Leon Godchaux

Leon Godchaux (June 10, 1824 – May 18, 1899)[1][2] was a French-born American businessman, planter, sugar plantation owner and the founder of the Leon Godchaux Clothing Co. department store and Godchaux Sugars Inc.. He lived in Louisiana, where the "largest sugar plantations" were "the Calumet, and those owned by Leon Godchaux, 'The Sugar King of the South.'"[3]

Leon Godchaux
BornJune 10, 1824
Alsace-Lorraine, France
DiedMay 18, 1899
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Planter, businessman
Known forfounder of the Leon Godchaux Clothing Co. and Godchaux Sugars Inc., sugar cane farming and refining

Biography

Born to a Jewish family in Herbéviller region of Lorraine France, Godchaux immigrated to the United States in 1837.[4]

In 1845, he founded the Leon Godchaux Clothing Co., a department store that anchored Canal Street in New Orleans for years to come.[4] He then purchased the town of Bonnet Carre in St. John the Baptist Parish and changed its name to Reserve. The town of Reserve went on to become the home of the largest sugar refinery in the United States, fed by his twelve sugar cane plantations across southeast Louisiana.[4] Godchaux–Reserve Plantation was one of his twelve plantations, located in Reserve, Louisiana and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

He achieved business success in his home state; according to the Hawaiinan Planter's Monthly, with "a first class crop and many outside offerings, there is no doubt that Raceland refinery will beat the record this season, thus placing Leon Godchaux at the head of the list of sugar producers of this State and give to him the title" 'the Sugar King of Louisiana.'[5] By the time of his death in 1899, he owned 30,000 acres of sugar cane fields which annually produced 27 million pounds of refined white sugar.[4] He was a multimillionaire thanks to the profits from his sugar empire and his department store in New Orleans."[6]

In 1975, he was honored on a Mardi Gras doubloon as a "great man of Louisiana."[7]


References
  1. The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer: Leon Godchaux May 20, 1899
  2. "NOLA History: When Canal Street was "The Mall"". GoNOLA.com. 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2021-06-07.
  3. Texas. State Dept. of Education, Texas school journal, Volume 25 (Texas Educational Journal Publishing Co., 1907), 3.
  4. Hammer, David (February 2, 2012). "Leon Godchaux: The Times-Picayune covers 175 years of New Orleans history". The Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  5. Planters' Labor and Supply Company and Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association, Hawaiian planters' monthly, Volume 13 (1894), 223.
  6. Gerald J. Keller and E. Darroch Watson, Reserve (Arcadia Publishing, Sep 26, 2011), 38
  7. See here for images of the doubloons.
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