Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Company, the National Rice Milling Company, the New Orleans Waterworks Company, and the
Sun Life Insurance Company.
Not surprisingly, Baldwin was preeminent in the social world of New Orleans. At one point his
charming personality and wit had made him a member of every prominent club in the city. Among
them, he co-founded the School of Design (Rex Organization), reigning over Carnival as Rex in
1876. He became an active sailor on Lake Pontchartrain and served as Commodore of the Southern
Yacht Club. 2 He eventually established an estate on the North Shore of the lake, which his family
inherited. An Episcopalian who was generous to the needy throughout his career, Baldwin in his
will made bequests to Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish charities. 3 His important grandson Albert
Baldwin Wood (q.v.) was likewise a devoted sailor.
1 Fontaine Martin, A History of the Bouligny Family and Allied Families (Lafayette, LA., 1990), 254-55.
2 New Orleans Item, April 22, 1912; The Times-Picayune, April 22, 1912.
3 Martin, Bouligny Family, 256.
I SIDORE
N EWMAN
(1837-1909)
Isidore Newman made his fortune in banking and street railways rather than in land, using his wealth
to endow a series of charitable and educational causes. As did John McDonogh, Thomy Lafon, and Judah
Touro before him, Newman gave generously to the needy of many faiths, including all orphan asylums,
the Home for Incurables, Touro Infirmary, and the Jewish Children’s Home. After the turn of the twentieth
century, Newman decided that the most important educational tool that poor children needed was manual
training, which led him, in 1901, to found Isidore Newman Manual Training School. After more than
a century of growth, it survives today in evolved form as Isidore Newman School.
Newman came to Louisiana from Bavaria in Germany in 1854. Nothing is known of his education.
From early in his career he demonstrated a keen speculative sense. During the 1870s he saw
an opportunity in the depreciation of State of Louisiana notes. The Panic of 1873 had forced the
state to issue script to its employees. As one of the few investors with cash at the time, Newman purchased
many of these rapidly depreciating notes from needy state workers. Over the next few years
the finances of both state and city strengthened, permitting both the state and the city to honor their
obligations. Their notes and bonds gradually rose in value, yielding Newman a fine profit.
Newman made his investments through a private bank, Isidore Newman and Son. During the 1890s,
it successfully invested in the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, making it profitable. Newman then
invested in street railways across the South, including railways in Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis,
Little Rock and Houston. During the 1890s he consolidated all of his street railway companies into the
American Cities Railway and Light Company, later incorporated into New Orleans Public Service, Inc.
Newman’s impact on New Orleans shopping was equally memorable. In 1897, he refinanced
and rebuilt the Maison Blanche Department Store, turning the property over to his son-in-law
Simon Schwartz and Mark Isaacs. It was then, during those closing years of the nineteenth century,
that an enduring competition between Maison Blanche and D. H. Holmes (q.v.) began.
Unlike some earlier philanthropists, Newman was no recluse. He married Rebecca Keifer with
whom he had seven children, three boys and four girls. The boys joined Newman’s firm and then
branched out. A son became president of the New Orleans Stock Exchange; daughter Marie married
architect Emile Weil. Another daughter married wood products manufacturer S. T. Alcus.
In 1903, Newman received the Times-Picayune Loving Cup, the second in what became a prestigious
series. At the time, a reporter caught this quotation: “Why, don’t you know that a good Jew
must be a good Christian, and to be a good Christian you must be a good Jew!
Above: Albert Baldwin.
THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION, GIFT OF THE
CHILDREN OF ALMA BALDWIN DENÈGRE: GEORGE
DENÈGRE, CAPTAIN THOMAS BAYNE DENÈGRE U. S. N.
Below: Isidore Newman.
FROM "THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF NEW ORLEANS," BY
IRWIN LACHOFF AND CATHERINA KAHN.
BIOGRAPHIES
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