Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Falligant, Raiford 1879 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 15, 2004, 9:36 am

Author: William Harden
p. 679-681

   RAIFORD FALLIGANT. Among the more prominent members of the younger generation
of the bar of Savannah is Raiford Falligant, who has attained a deservedly high
place for ability and integrity in his profession. As indicated by his name he
is of French stock and comes of a race distinguished for their patriotism and
military enthusiasm, the Falligant history containing several pages unsurpassed
in interest and romance. In days of peace, the stanch traits transmitted by his
ancestors are revealed in the subject in a particularly good type of citizenship.

   Savannah is the scene of the birth of Raiford Falligant, his life record
having begun within the fair boundaries of the city on the 12th day of January,
1879. He is the son of Dr. Louis Alexander and Rosa Oliver (Brown) Falligant.
The father was born in Augusta in 1836 and died at his home in Savannah July 5,
1903. He was a physician and surgeon of unusual distinction and a veteran of the
Civil war. He held the post of surgeon in the Confederate army; was stationed at
Fort Pulaski just prior to its capture; and had charge of the medical department
at the time Sherman's army came into Savannah. He had studied medicine in the
medical department of Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore and his breadth of
spirit led him in later years to perfect himself also in the homeopathic school
and he combined the two schools in his practice. He was city health officer and
an alderman of Savannah for a number of years. He achieved much well-merited
fame as an expert on yellow fever, which came to him following his heroic
services as a physician in Savannah during the yellow fever epidemic of 1876, at
which time he was also a member of the sanitary board of the city. The federal
authorities appointed him a member of the board of experts of the congressional
yellow fever commission in 1878, in which capacity he went to New Orleans and
gave his services to that city during the great epidemic of 1878. He was a
member of the advisory council of the American Public Health Association; a
member of the American Institute of Homeopathy and a member of the Homeopathic
Yellow Fever Commission. He was one of the most public-spirited men in his
profession and was connected with various other useful activities in connection.
He wrote an exhaustive report of the yellow fever epidemic in Savannah in 1876,
which was contributed to the medical press and afterward reprinted in pamphlet
form. He was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, as was also his brother,
Judge Robert Falligant. Dr. Falligant had nine brothers and sisters; of these,
the late Judge Robert Falligant was also a prominent citizen of Savannah, but in
another profession—that of law. He was born in this city in 1839 and died here
on January 3, 1902. He was a state senator for a number of years and later was
judge of the superior court for the Savannah circuit. He was an able and
accomplished jurist and did a large share in contributing to the high
professional prestige of the city which was the scene of his activities. During
the war he was active in the Confederate army and was lieutenant in command of a
field battery of Georgia troops. After the war he was captain for a number of
years of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry.

   Mr. Falligant's paternal grandfather was Louis Numa Falligant, who was the
son of Louis Falligant, a Frenchman, and it is the record of the latter's life
that gives to the Falligant family history a romantic tinge of the greatest
interest. It was the latter who was a soldier under Napoleon on the Island of
Martinique and founded the Falligant family on American soil. This Louis
Falligant was born in the village of Paimboeuf, France; was well educated,
trained for a soldier and became an ardent follower and admirer of Napoleon,
whose army he joined. The Little Corporal sent him to the Island of Martinique
in charge of the military stores on the island, a position of importance. There
he met, wooed and married Miss Louise Benedict, a beautiful young American girl,
who in early childhood had lost her parents, in Norfolk, Virginia, her home, and
was taken by a neighboring family to Martinique. There she was placed in a
convent conducted by French nuns, Josephine de la Pagerie, who later was to
become the Empress Josephine, being a student in the convent at the same time,
and the nun in charge of the school being an aunt of Josephine. Miss Benedict,
thus accustomed to the French language from childhood, became very proficient in
the tongue and when in later years she came to America with her husband, she had
to acquire her native language.

   About the year 1814, or shortly before the downfall of Napoleon, Louis
Falligant and his wife left the Island of Martinique and went to Paris and later
to Paimboeuf, the ancestral home of the Falligants. The downfall of Napoleon and
the radical change of affairs in France led Falligant to long for other scenes
and he decided to come to America, his wife's native country. With his wife and
children he left France in the latter part of 1815 and first located in
Philadelphia, becoming associated in business with Henry Dreeash. He soon
removed from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia, and in the fall of 1817 he came
with his family to Savannah, where the Falligants have since resided, and where
Louis Falligant resided until his death. His son, Louis Numa Falligant, was born
on the Island of Martinique and was married in Augusta, Georgia, January 6,
1836, to Miss Eliza Robey Raiford, and these two were the parents of Dr. L. A.
Falligant and Judge Robert Falligant, referred to in foregoing paragraphs.

   Louise Benedict, through her ancestry, was a member of a prominent family in
early colonial history. She was the granddaughter of Eli Benedict, descendant of
an English family that came to America about the same time as the Puritans and
with a number of other English families settled the town of Danbury, Virginia.
Eli Benedict was a Royalist in the War of the Revolution and became a lieutenant
in the English army, which he had joined at the age of eighteen. He died
November 27, 1795, at the age of thirty-six. The subject's paternal grandmother,
Eliza Robey (Raiford )Falligant, was born in North Carolina, daughter of
Alexander Gray and Eliza (Battey) Raiford, and granddaughter of Robert Raiford,
who was captain and brevet major in the Continental line in the American
Revolution.

   Mr. Falligant's mother, who is still living in Savannah, is the daughter of
Marmaduke D. and Catherine Elizabeth (Salfner) Brown. Miss Salfner was the
daughter of Matthew and Dorothy Salfner, who came with the Salzburger family
from Germany to Savannah, about 1759, being among the earliest settlers of
Chatham county. The present generation, as represented by the subject, still
owns much valuable land in Chatham county that has been in the family since the
first generation of Salfners, who received a grant of land at Vernonsburg (now
White Bluff) from King George.

   Mr. Falligant received his preliminary education in the public schools and
subsequently matriculated in the University of Georgia, from the law department
of which he was graduated in the class of 1899. Ever since that time he has been
successfully engaged in the practice of his profession in this city and is one
of Savannah's representative young citizens.

  On the 21st day of April, 1908, Mr. Falligaut became a recruit to the ranks of
the benedicts, the young lady to become his wife being Miss lola P. Baker, born
in Macon, Georgia. They have a son, Raiford, Jr. They are prominent in the best
social circles of the city, and Mr. Falligant is a member of the Society of
Cincinnati.


Additional Comments:
A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME I
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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