TORRAS, Joseph, Spain then West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
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Joseph Torras, a native of Spain, was born near Barcelona in 1825, the
youngest of thirteen children born to M. and Lucretia Torras, the former of
whom was an officer in the Spanish navy, the greater part of his life being
spent in the service.  He was in the English and French wars, was a college
bred man and had his two eldest sons educated in the Imperial college at
St. Petersburg, Russia.  Joseph Torras came to the United States in 1836,
leaving home at the very early age of eleven years because his mother
strongly opposed his entering the navy, which he very much desired to do.
He joined a brother in Natchez, Miss., and entered the schools of that
city, from which he afterward graduated.  After spending three years in
clerking he entered the receiving and forwarding business, which calling he
followed until 1840, the three following years being engaged in
merchandising in Van Buren, Ark.  Since that time he has been a resident of
Pointe Coup e parish, La.; on his arrival he entered in copartnership with
his brother and purchased the plantation belonging to Gen. B. B. Simms.  He
and his brother severed their connection in 1858, Joseph Torras, the same
year, marrying Mrs. Dr. Nelson, a native of Maryland, by whom he became the
father of two children:  Lulu, now Mrs. Phillips, and Jeannie C.  The
mother of these children died in 1863, since which time Mr. Torras has
remained unmarried.  He served in the commissary department of the
confederate army during the Civil war and was in charge of cotton
transports from Alexandria to Niblos Bluffs, Tex.   In the fall of 1864 he
returned home, and has since devoted his attention to merchandising and
planting, being now the owner of Turnbull island in West Feliciana parish,
containing about 8,000 acres; besides which he owns 1,200 acres in Pointe
Coup e parish, all of which has been accumulated since the war.  Turnbull
island is devoted to the raising of cattle for beef, which he markets in
Natchez and New Orleans, and has found it to be very profitable.  He has
been engaged in general merchandising for thirty years and only disposed of
his business in 1888 to Mr. Phillips, his son-in-law.  He is interested in
local and state politics and has held positions of honor on committees of
the democratic party.  He is now chairman of the executive board of the
levee board, created by the last legislature, embracing the district of the
Atchafalaya basin.  He is also a patron of education and his two daughters
are graduates of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, located in St. James
parish, La.  He was the originator and is now the president of the St.
Cecelian society, which has a neat little hall on his plantation, and has
always taken a deep interest in Christian work.  He is quite a
philanthropist and has educated nine children besides his own, giving them
good collegiate educations, six of these being the children of his wife by
her first husband.  He was he prime mover and chief contributor in building
the Catholic church on his plantation.  He is liberal in the use of his
means, very charitably inclined and is upright in all his dealings, in
fact, a model American citizen.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 424.
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.