Francois Cantagrel

Sources: Foster, DMN 1906, Boyer, Sandell, Wolski
Notes: led the Dec 1854 advance party that contracted the colony tracts (colonists.py — which names him 'Felix'; reconcile with 'Francois')

Positions

director, Société de Réunion — 1855-08-07 – 1856-07-06 (named) [savardan; cordillot] withdrew a first resignation 7 May 1856; resigned for good 6 July
European agent, the new society of 1861 — 1861 (named) [cordillot]
municipal councillor, 13e arrondissement, City of Paris — c. 1875 (elected) [cordillot]
deputy, French Chamber of Deputies — 1876 (elected) [kagay n60] Dallas named a street for him, misspelled (Dallas Herald 6 May 1876)

Land

1855-04-16: Enoch Horton → EACS (via Cantagrel) (320 ac, Enoch Horton)
1855-05-09: LG Coombs & MA Coombs → EACS (via Cantagrel) (640 ac, LG Coombs)
1855-09-13: Anson McCracken & Mahala McCracken → EACS (via Cantagrel) (640 ac, Anson McCracken)
1855-11-03: James Sheppard & Sulvina Sheppard → EACS (via Cantagrel) (640 ac, TV Griffin)
1855: ? → EACS (via Cantagrel) (160 ac, JC Reed)
1856-08-01: F. Cantagrel → V. Considerant (None ac, multiple (Horton, Coombs, McCracken, Griffin, Reed))
1875: EACS → François Cantagrel (None ac, )

Biography

Francois Cantagrel


Name
  Canonical: Francois Cantagrel
  Full: Francois Jean Felix Cantagrel
  Also: Cantegrel (Sandell)

Birth: June 27, 1810, Amboise (Indre-et-Loire), France
Death: February 27, 1887, Paris
Burial: unknown

Origin: Amboise. Trained as an architect, attached to the Paris roads
  department (voirie).

Family
  Wife: Josephine Cantagrel nee Conrad (Cordillot's appendix); gave birth
    to a daughter during the October 1854 crossing; joined him at Reunion
    May 30, 1855, arriving with Considerant
  Josephine Cantagrel, "the Director's young daughter," is among the
    unmarked burials Santerre names at the colony cemetery.

Before the colony
  - June 13, 1849: took an active part in the Montagne insurrection; fled
    to Belgium, then England; coordinated the Ecole societaire's
    propaganda from exile
  - With Considerant drafted the statutes of the future colony

Ship / arrival: led the first group of colonists, sailing October 3, 1854
  (Cordillot: from Ostend; Santerre and Hammond: leaving Brussels that
  day). New York October 27. Tried for an interview with President Pierce
  at Washington, then rode with John Allen via Cincinnati, picking up the
  volunteers who formed the first nucleus. Dallas December 29, 1854
  (TIMELINE 1854.12.??; Hammond has him still en route in February).

Colony role
  - Bought the land for the SCEAT: first purchases February 1855; the
    "Houston farm" in March as a nursery/way-station; early March settled
    at Reunion with Dr Roger and eleven others to prepare for the groups
    announced
  - Director of the Societe de Reunion, constituted August 7, 1855, to run
    the Dallas domain; sat on its board, reported to the Brussels
    management; in Considerant's absences carried the colony
  - Resigned as director July 6, 1856, no longer on terms with Considerant
    and, per Savardan, the target of Roger's and Cousin's hostility;
    left for Europe August 3, 1856; in Brussels by December

Post-colony
  - Neuchatel: edited the republican L'Impartial until the 1859 amnesty
    reopened France
  - European agent of the new society created in 1861
  - Cooperative movement: provisional supervisory board of the Imprimerie
    nouvelle, 1866
  - 1875: bought the lands still belonging to the SCEAT at their
    liquidation, by then one of the most influential Paris municipal
    councillors (13e arrondissement); later a deputy (TIMELINE dispersal
    layer)

Land
  Grantee "EACS (via Cantagrel)" on the founding deeds: Horton 320 ac
  (E/3, April 16, 1855), Coombs 640 ac (E/22, May 9, 1855), McCracken 640
  ac (E/131, September 13, 1855), Griffin (E/170, November 3, 1855; 640 ac
  on the deed, 320 in Sandell) and the undocumented Reed 160.
  August 1, 1856: conveyed the colony lands to Considerant.
  1875: bought the remaining SCEAT lands (Cordillot); Sandell has him
  "authorized to sell the last of the colony assets" that year -- buyer
  or agent, to be checked against the deed record.

Sources
  Cordillot, "Cantagrel Francois, Jean, Felix," Au Texas (2003)
  Dictionnaire biographique du fourierisme notice (doc/text/biographies/
    cantagrel_francois_884.md, FR and EN)
  Savardan, Un naufrage au Texas (1858)
  Sandell, colonist directory and ch. I-II
  deeds.py: founding purchases; 1856-08-01; 1875
  TIMELINE.md: 1854.10.03 through 1856.08.03; 1875.??

Notes
  Cantagrel bought the land and, twenty years later, bought what was left
  of it: the one man at both ends of the corporate chain. His arrival
  date (December 29, 1854, per Cordillot) is the key to the land-purchase
  chronology; Burkli's "Hiobspost" letter of that December, reporting the
  railroad reservation, is what he wrote on arriving.

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