Biography of 	Claiborne, Charles Ferdinand; Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller April 1998

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Claiborne, Charles Ferdinand, 727 Common street, New Orleans, La., was born
at New Orleans, La., Feb. 2, 1848; son of William C. C. and Louise (De
Balathier) Claiborne, the former of whom was born at New Orleans and the
latter at Paris, France.  In the course of his education Mr. Claiborne
attended the Christian Brothers' school and the University of Louisiana.
He was admitted to the bar in 1869 and has been engaged in practice as an
attorney since that date, a period embracing very much of the important
history of New Orleans, La., and the South, with all of which Mr. Claiborne
has been vitally concerned and identified.  His youthful experiences, of
course, were more or less affected by the stirring events preceding the
Civil war, as was his early manhood shadowed and darkened by the sanguinary
conflicts, privations and hardships of that heroic struggle and the trying
days of reconstruction that followed.  In all of this Mr. Claiborne has
participated hand to hand, an actor in a drama of prodigious scale, and
passing through those clouded years of internecine strife has seen the land
of his nativity emerge not only from the devastating blight of civil war,
but also from the almost equal harrowing scourge of yellow fever, and come
out into the glorious light of liberty, peace, plenty, health, and
boundless prosperity.  It is, indeed, a wealth of experience.  Mr.
Claiborne served as a member of the Guibet battery, Sept. 14, 1875.  In
national politics Mr. Claiborne affiliates with the Democratic party, but
his progressive tendencies and hearty cooperation with all movements having
for their object the betterment of living conditions for the people, have
led him to ally himself, in local political contests, without regard to
party alignment, and in accord with these principles he has been repeatedly
elected as a member of the city council of New Orleans, serving in that
capacity from the year 1888 to 1892, inclusive, as a result of election
upon a ticket put forward by the Young Men's Democratic association, and
again he was elected and served in the city council from 1896 to 1900 as a
candidate of the Citizens' league.  He was a gold Democrat and favors
tariff for protection as well as revenue.  Mr. Claiborne is now and has for
some years been serving as a member of three important commissions in the
city of New Orleans, namely, those of the New Orleans public library, City
park and Delgado Museum of Art.  In Dec., 1913, he was appointed by Gov.
Luther E. Hall one of the judges of the court of appeals for Orleans and
other parishes.  Dec. 23, 1875, Mr. Claiborne was married to Miss Amelie
Soniat du Fossat, a daughter of Meloney Soniat du Fossat, of New Orleans,
and to them the following children were born:  Marie Louise, now the wife
of Dr. Louis Perrilliat;  Charles de Balathier, who married Miss Virginia
Couturie;  Amelie, who became the wife of Martin Levering Matthews;  Lucy,
and  Martin Duralde.

Source:  Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp.
102-102.  Edited by Alcee Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century
Historical Association.