Hugh Chamberlin, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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Hugh Chamberlin is one of the prominent and influential exponents 
of the real estate business in the City of Baton Rouge, and in this 
connection marked discrimination and progressiveness have attended 
his operations.  He is the owner of valuable plantation properties, 
and is one of the substantial business men and liberal citizens of 
the capital city of his native commonwealth.

Mr. Chamberlin was born in West Baton Rouge Parish, August 4, 1867, 
a son of William Benjamin Chamberlin and a grandson of Benjamin Chamberlin, 
both natives of Johnstown, New York, where the latter passed his entire 
life, he having been one of the leading lawyers in that part of the old Empire State.

William Benjamin Chamberlin was born in the year 1819, and in his native 
Johnstown he was, reared to the age of nineteen years. his educational 
advantages in the meanwhile having been or excellent order.  At the age 
noted he came to Louisiana, where for a number of years he was a successful 
teacher ii the schools of East Feliciana Parish.  After his removal to West 
Baton Rouge Parish he there served twelve years as clerk of the court, and 
in the meanwhile he carried forward his study of law and was admitted to 
the bar.  In that parish he thereafter continued in the active practice 
of his profession as one of the leading members of the bar of the parish 
until his retirement, and in the meanwhile he had maintained a law 
partnership with Col. Henry M. Favrot, of whom specific mention is made 
on other pages of this work, in the personal sketch of his son, Leo M.  
Mr. Chamberlin served as a lieutenant in a Louisiana command in the 
Mexican war.  He was long a leader in the councils of die democratic 
party in his parish, and he and his wife were devout communicants of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church.  He continued his residence m West 
Baton Rouge Parish until his death, which occurred in December, 1887, 
his wife having there in 1876 and her birth having occurred maiden name 
of Mrs. Chamberlin was Mary Pamelia Clark.  William Benjamin, eldest of 
was born in the year 1851, and was a planter at Chamlerlin Station, West 
Parish, at the time of his death, August 27, 1911;  Mary Hester, who now 
resides at Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the widow of Sterling Hereford, 
who was a planter in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, at the time of his 
death, in 1881;  Catherine L. is the wife of George C. Burr, who is 
associated with the Burr Brothers Lumber Company at Gloversville, New York;  
Margaret is the wife of Walter N. Bynum, of Baton Rouge, who is a lawyer 
by profession and who was for a number of years superintendent of the 
Louisiana State School for the Blind;  Guy died at the age of eleven years;  
Leah died in early childhood;  Hugh, of this sketch, was the next in order of 
birth; and John died in childhood.

Hugh Chamberlin was for four years a student in Montgomery Bell Academy, 
Nashville, Tennessee, and upon leaving this institution, in 1885, he went 
to Gloversville, New York, where he was employed in a saw mill until 
November, 1888.  He then returned to his native parish, and after being 
engaged in the cattle business two years he turned his attention to sugar 
planting.  With this line of industry he continued to be actively identified 
in West Baton Rouge Parish until 1899, when his initiative ability and good 
judgment lead him to engage in the real estate business.  His success in this 
important line of enterprise finally led him to establish his headquarters in 
Baton Rouge, where he has maintained his home since 1908 and where he has 
gained prestige as one of the leading exponents of real estate enterprise 
in the fair old capital city, his well appointed offices being in the Reymond 
Building.  He is the owner of valuable real estate in Baton Rouge, and of well 
improved plantation properties in West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes.  
He is a director of the Capital Building and Loan Association, of which he has 
served as vice president and for which he has been the appraiser for the past 
fifteen years, and he is a member also of the directorate of the Mortgage Loan 
& Realty Company, another of the important business corporations of Baton Rouge.  
As a citizen and business man Mr. Chamberlin is a vital exponent of progressiveness, 
and he is a valued member of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce.  He has found 
no measure of reluctance in maintaining loyal allegiance to the democratic 
party, and while he has had no ambition for political preferment he gave 
effective service as a member of the executive committee of his party in 
West Baton Rouge Parish.  He is a communicant of St. James Church, 
Protestant Episcopal, and Mrs. Chamberlin is a popular factor in the 
representative social and cultural circles of Baton Rouge.  Mr. Chamberlin 
holds membership in the Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club.  His marriage 
to Miss Margaret Roberts was solemnized at Winchester, Kentucky, September 
4, 1923, and Mrs. Chamberlin claims the old Blue Grass State as the place 
of her nativity, her birth having occurred at Danville, Kentucky.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 73, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.