Birth record: Cassard, Alice (Adrien and Aglae Materre) female,
white,
born 9/20/1859
[Orleans Parish Birth Record Index: Volume #50, Page
#142].
Gautier Family Tomb: 1861 - Alice Cassard Gautier - 1933
[St. Louis
Cemetery #2, between Conti and Bienville Streets -- St. Paul's Aisle #2,
Tomb
#13 {Index: STL#2, Square #2, Isle #2, East}]
Noted living with husband [Samuel Gautier] in 1900 Federal Census: Orleans Parish, Louisiana -- Roll T623/572, Image #437, Enumeration District #57, Precinct #3, New Orleans, Ward #6, Sheet #7A, House #102, Family #131 (Esplanade St.), enumerated Jun 6, 1900, by James Sanchez.
Noted living with husband [Samuel Gautier] in 1910 Federal Census: Orleans Parish, Louisiana -- Roll T624/521, Images #771/#772, Enumeration District #92, Precinct #3, New Orleans, Ward #6, Sheets #5B & 6A, House #66, Family #95 (Esplanade St.), enumerated April 19, 1910, by Gaston Cazenavette.
Noted living with daughter and son-in-law [Paul and Lilian Hanemann] in 1920 Federal Census: Orleans Parish, Louisiana -- Roll T625/621, Image #725, Enumeration District #127, Precinct #12, New Olreans City, Ward #7, Sheet #20A, House #403, Family #412, enumerated January 20, 1920, by Mrs. Julia H. Tooraeu.
Found: Herbert Parker recalls: "[Alice] Cassard was born at the old
Cassard Plantation home down river near the present American Sugar Refinery.
A
picture of this home we distributed for Christmas Cards a few years ago. As
a
teenage girl she was sent to Paris for her musical education and her
repertoire
after three years abroad included the soprano roles in no less than twelve
complete operas. Of course, as the daughter of a good family, she was not
expected in those days to use her voice professionally. During her years in
Paris, she lived with Madam Destez, her aunt, who was a sister to her mother
[Aglaee Materre]. "Most of her married life was spent at 938 Esplanade Ave.,
and it was here, after her four children were born, that she was stricken at
only 33 years old with inflammatory rheumatism which crippled her all the
rest
of her life. She lived for 16 years after her husband's death in 1917,
spending
the time with her son and daughters. "How well I remember the two-hour
dinners
on Sundays---ten courses with three or four wines---no hard liquors. Many
times
other guests were Mrs. Wood, the mother of the famous engineer, A. Baldwin
Wood, and Mrs. Jumonville. These two ladies were sisters of Mrs. Baldwin,
wife
of a famous merchant and banker at the time. The three sisters were
Boulougneys, a prominent French family. It was said of Alice Gautier that
she
had never been in her kitchen but she could surely order some famous meals.
"Ines [Gautier Parker] speaks of her [mother's] gentle but firm control of
her
four small children. The girls were taught to sew at an early age and when
they
were bad they were fastened to their chairs with a single strand of thread.
And
they did not dare to break the thread. [Alice Cassard] lived until the
beginning of the auto age and one of the first Chalmers was parked in the
barn
facing Burgundy, back of the house."
(Compiled by Herbert and Ines
Gautier
Parker about 1965)
[Note: A. Baldwin Wood designed the pumps and
drainage
system that allows the citizens of New Orleans to remain high and dry (for
the
most part, at least) in that below-sea-level setting. The system is still
today
recognized as a marvel of hydraulic engineering. GHM]