St. Mary’s Theological Seminary, where he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Jansen May 21, 1896.
Father Rogers’ first charge was in the French settlement, in Livingston parish, where he remained until he came to Church Point April 14, 1902.
“I am in love with my church and with my people”, says Father Rogers, “and I shall have the best church in all this region.”
Father Rogers is of the type of men that men like. He is a strong masculine man. He loves a horse, a gun, and a dog. He is an athlete healthy in body and in mind.
He succeeded the venerable Father Eby, who is now spending his declining years in the French fatherland. Father Eby will long be remembered In Church Point as a real father of his people, and his successor is a worthy one.
E. V. Rudrow
October 27, 1894
E. V. Rudrow, a member of the town council, is a Hoosier by birth, being born at Winchester, Ind., on the 4th of May, 1845. While he was yet quite young his parents removed to Iowa, where he attended the common district schools, but later returned to Indiana and took a course at the Battle Ground College.
Mr. Rudrow has resided in a number of the Western states and for fifteen years was engaged in the livery business in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Tiring of the rigorous climate and uncertain seasons of the West, he removed with his family to Crowley in the fall of 1890. The four years spent here have been given up principally to the stock business. Mr. Rudrow is a gentleman who has many friends, and he is now serving a second term as a member of the town council, being reelected to that office in December of 1893.
Frank M. Scanlan
April 11, 1903
The subject of this sketch, Frank M. Scanlan, is one of Acadia parish’s rising young business men, was born at Plaquemine Ridge May 28, 1877, and is therefore a native son of the soil. His father, the late Mike Scanlan, was one of the best rice and potato farmers of Acadia parish.
Frank Scanlan began his business career as part owner of a cotton gin. About five years ago he bought a rice farm at the rate of fifteen dollars an acre, and sold his holdings about two years ago for forty-five dollars an acre.
After selling out his farm interests Mr. Scanlan formed a partnership with Messrs. Smith & Laughlin, of Canal Switch, under the firm name of Smith Laughlin & Scanlan, for the conduct of a general merchandise business. Mr. Laughlin has recently retired from the firm, leaving the business in the hands of Smith & Scanlan.
This firm handles binders, the Graham wagon and other reliable farm machinery, besides running a blacksmith shop and a rice warehouse.
Mr. Scanlan is of the type of young men who form the bone and sinew of a new country. While he is great hustler for himself, he is also one of the strongest promoters of the welfare of his town. He is interested in the building of the new school house at Abbott, and is an enthusiastic advocate of a rice mill for his town and any other improvement that will help out his town.
Frank Scanlan’s honesty and reliability are proverbial among those who know him. He is destined some day to be one of the leading citizens of Acadia parish.
L. F. Schamber
June 6, 1903
Postmaster L. F. Schamber, the subject of this sketch was born in New Orleans July 5, 1850.
His father, the late Louis Schamber, was a native of Strasburg, France, and came to New Orleans in 1840 and became a citizen Sept. 13, 1851, when Joseph Walker was governor of Louisiana. He ran a cigar manufactory in New Orleans for several years. Sold out and located at Bayou Des Allemands, St. Charles parish. He resided there until the commencement of the civil war, when he was made second lieutenant of Company A, 1st Reg., 1st Brig., Louisiana Volunteers and served during the war from February, 1861, until the surrender of New Orleans in 1863. After the war he became interested in cane planting, and moved to Lafourche parish, and resided there until December, 1870, when he was one of the first to settle in Prairie Mamou. Louis Schamber died October 21, 1893, at the ripe age of seventy-three years.
L. F. Schamber was educated in the public schools at New Orleans during the war from 1861 to 1865.
February 16, 1876, he was united in marriage to Miss Severin Fusilier. From this union eight children were born: Charles, Dorsina, Alise, Victoria, Lovinia, Cleveland, Mayo, and Sidney.
L. F. Schamber has held several offices of trust, and has always discharged his duty faithfully and satisfactorily. He was deputy sheriff four years under Sheriff E. W. Lyons.
He was appointed postmaster of Basile April 24, 1888, and has been postmaster ever since, with the exception of four years during President Harrison’s administration. August 25, 1892, he was appointed director of Acadia parish, and November 18, 1899 he was appointed notary public for Acadia parish.
Mr. Schamber has held the office of postmaster longer than anyone in the parish. He has been Uncle Sam’s public servant continuously for eleven years. During this time he has sent in his resignation twice, but it was not accepted. It seems he is to hold the office for life.
John F. Shoemaker
October 27, 1894
Hon. John F. Shoemaker was born in 1838 in Chemong County, New York, but removed with his parents to Illinois in 1846, where he received a good common school education. After leaving school Mr. Shoemaker established himself as a contractor and builder and did an extensive business for a number of years. He served two years in defense of the Union, enlisting in Company L, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, and was raised to the rank of first lieutenant before discharge. He was in active service in the Indian wars of Dakota and Minnesota.
Following the close of the war Mr. Shoemaker engaged in farming and stockraising, and in 1872 was elected treasurer of Rock County, Minn., a position he held six years. He served two terms in the State Legislature – from 1886 to 1890 – being elected on an independent ticket, receiving a handsome majority over the regular nominee.
Mr. Shoemaker removed to Louisiana early in 1892 and, in connection with John Green, engaged in the grain business. These gentlemen are also among the largest rice planters in the parish