Iberia County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....LeBlanc, Capt. J. Anatole November 9, 1899 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Mary K. Creamer marykcreamer@yahoo.com March 13, 2017, 3:40 pm source: New Iberia Enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, November 11, 1899, Image 3 IN MEMORIAM. DIED - In New Iberia, La., at the home of his neice, Mrs. D. U. Broussard, on November 9th, 1899, J. ANATOLE LeBLANC. Early yesterday morning, in the quiet, still hour, just before the dawn, all that was mortal of Anatole LeBlanc passed from this world to another. Anatole LeBlanc was born in Fausse Pointe in the month of December, 1827, and was the son of Desire LeBlanc and Marcelite LeBlanc, his father was a first cousin of Edmond LeBlanc, the father of Mrs. D. U. Broussard and our worthy clerk of court, Gabbie LeBlanc. His sister, Mrs. Edmond LeBlanc, yet survives him at the happy old age of 84 years. He leaves also one brother, Ozeme LeBlanc, a resident of Lafayette, aged 79 years, yet hale and hearty, but whose advanced age shows according to the time allotted to man, that he too will soon cross the river and join his brother in the great beyond. Anatole was married late in the fifties to Miss Estelle Darbes, daughter of Jean Baptiste Darbes, and she was the young widow of a Mr. Laurent Basta, a druggist of St. Martinville, who died soon after his marriage with the woman who after became the wife of Anatole. She died in 1873 childless, and he never remarried. He was a descendant of that noble band of Acadian exiles that was banished by an act of unjustifiable cruelty from the town of Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, in the year 1855. "Blown by the blast of fate like a dead leaf over the desert." Many of these good and simple people after reaching New Orleans, sought homes in the beautiful country that was watered by the Teche, where, in after years they lived and prospered, and whose names to- day are as familiar as a household word. Among them were members of the LeBlanc family and no doubt were the ancestors of the worthy family that now bear that name and are scattered over all that section of the State from the Mississippi river to the prairies of Opelousas. He commenced steamboating as a cub pilot with Capt. Edmond Castillo on the steamboat Vesta, in 1848, a boat that was plying between St. Martinville and New Orleans, with our present Ralf Walker as assistant pilot. During the year 1852 or'53 Alfred Lastrappe, Charles Durand and Dr. Landry built two magnificent steamboats, the Delia and Rosa, at a cost of $32,000 each. Both were regular palaces, and furnished tables to the traveling public fit for the kings. The earliest recollection I have of our departed friend was the first trip the Rosa made to the Teche, just after having been built. As she landed, I stood on the bank of the bayou, as a curious boy, admiring the beauty and splendor of the new boat, I saw, emerging from the pilot house, two handsome young pilots, as handsome as they could be, one was Anatole LeBlanc, the other Toffier Dauterive, long since gone to his fathers. Oh! how my heart beat, and how I felt in such apparent grandeur, that I would rather be the pilot of that floating palace than to be the President of the United States. Speaking of the grandeur of those two boats, in the year 1857, I was made the recipient of some of the good things from those richly furnished tables. Through the generosity and kindness of Capt. Alcide Meynier, I was permitted to take a trip to New Orleans on the Delia with out charge, and it has been remembered as the happiest eight days of my life, and I have always kept and ever will keep in my heart a kind souvenir for Capt. Meynier, better known under the sobriquet of Capt. "Bull," for his kind and fatherly act to me in allowing me to visit New Orleans on his fine side-wheeled packet at a time when I enjoyed it most, and sit at the table with the best of the land, a table that would have done honor at the marriage feast of a millionaire. It was a change from rough to fine, and I can only hold these events in kind remembrance as the honey part of my life. Anatole was one of the pilots on that trip. Strange as it may seem, Anatole never aspired to promotion; he preferred to stick to his wheel; was never known to be derelict to duty, always at his post, sober and conservative, a safe and careful pilot, never picking up the vices common to a steamboat career; he was one among the few who was not addicted to strong drink, unlike many of his co-laborers, who ended their days sooner than their time by dissipation. In the passing away of Anatole LeBlanc, there remains but few of those who associated with him in the palmy days of steamboat life. I know but one that is now lingering by the wayside to read the history of the fallen dead; awaiting to be called, in turn, up higher, is our old friend Ralph Walker; the others have passed off the stage of life, where I hope he will find his place among the rest as a welcome guest, and as brothers of the wheel live together forevermore in the house prepared for the just. I heard of his death before his sickness, and understand that he quietly "sank into darkness, as when a lamp is blown out by a gust of wind at a casement," and all was ended of the pilot of fifty years. May the God who gave him life save his soul, is the prayer of his friend, Wm. R. Burke. Additional Comments: NOTE: www.findagrave.com memorial # 133694727 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/iberia/obits/l/leblanc6924gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/lafiles/ File size: 5.8 Kb