Amedee Constant Delambre, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
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Amedee Constant Delambre, a prominent planter of East Feliciana parish, on what is known as the
"General Felix Huston" place, is a native of France, born in 1821, in the department of Pas de
Calais.  He was the third of four children born to Phillip Constant Delambre, a descendant of
noble and wealthy parentage, and who served with distinction in the army of Napoleon L and as
captain in the guard of Murat, but finally losing the bulk of his fortune in the political
storms which followed the downfall of Napoleon at Waterloo.  The subject of this sketch was
obliged to commence life for himself at an early age with limited means; having evinced talents
for natural history, botany, landscape drawing, etc., while at school, he, on leaving the
parental roof, employed himself under distinguished professors of horticulture in Paris; as a
result he was awarded in 1848 the highest diploma given for all sections of horticulture by the
Royale Societe de Horticulture of Paris.  Thus qualified, he met with highly remunerative
employment in Paris and vicinity.  Soon thereafter, however, meeting with Bienvienu Roman,
ex-governor of Louisiana, who was visiting Paris, he became imbued with the enthusiasm of that
distinguished gentleman over the advantages to be derived by the pursuit of his profession in
Louisiana, and he decided to leave France.  Arriving in New Orleans with his wife, he readily
found, under the patronage of his friend, a wide field for action.  Unfortunately, however, his
profession, appreciated as a fine art in France, was met here with little remuneration or
consideration.  Sorely disappointed, but not discouraged, he resorted to other business for a
livelihood.  A few years later, after undergoing with his wife many trials and hardships, he
became proprietor of an establishment for the manufacture of copper and tin ware, and
gun-smithing in the town of Jackson,  La. This proving also a meagerly paying business, he
abandoned it in 1857 and engaged in farming until the breaking out of the late Civil war, after
which, wishing to resume agricultural work, he established himself on the Huston place,
situated on the east side of Thompson's creek or Rio de la Feliciana, as it was called by the
first settlers of this country, near its mouth or outlet into the Mississippi river, about two
miles from the historic town of Port Hudson.  Devastated as this place was by war, for it had
formed a portion of the battle grounds of the memorable siege of Port Hudson, its spacious and
beautiful buildings with their surrounding

[375]

improvements were swept away, leaving nothing left to mark the extent of its former grandeur
save the long double row of dilapidated cotton-wood cabins which had once served as "home" for
the Huston slaves, standing forlornly across one section of the neglected grass-grown field.
Mr. Delambre set to work in the face of many stubborn difficulties, but with that indomitable
will and energy which had hitherto characterized him, he worked unflinchingly and was rewarded
with success in the undertaking.  Here he was left a widower with one child, a boy named Amedee
Constant, for himself, who died in 1884 at the age of nineteen years.  Mr. Delambre was married
in 1870 to his present wife, Miss Love Knox, who was born and raised in this parish and a
daughter of Henry Hanna Knox, the youngest son of John Knox and his wife, Agness Hanna, natives
of South Carolina, and notwithstanding her education was materially interrupted by the reverses
of the war, she is a woman of superior intellectual capacities, rendering steady and valuable
assistance to her husband throughout his extensive business career during their twenty-two
years of married life.  To the Huston place they have added by purchase an adjoining farm of
800 acres, making for themselves one of the largest and finest cotton plantations of the
parish, well and handsomely improved and under a high state of cultivation.  Mr. Delambre also
engages quite extensively in the raising of fine stock.  He is a member of the North American
Holstein Fresian cattle association, keeping on his grounds some of the finest Holstein cattle
in the country.  He also makes a specialty of Percheron horses, the latter being the only ones
of the kind raised in the parish.  Mr. and Mrs. Delambre are the parents of six children:
Henri Eugene,  Phillip Constant,  Jules,  Alma,  Lucy and  Constance.  Phillip Constant died at
the age of eleven years and eleven months; he was killed by the accidental discharge of his own
gun while out bird hunting;  Henri Eugene has been in attendance at the Jefferson college in
St. James parish, but is pursuing his studies at home at present; while Jules is a cadet at La.
State university and A. and M. college; Alma is under charge of the St. Joseph sisters at their
convent in Baton Rouge; Lucy and Constance, just entering school, are placed in charge of Miss
Hannah Raynham, principal of Kernan Collegiate institute, Slaughter, La.  Mrs. Delambre and her
family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, while Mr. Delambre is of the Catholic
persuasion.  They are much esteemed in this parish and hold a high place in society.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), pp. 374-375.  Published by the
Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.