Iberia County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....Broussard, Dominque Ulger - June 28, 1885
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Mary K. Creamer marykcreamer@yahoo.com January 4, 2019, 11:59 pm

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source: New Iberia Enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, July 01, 1885, Image 2

DEATH OF D. U. BROUSSARD.

On Sunday afternoon at 1:25 o'clock P. M. the news flashed along the streets 
of our town from man to man and house to house that D. U. Broussard had 
yielded up the ghost and gone to his reward, at the age of 46 years, 9 
months and 24 days. To most of our citizens it was no surprise, but the 
shock was none the less a most painful one. The diagnosis of his disease by 
his accomplished medical adviser and confirmed and endorsed by other eminent 
practitioners had shown that for some time the very citadel of life had been 
besieged by a terrible enemy which could and in all probability, would 
demand are inconditional surrender at no distant day. As the tidings spread 
the men began to group, white and colored, and discuss the situation and 
deplore the calamity. Sorrow and sadness could be read in every countenance. 
When the body of this honored and beloved citizen had been laid out ready 
for the reception of visitors and friends, a steady stream began to flow in 
the direction of the Broussard residence, both male and female, the latter 
bearing beautiful floral tributes to lay upon the remains of the lamented 
dead. Owing to the extreme heat, Monday morning, at 8 o'clock A. M., was 
fixed for the funeral services. For an hour before the appointed time the 
people of all ages and both sexes, irrespective of race, color or class, 
began to pour along the street in the direction of the Broussard mansion. As 
decomposition was fast setting in, the funeral rites at the house had to be 
abridged as much as possible, and the body conveyed at once to the 
graveyard, where a vast number followed, despite the intense heat, the pall 
bearers being James A. Lee, L. B. Delahoussaye, R. S. Perry, S. Boudreaux, 
B. Langla and D. Laughlin. From there the assemblage adjourned to the 
Catholic Church, where the funeral ceremonies, under the direction of the 
Rev. Father Jacquet, were most imposing. The church could hold but a portion 
of the vast throng, and when all was over, one by one the witnesses to the 
solemn and most sorrowful services repaired to their homes or places of 
business to reflect upon or talk over the all engrossing subject. It seemed 
that but a few brief days before his manly form had passed along the 
streets, the very impersonation of health and bodily vigor, and now he was 
numbered with his Father's, and never more to be seen in this world.


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Dominique Ulger Broussard was the youngest of eight children, six sons and 
two daughters - the baby, as he was called of the family circle - his father 
being Don Louis Broussard and his mother Felonise Broussard, of the parish 
of St. Martin. The family on the paternal and maternal side are allied by 
ties of blood to great numbers of people in many parishes of the State. At 
the age of fifteen, young Broussard left school and began to act as a clerk 
in the firm of U. & F. Decuir, then engaged in the lumber business. Such was 
his fidelity, his energy and rigid attention to business, that at seventeen 
he received one-fourth of the net proceeds as compensation for his services, 
and at eighteen was taken into full partnership. Those strict business 
habits were formed when most young men are sowing their wild oats, which in 
too many instances culminate in the contraction of vices that end in their 
ruin. The saw mill in which young Broussard was a partner, was destroyed by 
the Federals, and with it an immense amount of lumber. The steamer Iberia 
was captained which had been for some time commanded by young Broussard, and 
all the slaves were carried off. The fortunes of the firm were wrecked at a 
sing'o blew, and the youthful candidate for the smiles of fortune now 
experienced her crown for the first time. He next enlisted in the 
Confederate army, where he served three years. He was for a short time in 
the 18th Louisiana regiment, and from it was transferred to the gun-boat 
Diana, and at the battle of Bisland was taken prisoner. After ten months 
captivity he was paroled, and in a few days re-called to active duty by an 
exchange of prisoners. He served until the expiration of the war under Major 
Grisamore, who was then brigade commissary in General Taylor's army, with 
the rank of captain. The war over, the young soldier started with a debt of 
$4000 to shackle his movements, but his energy, his pluck and his thorough 
business habits surmounted every obstacle, and he paid his debts dollar for 
dollar. In 1876, the lumber firm of Broussard & Decuir was founded in New 
Iberia, and up to 1880, their saw mill and lumber yards were twice destroyed 
by fire. The older members badly crippled by their losses by other fires and 
reverses in business, retired, and the existing firm of Broussard & Decuir 
was renewed with Mr. A. J. Decuir as a partner. Through all their reverses, 
D. U. Broussard never flinched, but showed a courage more than adequate to 
the emergency. He was not the man to repine at fate and idly bewail his 
misfortunes. Like the phoenix from its ashes, new and better structures 
arose, with the most approved of modern machinery. He made no failures, and 
met every claim dollar for dollar. A devout christian, his faith was 
tinctured with no bigotry. As a friend he drew around him all the best 
elements of society, and secured them with hooks of steel. A manly, frank 
and open opponent, he spurned the wyles and tergiversations of the mere 
partizan with his grovelling nature. The friend of progress, his purse, his 
time and his vast influence and energy of purpose was ever at the disposal 
of the cause. His name was with few exceptions, the first on every list for 
charitable collections, and he gave with a lavish hand. The Court-House, the 
grandest edifice of the kind in the State, owes its existence to his energy. 
The Iberia Fire Co. No. 1, of which he was a member, sprang into life 
through his exertions. He was one of the first members of the Benevolent 
Association, and every enterprise of a public nature or for philanthropical 
purposes found his purse open and hand ready to help it along. Despite his 
many reverses, his great hospitalities and charities, and the education and 
support of a large family, of five sons and four daughters, we believe the 
deceased left to his heirs in easy circumstances. His wife was Miss 
Constance LeBlanc, who is still living. If, however, he had died a bankrupt, 
the legacy he had bequeathed them in his example and revered name, would be 
a richer heritage than a ducal coronet. The last noble effort of his life 
was in the cause of education, and its friends and the public generally may 
well sorrow for his untimely loss, thus cut off in the summer of his 
usefulness and the prime of his manhood. Let us hope that the great cause of 
education has not lost its only champion and steadfast friend in the 
lamented dead, but that emulating his example, another will take up the work 
which he was forced by relentless fate to relinquish, and carry it on to a 
glorious consummation. When our High School is organized, and organized it 
will be, no fitter name can be givin it than that of the "Broussard High 
School."


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