Biography of 	Sumter, Augustin Leonce Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller January 1998

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Augustin Leonce Sumter, was born in New Orleans on Oct. 23, 1885, the son of
Paul Sumter and Noemi (Barbot) Augustin.  He received his education in the
Notre Dame boys' school, conducted by Reverend Mother Mary Borgia, of the
Sisters of Mercy, and after attended the College of the Immaculate Conception,
graduating the commercial department of that college in 1905.  In 1902, Paul
Sumter Augustin was called on to teach white men for the Civil Service and
Leonce Sumter Augustin became his assistant.  In 1905, Paul Sumter Augustin
was prevented from coaching persons for the Civil Service, being in the
Service, and Leonce Sumter Augustin then continued the work.  In 1907, when
the Public Night School's Civil Service class was opened, Leonce Sumter
Augustin applied for, and secured, the position of head coach in the work,
continuing as such until the fall of 1913, when the demands on his time as the
head of the Augustin commercial college required his abandoning the other
work.  In 1905, Leonce Sumter Augustin became engaged as assistant bookkeeper
of the Augustin grocery, continuing as such until the business was closed in
1906.  He then devoted all his attention to teaching, and began to perfect
himself in English, arithmetic, stenography and bookkeeping.  In 1912, he
enrolled in the teachers' department of the Gregg short-school, completing
this course in a very short time.  In that year, he added the commercial
department, and the name of the institution bearing his name (The Augustin
College) is now looked upon as one of the best of its line.  The first
graduation exercises were held July 1, 1913 at which over one hundred persons 
attended the exercises.  Leonce Sumter Augustin has no political adherence. 
He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is a member of the Holy Name
and St. Vincent de Paul Societies.  On June 8, 1910, he was united in marriage
to Miss Marie Bayhi, the daughter of Eugene Bayhi and the late Emma Tiblier. 
There are, at this writing, seven assistant teachers and over 125 students
enrolled in the college.

Source:  Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 32-33. 
Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century Historical
Association.