BILLAUD, Leon, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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LEON BILLAUD, LAFAYETTE.--Leon Billaud, a planter of Ward 3, is a native of
France, born May 25, 1831.  He is the son of John and Rosalee (Grizau)
Billaud, both natives of France.  John Billaud was a wheelwright by
occupation.  He married in France in 1829, and became the father of five
children, two sons and three daughters, four of whom are now living, the
subject of this sketch being the eldest.  John Billaud emigrated from France
to Louisiana in 1840, arriving in New Orleans January 8.  Shortly afterward he
located in Lafayette, and there followed his trade until his death in 1879. 
The subject's mother died in 1849.  Both were devout members of the Catholic
church.  Leon Billaud was but a boy when his parents came to Louisiana.  He
was educated in the common schools of Lafayette parish, and when fourteen
years of age he learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed for a number
of years.  His chief vocation, however, has been planting.  He owns two
hundred acres of land, with one hundred and fifty acres under cultivation. 
The principal products of his farm are cotton and sweet potatoes.  The place
is a beautiful one and fertile, and is located a mile west of Lafayette.  In
connection with his plantation Mr. Billaud operates a steam cotton gin, with a
capacity for ginning fourteen bales of cotton a day.  Mr. Billaud was a
Confederate soldier during the civil war.  Enlisting in the infantry in 1862,
he served until the close of the war.  He has married twice; first in 1853 to
Miss Malvina Landry, a native of Lafayette parish, to which marriage were born
six children, four sons and two daughters.  Mrs. Billaud died in 1867, and Mr.
Billaud married again in 1869, Mrs. Emma Landry, widow of Desire Landry.  One
son, Joseph, has been born to this union.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp.
209-210.  Edited by William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf
Publishing Company.