au texas

John B. Louckx

Occupation
architect
Origin
Louvain, Belgium
Sources
Santerre, Foster, DMN 1906, Boyer, Sandell, DMN 1903

Positions

From the register of positions.

Biography

John B. Louckx


Name
  Canonical: John B. Louckx
  Also: Louck (Cordillot); Louckn (Sandell); Mr. Louckx (DMN 1906)

Birth: February 10, 1829, Louvain (Leuven), Belgium
Death: 1920, aged 91
Burial: unknown

Origin: Louvain; graduate of its Academie des Beaux-Arts and school of
  architecture

Family
  Minnie Louckx died April 20, 1953 (DMN obituary)

Occupation at colony: in charge of the construction of the colony's
  buildings
Occupation in Dallas: builder and architect

Ship / arrival: left Antwerp on the Uriel "with 150 other adherents of
  Fourier" (Cordillot). The manifest, sworn at New York February 21,
  1855, lists about 211 aboard, of whom the five Louvain artisans were
  colony-bound (src/findings.md); Louckx himself has not yet been placed
  on it.

Colony role: elected to the board of the Societe de Reunion August 14,
  1855 (a week after its constitution)

Post-colony
  - Disappointed by Reunion, took part in the attempt at Mountain Creek
    (Goetsels's Louvain); discouraged by that failure too, enlisted for
    two years in the Confederate army (Santerre ch. XII: Co. F, Waller's
    Battalion)
  - After the war some time at Fort Worth, then Dallas
  - Built houses at the colony and then many Dallas buildings, among them
    the Catholic church -- Sacred Heart, 1884 (Sandell; TIMELINE 1884-1885)
  - 1884: on the first Dallas public school board; alderman, First Ward,
    1885 to 1889 (Cordillot) or 1890 (Sandell) -- the colony's last
    sustained civic presence
  - Freemason, several lodges

Sources
  Cordillot, "Louck (ou Louckx) John B.," Au Texas (2003)
  Sandell, colonist directory; ch. III-IV
  Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list; ch. XII
  Boyer, "The Story of the Old French Colony," DMN 15 June 1924 -- drew
    on Louckx personally
  TIMELINE.md: 1884-1885

Notes
  Louckx lived long enough to be a source: Louise Boyer's 1924 prize essay
  was written from his recollections, so the DMN-era picture of the colony
  is partly his. The architect who built the colony's houses and the
  city's church is the Belgian counterpart to Frichot.

Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County (1892), pp. 740-741
  His own sketch ("J. B. Loucks"): born Louvain 1829, eldest of three
  children of Peter Joseph and Theresa (Pirouet) Loucks; the father, a
  contractor, came to Texas in 1856, moved to Fort Worth in 1858 and died
  there in 1860. Carpenter and joiner. Came at 26 with the French colony,
  "first settling on the line of Tarrant County," the Mountain Creek
  settlement called New Louvain; Fort Worth; back to Dallas 1867. Enlisted
  1863, Co. F, Waller's Battalion, two years; after the war contracting in
  Mexico. Residence at William Tell and Floyd streets. "Alderman of the
  First Ward three terms, resigned on account of moving out of the ward;
  two terms as School Director" -- the April lists of 1885-1889 all carry
  him; 1890's does not. Tannehill Lodge No. 52, Knights of the Golden
  Rule; Catholic. Married 1867 at Weatherford Mary Desmet, daughter of
  Dr Henry Desmet -- the colony's second physician, Santerre's "Dr. Henri
  Dismet" -- who came with the colony in 1855; she died 1869; married 1870
  Louisa Tenison; four children. Signed the June 1868 memorial.
  doc/text/books/1800/lewis_memorial_dallas_county_1892/excerpts.md

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