Dr. Savardan
- Occupation
- author
- Origin
- La Chapelle-Gaugain, France
- Sources
- Santerre, Foster, DMN 1906, Boyer, Nuremberg #7, cabin, Wolski
Ship
- Nuremberg, Le Havre → New Orleans, sworn 21 April 1855 — #7, cabin, as
Savardan (Dr. Auguste), 60, Docteur
Positions
- board member; secretary and treasurer, Société de Réunion — 1855-08-07 – 1856-07-06 (elected) [savardan; cordillot] also physician and magistrate of the colony
- consultative commission, Société de Réunion — 1857-02-03 – 1857-03 (named) [cordillot]
- mayor of La Chapelle-Gaugain, Sarthe, France — c. 1858 – 1867 (elected) [cordillot]
From the register of positions.
Biography
Augustin Savardan
Name
Canonical: Dr. Savardan (registry, from Santerre)
Full: Dr Augustin Savardan; "Savardan (Dr. Auguste), 60, Docteur" on the
Nuremberg manifest
Also: Dr. Savardant (DMN 1906); De Savardan (Boyer)
Birth: 1792, La Chapelle-Gaugain (Sarthe), France. The manifest's age 60
in April 1855 would put the birth about 1795 -- minor conflict.
Death: 1867, at the chateau of La Chapelle-Gaugain
Burial: unknown
Origin: La Chapelle-Gaugain; medical faculty of Paris, doctor of
medicine; army doctor from 22 to 28. Fourierist popularizer,
contributor to La Democratie pacifique, author of propaganda
pamphlets; in the early 1830s worked with Laverdant on the Conde-
sur-Vesgre project, a rural asylum for foundlings.
Company role: elected secretary of the Societe de colonisation; a
shareholder; pressed Considerant that Reunion be authentically
Fourierist
Ship / arrival: Nuremberg, Le Havre February 28, 1855 (his book prints
"1853"), with 43 other volunteers and "a considerable material" --
cabin passenger #7. New Orleans April 21; Galveston, Houston; reached
the colony around July 17, 1855, "and not June 15 as he says in his
book" (Cordillot; TIMELINE 1855.07.17).
Colony role
- Physician: by his own accounts 228 patients in two years; also
magistrate, celebrating the marriages
- August 7, 1855: elected to the board of the Societe de Reunion, its
secretary and treasurer
- July 6, 1856: resigned all his responsibilities, with Cantagrel, in
protest at what he held to be Considerant's negligence -- which
hastened the management's decision to send out Bureau
- February 3, 1857: named to the consultative commission supporting
Bureau; Cousin abolished it after Bureau's departure
Post-colony
- Left Reunion shortly after mid-August 1857, disappointed and bitter;
a long circuit through Memphis, Chicago, Detroit and New York, where
he sailed October 4 on the Ariel; France October 21
- 1858: Un naufrage au Texas -- the eyewitness account with the minutes
in hand, and the page-by-page rebuttal of Du Texas
- Practised again at home; mayor of La Chapelle-Gaugain for many years;
lectured the farmers on hygiene, agriculture and social economy,
"always seeking practical paths of transition toward that fine order
of which Fourier's books had given [him] the notion"
Sources
Cordillot, "Savardan Augustin, Dr," Au Texas (2003)
Dictionnaire biographique du fourierisme notice (doc/text/biographies/
savardan_auguste_909.md, FR and EN)
Savardan, Un naufrage au Texas (1858), transcribed FR and EN in
doc/text/ (src/sources/savardan: dossier, timeline, notes)
Nuremberg passenger list, cabin #7 (doc/colonists/ships/nuremberg/roster.md)
Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list
TIMELINE.md: 1855.02.28, 1855.07.17, 1856.07.06, 1857.~autumn
Notes
The colony's doctor, secretary and diarist: the administrative insider
whose book leads the whole 1856-57 dissolution arc of the timeline.
His one big misdate -- his own arrival -- is the reminder that the best
witness is still a witness; Wolski and Cordillot correct him. Eloise
Santerre's 1936 translation is how Dallas read him.