SIMON, (Judge) Arthur, Orleans then St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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JUDGE ARTHUR SIMON, OPELOUSAS.--Judge Simon, a successful planter,
resides on his plantation about four miles south west of Opelousas.  He
was born in New Orleans on the 15th March, 1841, and is one of a family
of ten children born to Edward and Eugenie (Zerban) Simon.  Edward Simon
is a native of Belgium and came to America at the age of eighteen years. 
His wife is a native of St. Martin's parish, Louisiana and descendant of
the old Fuselier family.

Edward Simon was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana
under the administration of Governor Roman, from 1841 to 1849.  He died
in 1867 at St. Martinsville, Louisiana, his wife surviving him until
1880.  All the Simon family are Catholics.

The subject of our sketch received most of his education at the
Louisiana college the old Jefferson in St. James parish, and graduated
at what is now known as the Tulane University of Louisiana.  In 1862 he
enlisted in the Confederate States service and was made a Lieutenant in
the Yellow Jacket Battalion, commanded by Colonel Fournet, which was
afterward consolidated with the Seventeenth Louisiana Infantry.  In 1864
he was promoted to the rank of major.  He was in many of the active
engagements in which his regiment participated, and was with General
Kirby Smith at the time of the surrender.

After the war he determined to study law, but, after pursuing his
studies a short while, was forced to abandon it and take charge of his
father's sugar plantation in St. Mary parish.  In 1874 he removed to St.
Landry parish, where he was married, in 1865, to Miss Marie Dejean.  To
them have been born five children, one son and four daughters: Rita.
wife of E. V. Barry, Grand Coteau, Louisiana;  Lelia,  Mary,  Sidonie
and  Leopold.  Mrs. Simon died in 1879.  Judge Simon subsequently
married Miss Mathilda Dejean, sister of his first wife.

Judge Simon was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court at
Opelousas in 1876.  He practised law until 1888 in Opelousas, where for
four years he was justice of the peace.  Since that time he has given
his entire attention to the operation of his plantation, which is one of
about three hundred acres, highly improved and of unsurpassed fertility.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section,
p. 78.  Edited by William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf
Publishing Company.