Michel F. Morvant, M. D., Iberia Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller



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Michel F. Morvant, M. D.  One of the best known professional men in
Iberia Parish is Michel F, Morvant, present parish coroner, a physician and
surgeon of fine abilities located at Jeanerette.  Doctor Morvant is a
graduate of pharmacy as well as medicine, and he served as a medical
officer during the World war.

He was born at Jeanerette in Iberia Parish, February 1, 1887, and his
ancestry includes several very fine families of Louisiana.  The Morvants
came from Brittany, France, to Louisiana early in the nineteenth century. 
The doctor's grandfather, Faustin Morvant was a life long resident and
planter of Lafourche Parish, where he married Mary Guillotte, member of
another substantial family of that parish.  The father of Doctor Morvant,
Ricard Morvant, who was born in 1859 in Lafourche Parish where he was
reared and educated and through an active career has followed the business
of brick mason and contractor.  In 1884 he established his home and
business at Jeanerette, but since 1922 has been a resident of Port Arthur,
Texas.  He still owns the farm adjoining Jeanerette.  He is a democrat, a
Catholic and member of the Knights of Columbus.  The first wife of Ricard
Morvant was Lucinda Mire, a native of Lafourche Parish, who died at
Jeanerette.  Her only child Joseph died in infancy.  Ricard Morvant after
her death married Miss Amanda Bernard, who was born near Jeanerette in
1872, and died at Jeanerette in October, 1919.  Her father Aristide
Bernard, a native of Lafourche Parish, was educated in the University of
Tennessee, served as a Confederate soldier, and from early manhood was
prominently identified with the educational and planting interests of
Jeanerette.  He married Silvania Walker, who was born near Jeanerette,
daughter of James Walker, a planter and slave owner and member of a
family of English ancestry.  By his second marriage, Ricard Morvant had
three children, Michel S., Mary, who died at the age of nineteen, and Amy,
who died when three years old.

Michel F. Morvant has lived nearly all the years of his life in Jeanerette,
where he attended private schools, and at the age of sixteen he went to
Atlanta, Georgia, and pursued his course in the college of Pharmacy there
in 1903-04.  The following year he gained some practical experience in
pharmacy as a clerk in a drug store at Jeanerette.  The next year he was
instructor in chemistry and pharmacy as well as a student in the Atlanta
College of Pharmacy, where he graduated with the degree Ph. G. in April,
1906.  Doctor Morvant pursued his first year of medical studies in the
Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he became a member of
the Phi. Chi Medical fraternity.  His third year work was begun in Tulane
University, Medical Department at New Orleans, and in 1909 he graduated
with the M. D. Degree.  Then fifteen years ago, he began the practice of
medicine and surgery at Jeanerette, and has continued it except for the
interruptions of military duties.  His offices are in the Larroque Pharmacy
Building.  In 1917, Doctor Morvant took a general course in medicine in
the Chicago Polyclinic, and shortly afterwards he volunteered and was at
once mustered into active duty on February 26, 1918.  As a first lieutenant
of the medical corps, he was assigned to Gerstner Field at Lake Charles,
Louisiana, and in June, 1918, was ordered to Vancouver Barracks in
Washington, where he remained until his honorable discharge in November,
1918.  In addition to his private practice, Doctor Morvant has taken many
responsibilities in the public health work.  For three years he was health
officer of Jeanerette, served one year as parish health officer, and in
January, 1922, was appointed coroner of Iberia Parish to fill out the
unexpired term of Doctor E. S. Fulton, who had resigned, while in 1924 he
was elected for the regular four year term as coroner.  Doctor Morvant is a
democrat, is a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, is Past
Grand Knight of Jeanerette Council No. 1425, Knights of Columbus, and
other fraternal affiliations are with Croy Tent No. 5, Knights of the
Maccabees, Jeanerette Camp No. 27, Woodmen of the World, Lafayette
Tribe of the Order of Ben Hur.  He is a member Of the American Legion,
the Iberia Parish, Third Congressional District, and Louisiana State
Medical Societies.

Doctor Morvant married June 2, 1909, at New Iberia, Miss Lizzie Dimitry,
daughter of Dracos A. and Lizzie (Ruth) Dimitry, her mother a resident of
New Iberia.  Her father was station agent of the Southern Pacific Railway
at New Iberia when he died, October, 1918.  Mrs. Morvant finished her
high school education in New Orleans, her great-grandfather Alexander
Dimitry was a man well known in educational affairs in Louisiana.  The two
Children of Doctor and Mrs. Morvant are Mary Ruth, a student in the
Jeanerette High School, and Dimitry attending the St. Joseph Parochial
School.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 300-301, by Henry E. Chambers. 
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New
York, 1925.