Leon Godchaux (June 10, 1824 – May 18, 1899) was a French-born American businessman, planter, sugar plantation owner and the founder of the Leon Godchaux Clothing Co. department store and Godchaux Sugars Inc.. He lived in Louisiana, where the "largest sugar plantations" were "the Calumet, and those owned by Leon Godchaux, 'The Sugar King of the South.'"

Biography

Born to a

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family in Herbéviller region of Lorraine

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, Godchaux immigrated to the United States in 1837. In 1845, he founded the Leon Godchaux Clothing Co., a department store that anchored Canal Street in New Orleans for years to come. He then purchased the town of Bonnet Carre in St. John the Baptist Parish and changed its name to Reserve. The town of Reserve went on to become the home of the largest

sugar refinery A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar. Cane sugar mills traditionally produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it color ...

in the United States, fed by his twelve sugar cane plantations across southeast Louisiana. Godchaux–Reserve Plantation was one of his twelve plantations, located in Reserve, Louisiana and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

(NRHP). He achieved business success in his home state; according to the ''Hawaiinan Planter's Monthly'', with "a first class crop and many outside offerings, there is no doubt that Raceland refinery will beat the record this season, thus placing Leon Godchaux at the head of the list of sugar producers of this State and give to him the title" 'the Sugar King of Louisiana.' By the time of his death in 1899, he owned 30,000 acres of sugar cane fields which annually produced 27 million pounds of refined

white sugar White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process. It is nearly pure sucrose. Description The refini ...

. He was a multimillionaire thanks to the profits from his sugar empire and his department store in New Orleans." In 1975, he was honored on a Mardi Gras doubloon as a "great man of Louisiana."Se
here
for images of the doubloons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godchaux, Leon 1824 births 1899 deaths Businesspeople from Louisiana 19th-century American Jews 19th-century American planters American people of French-Jewish descent People from Reserve, Louisiana Confederate Jews Jews from Louisiana French emigrants to the United States

Biography

See also

References