Bio: Charles F. Dranguet
Submitted by: Gaytha Carver Thompson
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890



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CHARLES F. DRANGUET
Attorney, Natchitoches, La.

Mr. Dranguet, one of the prominent legal lights of Natchitoches, is a native
of this city, his birth occurring on April 10, 1834, and is the son of
Benjamin F. and Victoria Celeste (Pauzin) Dranguet.  The father was born in
Rouen, Normandy, France, on April 6, 1777, and died in Natchitoches on April
6, 1837.  The mother was born in the city of Natchitoches, or the port of
Natchitoches, on December 25, 1795, and died here in 1871.  The father
came to Natchitoches from the West Indies in 1812, having gone to the latter
place from France in 1794, on account of the French Revolution.  By occupation
he was a merchant.  His marriage to Miss Pauzin took place on April 5, 1815. 
In the fall of 1814 he left here with a military company (although not then
naturalized), to go to New Orleans, to join Gen. Jackson, and upon his
arrival there he was selected by that general to guard the Crescent City.

Charles F. Dranguet, the youngest of six children, only two of whom are
living, first attended school in Natchitoches, and later entered the St.
Vincent College, at Cape Girardeau, Mo., where he continued until 1854.  He
then returned home and taught school, which he limited to twelve pupils, all
boys, who were well advanced.  During this time he was studying law under
John Blair Smith and Judge J. G. Campbell, and was admitted to the bar in
1859, after which he immediately entered upon his practice in partnership with
Col. William M. Levy.  This continued until the breaking out of the war, when
Mr. Dranguet joined the Second Louisiana Cavalry, Confederate States Army, as
a private in company C, and about three months later was elected second
lieutenant of Company D, Second Louisiana Cavalry.  He served in this until
the close of hostilities.  Afterward he resumed the law practice, and this he
has since continued.  In 1871 he was appointed district attorney of what was
then the Seventeenth Judicial District, by H. C. Warmoth, and in 1874 he was
also appointed parish judge of Natchitoches Parish.  In 1876 he was elected
mayor of the city of Natchitoches, and filled that position ably and well.
In politics he adheres to the Democratic party.

He was married in 1859 to Miss Eliza Greneaux, a native of this parish, born
in 1840, and to them were born nine children: Eliza, Benjamin F., Charles F.,
Jr., Laura, Lelia, Louis A., Edgar M., Stella and Oscar.  Mr. Dranguet is a
member of the Catholic Church, and is a representative of one of the old
families of Natchitoches.  The father of Mrs. Dranguet, Judge C. E. Greneaux,
was born in Natchitoches in 1804, was parish judge, then clerk of the court,
and was afterward appointed treasurer of the State of Louisiana for three
years, at the end of which time he was without opposition elected State
treasurer.  He died in Natchitoches in 1858.  He was thoroughly a self made
man, and a very popular one.