Biography of 	Estopinal, Hon. Albert St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller September 2000

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Hon. Albert Estopinal, a prominent sugar planter and state senator from the First Louisiana
district, and president of the police jury of St. Bernard parish, was born in the last named
parish in 1845.  He is a son of Joseph and Felicia (Gouzeles) Estopinal, who were also born in
St. Bernard parish in 1816 and 1821, respectively.  They spent all their lives here and died in
1881 and 1865, respectively.  Mr. Estopinal was an overseer of a sugar plantation and also a
farmer, and was known as an honest, industrious man, well and favorably regarded in all local
public affairs.  He was one of the five sons and one daughter born to Joseph Estopinal, a
native of St Bernard parish, where he spent all of his life as a farmer.  He died about 1860,
and his wife died in 1855, of cholera.  He was a courier in the battle of New Orleans, carrying
the news from one side of the river to the other.  His father was born in Spain, but came when
a young man to St. Bernard parish, where he was one of the original settlers, and where he
lived and died.  The grandfather Gouzeles also came from Spain about 1767, and many of his
descendants are now living in Louisiana.  The father of our subject was married twice.  His
last wife was Miss Torres, by whom he had eight children.  Of these children the following four
are now living:  Albert;  Victor, a planter of Jefferson parish;  Josephine, the wife of M. L.
Movales, and  Olivia, the wife of Lovinsky Nunez.  Our subject was educated at the public
schools of the country and in New Orleans.  At the age of seventeen, in 1862, he joined Company
G, of the St. Bernard guards, of the Twenty-eighth Louisiana regiment, and held the rank of
orderly sergeant.  He was in the siege of Vicksburg, where he commanded the little squad which
took the prisoners from the "Indianola" to Libby prison.  He afterward, on three different
occasions, was in charge of a squad taking prisoners to Richmond.  After the fall of Vicksburg
he was in the quartermaster's department of Meridian, Miss., and then in the Mobile campaign
and surrendered at Cuba station.  During his entire career of service, he was never wounded or
taken prisoner.  After the war he engaged in merchandising at New Orleans for five years, and
since then has been engaged in planting.  He has been for five years on his present plantation,
eighteen miles east of New Orleans, on the New Orleans & Gulf railroad, where he has a fine
plantation of 1,600 acres, and also about 400 acres in another tract.  This fine property he
has accumulated entirely by his own unaided efforts.  His plantation is one of the beet managed
in the parish, and he devotes a great part of it to the raising of sugar and vegetables.  In
1872 he was elected sheriff and was re-elected in 1874.  In 1876-78 he served on the committee
of education and parochial affairs, in the general assembly of the lower house.  In 1879 he was
a member of the constitutional convention, and in 1880, 1884 and 1888, he was successively
elected to the state senate from the First district, composed of St. Bernard and Plaquemines
parishes, and lower New Orleans.  During the last session he was chairman of the committee on
auditing and supervising, etc.  Since 1884 he has been president of the police jury of his
parish. His entire official career has been one of honesty, and his aim has always been to
promote the interest of the community.  He is a member of the A. L of H., of the Crescent lodge
of New Orleans.  In March, 1868, he was married to Miss Elisha, daughter of Francis and Octavia
Legier, who were born in New Orleans.  Mr. Legier was educated in France, and spent all of his
life in New Orleans, where he was a prominent merchant, and was for a time the street
commissioner.  He died about 1862.  His wife is still living.  Mrs. Estopinal was born in New
Orleans and there received her education.  She is the mother of eight children, some of whom
are now grown.  The two eldest are graduates from the Tulane university, and the eldest is a
promising young lawyer of New Orleans.  Hon. Mr. Estopinal is well and
favorably known throughout the state of Louisiana, as a wide-awake, thoroughgoing man.  He has
served his parish in a great many responsible positions, and highly deserves the respect and
esteem with which he is regarded.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), pp. 403-404.  Published by the
Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.