Iberia County Louisiana Archives News.....Alexander Bourgeois and Family Murdered February 23, 1901
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Mary K. Creamer marykcreamer@yahoo.com January 21, 2017, 6:05 pm

New Iberia Enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, February 23, 1901, Image 2 February 23, 1901

Terrible Fate of Alexander Bourgeois and Family.

St. Peter, La., Feb. 17. - A most dastardly crime was committed here this 
morning by a negro who was hung this evening. At 9 o'clock this morning 
Alexander Bourgeois, who had charge of the drainage machine at the Belle 
Point plantation, owed by the Godchaux Company, Line and, together with his 
wife and two children, were butchered by a negro names Thomas Jackson.

The negro called at the drainage man's house and said that Mr. Breaux, the 
manager of the plantation, wanted him to come up front. The negro indicated 
Bourgeois to get on a tricycle with him. Mr. Bourgeois got on the front and 
Jackson to the rear, and when they had gone some distance on the plantation 
tramway, about midway between the drainage machine and the river, the negro 
plunged a knife in the back of Mr. Bourgeois' head and killed him, and 
afterward threw him in the ditch alongside the road. He then reversed the 
machine and rode back to the drainage machine, where he met Mrs. Bourgeois. 
He told her that Mr. Bourgeois had sent him back to get his gun to shoot 
partridge. The lady gave him the gun, and as soon as he got it in his hands, 
he cocked it and, pointing it at her, demanded money. The woman became 
frightened and ran out of the house. Jackson followed and fired a shot at 
her, but missed. Failing in his aim, he drew his knife and stabbed her in 
the back and the neck, killing her. He went back into the house, where he 
found the two children, one 2-1/2 years old, the other 8 months. He brained 
both and threw them into the canal next the drainage machine, and then 
ransacked the house. He took a coat and vest belonging to Mr. Bourgeois and, 
tying them in a hankerchief, left the house for the plantation quarters 
where he lived.

Two boys, Ambroise Duhe and Felicien Vicknair, who had been visiting the 
Bourgeois family, were in the house when the negro came to Mrs. Bourgeois 
for the gun, and when he fired at her, they ran into the woods. They 
afterwards came into the town and identified the citizens, and in a short 
time a mob of about 2,000 people gathered and went with the boys to the 
negro's house. The boys positively identified him, and the clothes of Mr. 
Bourgeois were also identified. The identification being positive, the crowd 
took him out and it was about 6 o'clock this evening when he was hanged to a 
tree about a mile from St. Peter, and his body riddled with bullets.


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