Harvey Andrew Peltier Sr. (October 20, 1899 – November 12, 1977), was an attorney,

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

er,

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

man,

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

grower,

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

man, champion

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

breeder, and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

from

Thibodaux, Louisiana Thibodaux ( ) is a city in and the parish seat of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in the northwestern part of the parish. The population was 15,948 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Thib ...

, who was a campaign manager of

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

and

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Huey Pierce Long, Jr.

Political life

From 1924 to 1929, Peltier was a Democratic member of the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (; ) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 representatives, each of whom represents approximately 4 ...

from his native

Lafourche Parish Lafourche Parish () is a parish located in the south of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Thibodaux. The parish was formed in 1807. It was originally the northern part of Lafourche Interior Parish, which consisted of the present ...

. He was a

state senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

from Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes from 1930 to 1940. During the 1960s, Peltier served on the since disbanded Louisiana State Board of Education as the elected member designated for

Louisiana's 3rd congressional district Louisiana's 3rd congressional district is a United States congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district covers the southwestern and south central portion of the state, ranging from the Texas border to the Atchafalaya Rive ...

. In the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

held on November 8, 1966, Peltier defeated for the state board a Republican candidate, businessman Charles deGravelles, a native of Morgan City residing in Lafayette who subsequently served from 1968 to 1972 as the state

GOP The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a right-wing political party in the United States. One of the two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the tw ...

party chairman. Peltier polled 44,413 votes (64.7 percent) to deGravelles' 24,236 votes (35.3 percent). In that same election Hall Lyons, a Lafayette oilman and the younger son of Louisiana Republican state chairman Charlton Lyons, failed to unseat veteran

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Edwin E. Willis for the Third District House seat.

Bill Dodd William Joseph Dodd (November 25, 1909 – November 16, 1991) was an American politician who held five positions in the Louisiana state government in the mid-20th century, including state representative, lieutenant governor, state auditor, pr ...

was then the education superintendent, a position now appointed by the governor, and the then 11-member state board was all-Democratic. In September 1966, while running for the state education board, Peltier told an interviewer:

I'm 66 years young, and I guess I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades. I mean I go to my office every day. I have a lot of things going for me. I may have less money than some people, but I have more nerve than most.

Family background

The eighth of nine children, Peltier was the son of a

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

couple, Ozeme Euzelien Peltier and the former Heloise Odelia Cancienne. His mother died before his tenth birthday. Ozeme Peltier then married the former Celeste Marie Lenain, who had previously been married to Louis Oleus Gaubert. Peltier and his wife, the former May Ayo, had four children. Harvey Peltier Jr., like his father, served in the Louisiana State Senate from the Lafourche/Terrebonne constituency. His tenure was from 1964 to 1976. From 1975 to 1980, Peltier Jr., was the first president of the trustees of the

University of Louisiana System The University of Louisiana System (UL System) is a public university system in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It enrolls more students than the other three public university systems in the state; as of October 2023, it claims more than 91,500 st ...

, a successor education board of the one on which his father had served. The other Peltier children include Bernice P. Harang, James R. Peltier Sr. (1930-May 22, 2020), a Thibodaux oral surgeon, a founder and president of the Louisiana Society of Oral Surgeons, and member of the "good government" groups the Public Affairs Research Council and the Council for a Better Louisiana, Donald Louis Peltier (1926-2008), and Richard Benton Peltier (1938-2007). Peltier's son-in-law, Warren Harang, Jr. (1921-2005), was a former president of the Thibodaux

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

and the American Sugar Cane League, a member of the Lafourche Parish School Board, and the mayor of Thibodaux from 1968-1978, 1986-1990, and 1994-1998. Peltier died in 1977 at the age of seventy-eight. For his contribution to

Thoroughbred racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

, in 1994 Harvey Peltier was inducted into the

Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame The Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame was created in 1971 by the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to t ...

.Hall of Fame Members FINAL.pdf ''www.fairgroundsracecourse.com'' Fair Grounds Hall of Fame (120 members)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peltier, Harvey Sr. 1899 births 1977 deaths Louisiana lawyers American bankers Businesspeople from Louisiana Farmers from Louisiana Democratic Party Louisiana state senators Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives People from Thibodaux, Louisiana School board members in Louisiana Cajun people American racehorse owners and breeders Catholics from Louisiana 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature