Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Lacroix’s end was not so honorable,
although by 1870 his success in business
and real estate had made him a millionaire.
In 1874, after he consistently refused to
pay his property taxes, state officials auctioned
his property at a fraction of its value.
Lacroix died a pauper three years later.
According to The Daily Picayune’s report,
there were many opportunities for Lacroix
to have settled with the city, but he steadfastly
refused. Looking back, his apparent
paralysis could have been owing to the fate
of his sons. One was killed in 1866 in the
Mechanic’s Institute riot, and Lacroix disowned
the other after the son gambled
away $30,000 intended for the taxes. 4
Julien Colvis and Joseph Dumas, another
partnership, used their profits from tailoring
to purchase New Orleans real estate.
While still in their thirties, they owned
twenty-one houses in Tremé, five in the
French Quarter, three in the Marigny, eleven in the St. Mary Faubourg, and one in the town of
Mandeville. 5 During the 1850s Dumas moved to Europe but returned during the Civil War to claim his
property from the Federal government. His son Francis Dumas joined the Union army as a captain in
the Second Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards, earning a military decoration. After the war he
entered Reconstruction politics, running for Governor in 1868.
Billhead from Cordeviolle and Lacroix
Fashionable Store.
THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION, 1955.27.
1 Daily Picayune, November 21, 1843.
2 Daily Picayune, September 9, 1874.
3 New Orleans Tribune, October 13, 1865.
4 More information on François Lacroix is available on line at nutrias.org/exhibits/lacroix/intro.htm
5 Sally K. Reeves, Essay on free people of color, 2000. (unpublished).
N ORBERT
R ILLIEUX
(1806-1894)
The American Chemical Society recognized Norbert Rillieux as one of America’s great chemical
engineers, naming his “Multiple Effect Evaporator under Vacuum” as a National Historic Chemical
Landmark. Rillieux’ patents did much for the sugar industry, but his process has also had widespread
application in other industries. The 1844 invention decreases the pressure in the boiling
process of sugar and other commodities, the best method for lowering the temperature of all industrial
evaporation, saving large quantities of fuel. Rillieux’s principles are used even today to produce
condensed milk and freeze-dried foods.
Born in New Orleans in 1806, Norbert was sent to school in Paris. By the age of 24, he was an
instructor in applied mechanics at the Ecole Centrale in Paris. Around 1830, Rillieux published a
series of papers on steam engines and steam power before returning to Louisiana, where he began
thinking about the problems of sugar making. About 1844 he began fabricating his first “Rillieux
steam process” and by 1850 fourteen major Louisiana plantations were employing it. It soon became
BIOGRAPHIES
45