POSEY, T. L., St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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T. L. POSEY, OPELOUSAS.--Mr. Posey is a successful druggist of
Opelousas.  He is a native of the place and was born in 1855.  Some of
the members of the Posey family have figured prominently in political
affairs of the United States.  Of the great-grandfather of our subject,
the International Cyclopedia says:  "Thomas Posey was born in Virginia,
1750, and settled in West Virginia, 1769.  He became quartermaster of
Lord Dunmore's army, and was engaged in a battle with the Indians at
Point Pleasant in 1774.  The next year he assisted in the defeat of
Dunmore at Gwynn's Island.  He afterward joined Morgan's riflemen, and
fought with a force of British light infantry in New Jersey.  Entering
the army under Gates he was at the battle of Bemis' Heights, and
Stillwater in 1777; and the same year conducted an expedition against
the Indians.  In 1779 he commanded a battalion under Wayne, was
prominent at the assault of Stony Point, and served with 'Mad Anthony'
until the evacuation of Savannah.  He was at the surrender of
Cornwallis, and was appointed brigadier general in 1793 on the staff of
Gen. Washington.  Moving into Kentucky he became senator, Lieutenant
Governor, and Major General of Militia.  He was United States Senator
from Louisiana in 1812-13, and Governor of the Indian Territory from
1813 to 1816, when he became Commissioner of Indian Affairs."  His
commission as brigadier general was kept in the family until taken by
the Federals during the civil war.

The paternal grandfather of T. L. Posey was born in Kentucky, but came
to Louisiana early in life, where he married and resided until the time
of his death.  But little of his history has been preserved.  As gleaned
from his autobiography, John Posey, our subject's father, was born
August 4, 1819, in Opelousas.  He was the youngest child of Lloyd and
Eleanor (Collins) Posey, to whom were born four children.  His mother
was a native of Louisiana and died in 1824.  His father died in 1821. 
Being thus left an orphan at an early age he was reared by his maternal
aunt, Mrs. Constance Littell.  He speaks of her in the most affectionate
terms, and says that a mother could have given him no more attention
than she.  He received a good education.  From 1834 to 1838 he was at
the St. Louis University.  The year 1839 he spent in Kentucky visiting
his numerous relatives.  Afterward he entered the mercantile business,
but lost by the credit system.  He then became deputy clerk of St.
Landry, in which capacity he served until 1846.  After a short interval,
which he spent in Kentucky, he determined to study medicine, and this he
did, for about a year, in the office of his uncle Alexander Posey.  He
married in March, 1848, and the following July purchased a stock of
drugs and opened a drug business in Opelousas.  In this he continued
until the time of his death in 1886.

The subject of our sketch, T. L. Posey, succeeded his father in business
and is now a popular druggist of Opelousas.  He was educated at the
Jesuit schools at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, and at Spring Hill College,
near Mobile, Alabama.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section,
pp. 67-68.  Edited by William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The
Gulf Publishing Company.y Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf
Publishing Company.