ROMAN, Andrew Bienvenu,

 

ROMAN, Andrew Bienvenu, governor of Louisiana, was born in Opelousas, La., March 5, 1795, of Creole parentage. He was brought up on his father's sugar plantation in St. James parish and was graduated at St. Mary's college, Baltimore, Md., 1815. In 1816 he purchased a sugar plantation in St. James parish. He was a representative for St. James in the Louisiana legislature for several years after 1818, and was speaker of the house for four years. He was subsequently parish judge until 1830, and governor of the state, 1831–35. As governor he was instrumental in the founding of Jefferson college, the clearing of the water courses of the state for navigation, the draining of swamp lands and building levees, the incorporation of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, and the formation of a state agricultural society. He was again governor of the state, 1838–41; a member of the constitutional conventions of 1845 and 1852, and of the secession convention of 1861. He was one of the three provisional commissioners sent to Washington in 1861 to effect a peaceable separation of the states; refused to take the oath of allegiance to protect his property when Louisiana fell into the hands of the Federal army, and after the war was recorder of deeds and mortgages in New Orleans. He died suddenly on Dumaine street, New Orleans, Jan. 26, 1866.
 


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