Athanase Cretien
- Occupation
- designer
- Origin
- Monnes, France
- Sources
- Santerre, Foster, DMN 1906, Boyer, Sandell
Positions
- consultative commission, Société de Réunion — 1857-02-03 – 1857-03 (named) [cordillot]
- exempted from active service as a French citizen, Confederate conscription — 1862 (exempted) [cordillot; kagay] the general exemption for un-naturalized foreigners, late 1861 (kagay)
- member (probable), AIT Section 46, Dallas — 1872 – 1876 (member) [cordillot] 'vraisemblablement'; the 1875-76 correspondence is certain
From the register of positions.
Land
- 1872-10-22: S.H. Cockrell → A. Cretein (7 ac, )
Biography
Athanase Cretien
Name
Canonical: Athanase Cretien
French: Athanase Cretien
Also: Cretein, Cretin (Sandell); Mr. Cretien (DMN 1906)
Birth: Monnes (Aisne), France; date unknown
Death: 1896, Dallas
Burial: Oak Cliff Cemetery
Origin: Monnes, in the Aisne. After military service trained as a
currier (corroyeur), specializing in collars and harness.
Family
Wife: Justine-Marie Cretien nee Guillios (Cordillot's appendix); came
with him in 1856
Sons: George Cretien (whose interview via W.S. Adair is Sandell's
source for the 1860 fire), Emil Cretien (d. April 15, 1931)
Occupation at colony: made spinning wheels, then set up a tannery that
produced harness and children's shoes. Santerre's list says "designer";
Sandell "carpenter / hide tanner," adding that he trained as a
metallurgist in Europe.
Occupation in Dallas: builder -- Sandell credits him with using the metal
skill in construction; the 1860 fire is where his building business
starts (TIMELINE 1860.07.18)
Ship / arrival: left France with his wife in 1856 for Galveston; reached
Reunion May 10, 1856.
Colony role
- Salvaged old tools from the demolition of the first Dallas courthouse
and re-tempered them for the colonists
- February 3, 1857: named to the consultative commission supporting
Bureau
Post-colony
- Moved to Dallas at the dispersal
- Civil War: as a French citizen obtained exemption from active
Confederate service
- Probably a member of Section 46; in 1875-76 an abundant correspondence
with the French socialists of New York in the Bulletin de l'Union
republicaine, including a Fourierist profession of faith (March 17,
1875), his "Observations" of April 25, 1875 on the Galveston
socialists' agricultural-colony project (Cordillot, document 5 --
the detailed plan for a new colony), and probably the letter on the
proposed Statue of Liberty
- A cultivated man; his library was given to Southern Methodist
University
Land
October 22, 1872: S.H. Cockrell to "A. Cretein," 7 acres (Vol. R, p. 538).
1858 receivership: "Cretien" among the eight stockholding colonists who
took land at $4 an acre (Santerre, Sandell).
Sources
Cordillot, "Cretien Athanase," Au Texas (2003)
Cordillot, "Les derniers fourieristes," documents 3-5 and n. 22
Sandell, colonist directory; ch. III (the fire)
Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list
deeds.py: 1872-10-22
TIMELINE.md: 1858.??, 1860.07.18
Notes
Cretien rebuilt Dallas after the fire and, fifteen years later, wrote
the most concrete plan any colonist produced for doing the colony
again. The two facts belong together: the practical man and the
unreformed Fourierist were the same person, and his library went to a
university.