Societe de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Jefferson et Nouvelle Orléans, Part One: A Story of Sepulchers

Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Ville de Jefferson tomb (1872), Lafayette Cemetery No. 2. Photo by Emily Ford.

Recently, Oak and Laurel Cemetery Preservation, LLC transcribed the burial records of the tomb of the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Jefferson, located in Lafayette Cemetery No. 2, thanks in part to a grant from genealogist Megan Smolenyak.  The Society was absorbed by the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans in 1900.
 
Through this research and through extended investigation into the history of the society, its members, predecessors, and descendants, a rich portrait of the life of French-speakers in nineteenth- and twentieth-century New Orleans emerged.  Today, we share the history of that society and its many milestones, members, and tombs. 

View of New Orleans from the Mississippi River, 1839, by S. Pinistri (Library of Congress)

ARTICLE I:  The association aims to improve physical, moral, and political fitness of its members; to lend each other assistance and relief in misery; to promote each other’s wellbeing, by council and by example; to collectively inspire the rights and freedoms of the home in all countries, and the practice of the duties, which alone can make them worthy; these are the primary obligations as members define them.  – from the original constitution of the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans, 1843 (translated from French).[1]
 
The First French Benevolent Society in New Orleans
On March 14, 1843, after four years of preliminary incorporation, the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans (French Benevolent and Mutual Aid Society of New Orleans) was formally established with twenty-seven members.  In its own words, the society formed as a result of increasing Americanization of the French colonial city after the Louisiana Purchase and into the Antebellum Era.  The Sociètè Française was the first of many organizations in New Orleans with the aim of preserving French language and identity among its members.
 
The Sociètè in New Orleans crafted their organization in the image of fraternal and masonic organizations in France, exemplified by the Grand Orient de France.[2]  Similar values were emphasized:  brotherhood, charity, social solidarity, and citizenship.  The French model of freemasonry also emphasized laicity, or secularism. 
 
Among the founding members of the Sociètè in 1843 was a man who himself embodied the political nature of French freemasonry.  Pierre Soulé (1801 – 1870) a French native and revolutionary who settled in New Orleans in the 1830s, shaped the early goals and tone of the Sociètè.  However, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1847 and thus truncated his involvement.  In this year, the Sociètè merged with the French Consulate.
 
Minute books and histories of the Sociètè suggest that after Soulé’s departure, the political aims of the organization were abbreviated in favor of a charitable and social mission.[3]  The Sociètè would come to be known for many things – its Bastille Day celebrations, its protection of the French language, its role as the French consulate for some time – but it was likely best known for its Hospital, which was an institution for over a century.

Tomb of Pierre Soulé, St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. Photo by Emily Ford.

French Hospital
In the same year as the Sociètè’s founding, a French visitor to New Orleans donated thirty thousand bricks for the construction of a place in which the members could gather.  The material was used to build the first French Hospital on Bayou Road near North Robertson Street, described by historians as “a center-hall, gable-sided, double galleried residence.[4]”  The hospital, or Asile de la Société Française, cared for Sociètè members and their families.  From 1847 to the early 1860s, the organization weathered multiple yellow fever epidemics in which as much as half of the membership was hospitalized.[5]
 
In the early 1860s, the Hospital moved to St. Ann Street, a property donated by then-President Olivier Blineau.  Blineau died shortly thereafter and was given the posthumous title of “Father of the French Society.” 
 
Originally meant only for society members, French Hospital was opened to all sailors of the French fleet in November 1862, in the event that an illness may require a stay on land.[6]  With few exceptions, the Hospital was expressly for the use of members, their families, and those sponsored by members until 1913.
 
In 1913, French Hospital expanded under the decision that “it was finally decided to build a clinic to treat strangers.[7]”  Over the next thirty years, the Hospital would include a maternity ward, modern X-ray machines, and operation rooms.  The original 1913 building became a well-known edifice on Orleans Street near Claiborne Avenue.[8]

French Hospital, Orleans Avenue, 1937. Photograph by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (Library of Congress)

Tombs and Burial Benefits
Throughout New Orleans history, it was common for societies to form around commonalities of nationality, profession, or background.  Most societies would provide benefits similar to those provided by fraternal orders or by modern-day insurance companies.  Among these benefits was frequently the option of burial in a society tomb, as well as funereal benefits for survivors.
 
The Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans spared little time in establishing a society tomb for itself.  On March 14, 1850, the Sociètè acquired a large lot in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 on Basin Street with the financial aid of the French Consul, M’r Roger.  By August of the next year, the first stone of the tomb was laid at a formal ceremony.  Beneath this stone, Sociètè officers laid a lead box, in which a copy of the organization’s Constitution, and parchment containing “the names of the President, members of the Consulate, and all members of the society” were placed.[9]
 
The Classically-inspired tomb with an intricate sarcophagus at its apex was completed in the following years.  In the early 1850s, the size of the tomb would have overwhelmed the landscape of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.  The similarly-imposing Italian Benevolent Society tomb would not be built until 1857.  The cross-gable roof of the tomb supported four cast-iron lamps (now missing), in addition to its large sarcophagus, giving it the appearance of a temple.  Each corner of the tomb featured an upright torch fashioned of cast plaster.  In historic photographs of the tomb, these torches were painted black.[10]

Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans tomb, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, 1890. Photo by Detroit Publishing Company (Library of Congress)

In 1853 and 1856, President Blineau donated two additional lots in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 to the Sociètè.  Either one of these donations may have been for the purpose of building an addition to the tomb.  As is visible in the 1895 Library of Congress photograph, a smaller structure was built to adjoin the original tomb, comprised of fifteen vaults.  This expanded the Sociètè’s burial capacity to seventy vaults, all of which could be reused over time.[11]
 
Possibly as a result of a yellow fever epidemic in that year, rumors flew in 1867 that St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 would be permanently closed.  In response, the directors of the Sociètè organized a picnic fundraiser to construct a new tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3.  The nearly $1,000 raised was utilized for the purchase of a lot, which was donated to the Sociètè. 
 
Mentions in Sociètè records as well as newspaper resources suggest that a society tomb was in fact built in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 for the use of the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans.  However, no tomb today bears the society name. 

Aisle in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3. Photo by Emily Ford.

The Sociètè maintained and repaired their tombs regularly, as was (and is) necessary with New Orleans tomb structures.  In 1897 alone, the organization set aside nearly $500 por le fonds du Tombeau.[12]  Regular limewashing, painting of plaster elements, cleaning of lamps and urns, and filling inscriptions with copper-based paint were annual expenses that contributed to the well-kept, beautiful structure seen in the 1895 Library of Congress photograph above.
 
Funeral expenses were also part of member benefits.  In an 1897 annual report, the Sociètè outlined these benefits specifically, including:

• For adult burials:  Imitation walnut or rosewood coffin, a hearse, and two first-class carriages.
• For teenagers:  A white coffin, a white hearse, and one carriage.
• Obituary listings in the newspaper for members and widows of members.

 
A Sister Society in Jefferson
As the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans flourished through the 1850s and 1860s, an additional population of French-speaking people in what was then the City of Jefferson organized their own benevolent society.
 
In the 1850s, the City of New Orleans was much smaller, and bounded on its upriver side by the Faubourg St. Mary and, farther upriver, the City of Lafayette.  Over the course of the nineteenth century, New Orleans successively incorporated these municipalities into itself, creating the modern landscape of the city.

1851 Birds-Eye view of New Orleans (detail), showing Uptown districts, including then-Jefferson City, Tchoupitoulas Street at the River, and St. Mary's Market. Painting by John Bachmann (Library of Congress).

Between modern-day Toledano and Joseph Streets, and bounded on the downriver side by the former City of Lafayette, the City of Jefferson was incorporated in 1850.  Comprised of the Faubourgs Plaisance, Delassize, Bouligny, and others, the city would only remain independent for twenty years before being incorporated into the larger City of New Orleans.[13]  It was here that the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Jefferson formed in 1868.
 
The French speakers who lived Jefferson Parish and formed the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Jefferson were in many ways similar to their counterparts in New Orleans proper.  In fact, in many cases they were related.  Members of the Tujague and Carerre families joined and served as officers in both societies.  Members of each group were often natives of the same departments in France, primarily the Pyrenees and Gers.  Many had family in St. Bernard Parish as well as Orleans and Jefferson.[14]
 
The Jefferson Sociètè was comprised of men who lived with their families “near the slaughterhouses,” or who lived on Tchoupitoulas, or near the St. Mary’s Market.  They collaborated with and shared members with the Sociètè de Bienfaisance des Bouchers (the Butcher’s Society) who in 1873 brought the famous Slaughterhouse Case to the Supreme Court.  A number of Jefferson Sociètè members were buried in the Butcher’s tomb in Lafayette Cemetery No. 2. 

Interior of the Butchers' Benevolent Society tomb, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, September 2014. Photograph by Emily Ford.

The Jefferson Sociètè built its large, Classically-inspired, forty-vault tomb in Lafayette Cemetery No. 2 around 1872.  The tomb is of extraordinary height, particularly in the landscape of this cemetery.  Its primary gable pediment was carved with the name of the society, which once read “Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Ville de Jefferson,” although the “de la Ville de Jefferson” portion of the inscription appears to have been chiseled away after 1900.  Below the pediment are stucco dentils, and on each side are cast-iron florets which likely cover structural tie-rods.

Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Ville de Jefferson tomb, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, May 2016. Photo by Emily Ford.

Evidence of terra-cotta pigmented finish on tomb wall.

French Society of Jefferson tomb, Lafayette Cemetery No. 2, oblique view. Photos by Emily Ford.

Evidence of blue-pigmented finish on now-empty sculptural niche.

The tomb has a number of unique additional features.  On each side of its primary façade are niches which were once painted a brilliant Prussian blue, a historic pigment made with iron oxide.  In each of these niches were marble statues of kneeling women, one of which had her hands raised in prayer, the other’s hands were crossed on her chest.  Both of these statues were stolen between the 1950s and 1980s.
 
The tombs gable-roof side projections hold most of its burial vaults, each enclosed in marble tablets and divided by slate slabs.  All tablets of this tomb are uninscribed, leaving the names of those buried within to mystery until the recent transcription of burial books – which revealed the names of at least 150 people buried in this tomb between 1872 and 1900.
 
The Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Jefferson participated in the celebrations of a number of French societies in the city.  In addition to the New Orleans Sociètè, the Jefferson Sociètè was frequently documented in relationship with the Fourteenth of July Society and the Children of France. 
 
1900:  Merging of the Societies
By 1896, at its twenty-seventh anniversary, the Jefferson Sociètè had “fifty or sixty” members – a roster that the Daily Picayune regarded as “not quite so large a membership now as at other times in its history.”[15]  Officers from the Butcher’s Society and the New Orleans Sociètè, the French Orpheon, and the Fourteenth of July Society raised glasses of wine to the Jefferson officers B. Tujague, O.M. Redon, F. Desschautreaux, T. Abadie, and M. Despaux – most of whom would eventually be buried in the Lafayette Cemetery No. 2 society tomb.
 
It was only four years later that the dwindling numbers of the Jefferson Sociètè merged with their older counterparts at the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans.  The merger was completed on January 3, 1901, which records report “brought 41 new members to the society.  It also brought to the Society a tomb of forty vaults, nearly new, located in Lafayette Cemetery No. 2.”[16]
 
The New Orleans Sociètè had merged with other organizations before, beginning with the French Consulate in 1847.  In 1895, they also absorbed the Philanthropic Culinary Society of New Orleans, who brought with them an additional burial place:  a five-vault tomb located in St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery on Louisa Street.[17]
 
A Centennial Celebration and Gradual Decline
While the New Orleans Sociètè had gained the members of its Jefferson counterpart, its own members were dwindling.  This was the case for many benevolent societies in New Orleans after the 1930s.  As the need for private hospitals waned, so did French Hospital.  In the case of other societies who supported other causes such as orphanages or schools, the need for their ministries decreased with the rise of social services.  As insurance corporations developed, private societies no longer fulfilled a necessity.  For the French society, decreased interest in the French language likely took a toll, as the New Orleans Sociètè operated exclusively in that language.
 
In 1943, the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans (and, by merger, de la Ville de Jefferson) celebrated its 100th Anniversary.[18]  A celebration was held at the French Hospital at 1821 Orleans Avenue, with a dance to follow at the American Legion.  The festivities appeared to hold true to the organization’s civic dedication.  French leader Andre Lefargue addressed the crowd with patriotic notions of the French and Americans once again fighting in a war together.  Appeals were made to the crowd to donate to the Red Cross for the war effort.  Nine French cadets training at the New Orleans Naval Air Station were special guests of honor.[19]
 
Said society president Henry Bernissan at the centennial celebration, “the first 100 years of the society is merely the initial performance.  We expect to improve our methods with every passing day.”[20]
 
Yet the Centennial pamphlet published by the society seemed to suggest a different prescience: 
 
The current charter does not expire until the year 1972.  Therefore, the Society has 29 years to run. 
 
It is hoped that the majority of the current members celebrating our centennial will prosper alongside the society until the end of its charter.[21]
 
On October 31, 1949, only six years after its centennial, the closure of French Hospital on Orleans Avenue was announced.[22]  The building was sold to the Knights of Peter Claver, an African-American Catholic Society, who utilized the building until the 1970s, when an adjacent structure was built.  The French Hospital/Peter Claverie Building was demolished in 1986.  The Knights of Peter Claver buiding remains on this site.
 
The exact year in which the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans formally disbanded is unclear.  Unlike their various balls, benefits, picnics and celebrations, this milestone in the organization’s history was not published in newspapers.  However, it does not appear as if the Sociètè survived to the end of its charter in 1972.  In a 1972 newspaper article, a passing reference was made to the Sociètè, “which for many years maintained the old French hospital on Orleans Street.  The French Society folded a number of years ago.”[23]

Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans tomb, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, present day. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Infrogmation.

A Legacy of Burial Places
Physical evidence of the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle is scant in the landscape of modern New Orleans – except for in the cemetery.  Each day, hundreds of visitors pass the Sociètè Française tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.  Without its cast-iron lamps and jet-black torches, it fades into the cemetery scene a little more than it once did, but it remains.
 
For the more than 150 people buried in the Sociètè Française de Jefferson tomb in Lafayette Cemetery No. 2, that memory is much more tenuous.  A number of trees that began growing in the tomb roof in the 1940s were cut down only this year, leaving a structure in significant need of repair.  The brilliant colors of the blue tomb niches, the contrast of its white walls against black slate, its green copper drain pipes, have all faded to flat greys and exposed brick.  Without names on the tomb tablets, it has been difficult for families to realize their ancestors are buried within.  Yet with this project it is our hope that new resources will supply stakeholders with important information with which to regrow a connection to this remarkable structure, which represents more than a century of French fellowship in New Orleans. 
 
In our next blog post, we will share the lives of the people buried in this tomb in Lafayette Cemetery No. 2.
 
The full burial rolls of interments into this tomb from 1872 to 1900 (up to the society’s merger with Sociètè Française d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans) have been uploaded to FindaGrave, in hopes their descendants may find them.  The burial books are also available as an Excel Spreadsheet , ​MS Access Database, or PDF Document.  Click here for burials listed by vault number.

[1] Abrege Historique de la Societe Francaise d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, c. 1903, Williams Research Center, Historic New Orleans Collection.  This and nearly all documentation of the Jefferson and New Orleans societies are entirely written in French.  All translations by Emily Ford, who is by her own admission not fluent in French.  Difficult phrases are presented in their original French in [brackets].
[2] Founded in the 18th Century, the Grand Orient de France permitted female membership by 1773.  Documents of the Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Nouvelle Orléans and of Jefferson suggest that neither society permitted female membership at any time.
[3] Centenaire:  Societe Francaise de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, 1843-1943, published 1943 by the Sociètè, 9. Louisiana State University Special Collections, MSS 318, 1012.
[4] Roulhac Toledano, Mary Louise Christovich, and Robin Derbes, New Orleans Architecture:  Faubourg Tremé and the Bayou Road (Gretna:  Friends of the Cabildo, 2003), 82.
[5] Centenaire:  Societe Francaise de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, 1843-1943, 19-21.
[6] Ibid., 21.
[7] Ibid., 39.
[8] “New French Hospital Dedicated Yesterday,” Times-Picayune, February 24, 1913, 13.
[9] Ibid., 15.
[10] Leonard Victor Huber, Peggy McDowell, Mary Louise Christovich, New Orleans Architecture, Vol. III:  The Cemeteries (Gretna:  Pelican Publishing, 2004), 9.
​[11] Centenaire:  Societe Francaise de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, 1843-1943, 19.
[12] “Societe Francaise de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, Rapport annuel, 1897,” Williams Research Center, Historic New Orleans Collection.
​[13] Richard Campanella, Bienville’s Dilemma:  A Historical Geography of New Orleans (Lafayette:  University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2008), 290.
[14] From the records of Sociètè Française de Beinfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de Jefferson burial books, Louisiana State University Special Collections.
[15] “The Old Jefferson Society Celebrates its 27th Birthday,” Daily Picayune, November 16, 1896, 10.
[16] Centenaire:  Societe Francaise de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, 1843-1943, 37.
[17] Ibid., 35.
[18] “French Unit Will Fete Centennial,” Times-Picayune, March 14, 1943, 11.
[19] “Society Marks Centennial Day,” Times Picayune, March 15, 1943, 25.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Centenaire:  Societe Francaise de Bienfaisance et d’Assistance Mutuelle de la Nouvelle-Orleans, 1843-1943, 51.
[22] “25 years ago,” Times-Picayune, October 17, 1974, 19.
[23]  Times Picayune, September 24, 1972, 6.