Dr. Alphonse De Seay, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ************************************************ Dr. Alphonse De Seay, a prominent and rising surgical practitioner of north Louisiana, and an honored resident of Ruston, was born in Mobile, Ala., in 1853. His father, Maj. Gustave Seay, was born in Fontainbleau, France, in 1803, but his paternal grandparents were natives of Nottoway county, Va. His father being French, espoused the cause of the Bonapartists, and was so active in their restoration that he was exiled by the Bourbons. He had served for a number of years as a surgeon in the French navy. In 1847 he married Marie Jean Paul De Saix, a granddaughter of Marshal Do Saix, the hero of the Pyramids and Marengo, and at whose fall Napoleon said: "Why is it not permitted me to weep? Victory at such a price is dear." On coming to America the parents settled in Mobile, Ala., where Alphonse, their only child, was born. He was an unusually bright child, and early showed a brave and energetic turn of mind. Being left an orphan at a tender age, his education was mostly received in the convents of the Catholic church, and to finish it he was sent to Fontainbleau, France, to receive a classical education, but the Franco-Prussian war breaking out prevented his cherished hopes in entering school. It was May, 1870, when he arrived in Havre and found the whole country astir with warlike preparations. The Prussians were marshaling their host on the border. The presence of a foe in La-Belle, France, threatening the very capital, caused his young blood to boil, and he hastened to Paris and offered himself as a volunteer to the French army, but owing to his youthful appearance he was prevented from enlisting. This, however, did not prevent him from following the army, and on August 2 he heard for the first time the thunder of the Prussian artillery-the great battle of "Gravoilette" had commenced. All day he watched the fierce conflict, and saw with wild pride the eagles, which seemed at first to quail before the storm of shot and shell, triumphant, while the fierce shouts of "Vive la France" burst from the throats of 100,000 Frenchmen. The foe was repulsed. That day was the happiest of his life, the blood of a Frenchman boiled in his veins; that night, under the twinkle of Alsacean stars, he dreamed of Kleber and Ney, Napoleon and De Saix. The next day the French fell back toward Metz, and he went back to Paris, where he remained until after the capitulation. Sharing in the bitterness and mortification of her people at the presence of a German foe in her capital, the first in 1,000 years, he saw the empire fall. Napoleon III. was a captive; the beautiful Eugene' had fled; the eagle which led the armies of the First Consul over the Alps and perched on the hights [sic] of the pyramids, was buried, and the tri-color floated out bravely over "Republican France." In January, 1871, he left France in company with Ponte' Garceot, a young Cuban, whose father lived in Montansas, and arrived in Havanna in February, after a rough passage of twenty-one days. For several months his stay with these estimable and elegant people was the most pleasurable, but some fatality seemed now to follow him. His host belonged to the insurgents who wished to throw off the Spanish yoke, and they soon engaged the sympathy of one who carried in his bosom an inherited love of freedom; but like all other efforts to free Cuba, their plans failed. Their first effort to organize was apprehended by the Spanish authorities, Ponte' Garceot, his father and thirteen others, were captured and shot, while the subject of this sketch was only saved by claiming the protection of the French flag. which gave him time to communicate with Hon. William A. Seay, who, using his influence with the Spanish consul, had him kidnapped from prison in Havanna, and placed on board a vessel which sailed for Vera Cruz. Landing there, sore and tired, with but a few sons in his pocket, he hardly knew which had been worse--to have been shot by Spaniards, or murdered in a Mexican city by what he at first thought the meanest "cut-throats" on earth. But he was agreeably disappointed. He found the Mexican polite, hospitable and kind; the wealthy and educated spoke Spanish, French and English, and he had no trouble in making known his wants, and but for an unfortunate and unavoidable occurrence would soon be back in the United States. This was a sudden attack of yellow fever, contracted no doubt in Cuba. He was removed to a hospital, where for a week he suffered the horrors of black vomit, which only one knows who have had the dreadful monster to contend with. When he recovered, pale, feeble and exhausted, 1,000 miles from friends and home, for the first time in life his bold heart quailed, and only the kind administration, of the sisters of charity kept the vital spark from becoming extinct. A few months restored his strength and confidence, and he was put to scrubbing the floors of the hospital in payment for the nursing he had received, and this he promised to do one month, but at the end of about ten days a Mexican nurse finding him leaning on a mop, gave him a kick, which so incensed him, that quicker than lightning the heavy iron mop fell upon his head, felling him insensible to the floor. Finding the Mexican did not move, and thinking he had killed him, he fled through the door into the street and on in a northern direction, till night came on--he slept in a hedge of cactus. Next morning commenced a tramp for life and a beg for bread; now a song would be sung in patoi-French, which would bring the dark-eyed senora to the latticed gate with a handful of fruit, and sometimes milk; then again the stirring old "Dixie" in plain American would get him a lodging for a night. Tramp, tramp to Puebla, across then to Monterey; then for the month of the Rio Grande, which was reached in sixty-one days from starting, the blue waves of the gulf bursting upon him, exciting in his heart something akin to what the Grecian 10,000 felt when they beheld the placid waves of the storied Euxine. In 1872 he returned to America and found himself without means of support. The stirring scenes through which he had passed had satiated his thirst for reckless adventure; his fortune was gone, and he at once commenced the battle of life by teaching, in which profession he was very successful. At the same time he prosecuted the study of medicine, and in 1882 graduated from the Tulane university of New Orleans with honor, receiving a warm compliment from Prof. Samuel Logan, the most skillful surgeon of the South. He afterward took a post-graduate course in surgery, for which particular profession he wished to prepare himself. Since this he has striven by practice and strict application to his studies to make himself proficient in his calling. His is a nature which abhors mediocrity, and is satisfied only with the attainment of the zenith of self-earned fame; and as a result of his high ambition he is now rapidly gaining prominence in his profession, and bids fair to mount to eminence as a surgeon, being now regarded as one of the most skillful in the state. He is now in his thirty-eighth year, a man of fine physique, dark hair, bright and searching gray eyes, and manners that well attest the elegant refinement so characteristic of his nation. A gentleman of high culture, familiar with the classics and polite literature, well read in the scientific studies of the day, of a literary turn of mind, and possessing splendid abilities as a writer, he is the author of a number of very fine poems and of several abstract scientific dissertations. His relatives in Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana are noted for their eminence in law, especially Hon. W. A. Seay, of Louisiana, late United States minister to Bolivia, and ex-Governor Seay of Alabama. Dr. De Seay holds the position of surgeon of the V. S. & P. R. R., is medical examiner for the Mutual Life Insurance company of New York, and holds several other honorary appointments, besides being president of the Lincoln Parish Medical society. In honor of the memory of his heroic great-grandfather his mother added the prefix "De" of her maiden name, De Saix, to his paternal family name, Seay, which accounts for the difference between his name and the above-named near relations of Louisiana and Alabama. Dr. De Seay married Miss Sholars, the accomplished daughter of Dr. Louis Sholar., one of the most prominent and respected families of north Louisiana. With a devoted and accomplished wife and two bright, sweet children, a neat and lovely cottage home in the pleasant, social little city of Ruston, in the enjoyment of the esteem and confidence of the people of one of the grandest states in the Union, and with a future that will be brilliant if he lives, Dr. Do Seay is truly to be envied. Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), pp. 377-379. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.