JASTREMSKI, Leon,  France, then E. Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 222-223.  Edited by Alcée
Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.

Jastremski, Leon, was born 1843, in France, of Polish extraction.  At the age
of 5 years he came to the United States with his parents, who located in
Lafayette parish, La., where his father practiced medicine, and died when his
son, Leon, was about 13 years of age.  Leon Jastremski gained a fair literary
education, and was a youth when the war between the states came on.  In that
civil conflict, he served from the beginning to the close in the Confederate
army, rising to the rank of captain.  In 1865, Leon Jastremski engaged, with a
brother, in the drug business at Baton Rouge.  He took an active part for the
next 10 years in overthrowing the republican regime in the public affairs of
the state, and in 1876 he was elected, on the democratic ticket, mayor of
Baton Rouge, and as such served for 8 years.  In 1879, to assist the movement
to restore the state capitol to Baton Rouge, where it had been before the
Civil war, Leon Jastremski established in Baton Rouge a newspaper, and thus
began what was to be a long and successful career as a journalist.  He held
several prominent positions, among which were the following:  Commissioner of
agriculture, private secretary to Gov. Heard, United States consul general to
Callao, Peru, and brigadier-general of the Louisiana state militia.  He also
served as a member of the state constitutional convention of 1879, and for 8
years as state printer.  For several years Gen. Jastremski served as chairman
of the Democratic state central committee.  He was twice a candidate for the
high office of governor of Louisiana, and died in 1911, during his second
candidacy, just before the primary election.  For 20 years he was president of
the Louisiana State Press association, and he was also elected
commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans, of Louisiana.  He was a
prominent member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity, and was elected Grand
Chancellor Commander of the order in Louisiana.  Gen. Jastremski married Rosa
Largmer, who was born in Baton Rouge.  Of their 2 surviving children the
eldest, Eugene, is secretary of the state board of agriculture, and Henry is
secretary of the state R. R. commission.