Robert E. LeBlanc, Assumption Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Robert E. LeBlanc. The great sugar industry of Louisiana has an able and energetic representative in the person of Robert E. LeBlanc, president and general manager of Dugas & LeBlanc, Ltd., of Paincourtville, Assumption Parish. Mr. LeBlanc has been identified with sugar planting since his youth, the family having large holdings therein, but of later years his activities have extended into other fields of endeavor, and he is now president of the Bank of Paincourtville. Mr. LeBlanc was born at Paincourtville, on the old Armelise sugar plantation, in November, l870, and is a sort of Joseph E. and Camille (Dugas) LeBlanc. The LeBlanc family, originating in France, were among the little band which founded the French colony of Acadia, in that part of North America which now includes Nova Scotia, in 1604. Its growth was slow, and in 1684 the colony numbered 900 inhabitants. However, from that the forward it assumed larger proportions. When, by the peace of Utrecht (1714) it was given to the English, the inhabitants, having refused to take the oath of allegiance, were ordered to leave their homes, and 2,000 were transported and scattered over New England, while 5,000 emigrated to Louisiana and Georgia. The story of their sorrow is touchingly introduced into Longfellow's "Evangeline." The LeBlanc family were among those who made their perilous way to Louisiana, where in the Parish of Assumption many of the name have prospered. The grandfather of Robert E. LeBlanc, Germain LeBlanc, was born at Paincourtville, where he passed his entire life and was an extensive sugar planter. He married a Miss Landry, a native of the same community. Joseph E. LeBlanc was born April 8, 1843, in the Parish of Assumption, where he spent his entire life, and died at Paincourtville in November, 1902. Following in the footsteps of his father, he became an extensive sugar planter and refiner, in which connection he was the organizer of Dugas & LeBianc, Ltd., a concern which, under his able management and direction, grew to be one of the leading enterprises of its kind in the southeastern part of the state. He was likewise a leading merchant of Paincourtville, and one of the organizers of the Bank of Napoleonville, of which he was president at the the of his death. A democrat in politics, he took an active part in public affairs, and for sixteen years represented the Parish of Assumption in the State House of Representatives, and for two terms was state senator. He was a faithful member of St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Church of Paincourtville. In 1861 be enlisted in a Louisiana infantry company in the Confederate army, for service during the war between the states, and conducted himself with such fidelity and gallantry that he rose to the rank of first lieutenant. Mr. LeBlanc married Miss Camille Dugas, who was born July 25, 1845, at Paincourtville, where she still makes her home, and to this union there were born the following children: Marie, of New Orleans, the widow of Joseph U. Flose, a former oil operator, who died at Paincourtville in 1918; Robert E., president of Dugas & LeBlanc and of the Bank of Paincourtville; Lucille, the wife of Jean J. Rodrigue, a sugar planter of Belle Rose, Louisiana; Dr. Henry, a physician and surgeon of Paincourtville; Philip, a commercial traveler of Donaldsonville; Rosa, the wife of Alfred L. Landry, who resides at Klotzville, Louisiana, engaged in merchandising; Theresa, residing with her mother, the widow of former Deputy Sheriff H. Joseph Verret, who died in 1911; Leonce L., cashier of the Bank of Paincourtville; Hon. Sam A., of Napoleonville, judge of the Twenty-second Judicial District of Louisiana; and Jules X., a planter of Barton, this state. Robert E. LeBlanc attended a private school at Paincourtville, after which he pursued a course at St. Stanislaus College, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and was graduated with the class of 1890, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He returned to Westfield Plantation and became an overseer, from which post he was advanced to assistant manager in 1897. He next advanced to the post of general manager and president of the great firm of Dugas & LeBlanc, Ltd., sugar planters and manufacturers. This corporation operates the Westfield Plantation, which is a tract of 1,834 acres, situated ten miles south of Donaldsonville, on Bayou Lafourche; the Whitmel Plantation, a tract of 700 acres, situated adjoining the Westfield on the west, also comprising 1,000 acres of timber land; and the Magnolia Plantation, nine miles south of Donaldsonville, comprising 1,000 acres under cultivation and 1,600 acres of timber land. The company operates its own sugar refinery and a general store at Paincourtville. Mr. LeBlanc is also president of the Bank of Paincourtville, which was opened for business in 1907, and of which he has been the chief executive since 1909, having been the second man elected to that post. A democrat in politics, during the past fifteen years he has served as a member of the School Board of the Parish of Assumption. His religious connection is with St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Church, of which he is one of the trustees, and as a fraternalist he is a past grand knight of Assumption Council No. 1099, K. of C., of Napoleonville. Mr. Le Blanc resides at the old home residence on the Armelise Plantation, Paincourtville, of which the Dugas & LeBlanc, Ltd., are directors and stockholders. On January 21, 1893, at New Orleans, Mr. LeBlanc was united in marriage with Miss Neila Durand, a daughter of P. Edward and Eliza (Malarcher) Durand, both deceased. He was a sugar planter, manufacturer and refiner, and a man of wealth and position in his community, and his daughter was given excellent educational advantages, being a graduate of Mount Carmel Convent, Paincourtville. To Mr. and Mrs. LeBlanc there have been born the following children: Joseph E., manager of a sugar plantation in Spanish Honduras owned by Vacarro Brothirs, who was in the veterinary division of the United States Army for one year during the World war, having trained at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in California, with the commission of second lieutenant; Robert E., a druggist of New Orleans; George, a clerk in the Marine Bank & Trust Company, New Orleans; Marie Therese, a student at the Louisiana State Normal College, Natchitoches; Yvonne, a student at Mount Carmel Convent, Paincourtville; Noelie, a student at St. Michael Convent, St. James Parish; and Durand and Eliza. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 346-347, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.