Lucien Bourgeois (Bourgouis, Bourghois)

Occupation

interpreter

Origin

Paris, France

Sources

Santerre, Foster, DMN 1906, Sandell

Notes

Bourgeois in Cordillot and Sandell, Bourghois in the 1860 census (Lancaster precinct, farmer, wife Louisa born Massachusetts); Santerre's Bourgouis kept as a variant

Biography

Lucien Bourgeois


Name
  Canonical: Lucien Bourgeois
  Also: Lucien Bourgouis (Santerre's list); L. Bourghois (1860 census); Luc
    Bourgeois (Sandell); Mr. Burgois (DMN 1906); "Borgouise" (Santerre, ch. VI)

Birth: Paris, date unknown
Death: Dallas, date unknown; buried in the old city cemetery beside his
  wife Louisa, who died in 1885 (Cordillot)

Origin: Paris; a tailor by trade who emigrated to the United States at an
  unknown date and, speaking several languages, worked as an interpreter
  for the French government

Family
  Wife: Louisa (Cordillot's appendix: "Mme Bourgeois Sarah, Louisa")

Occupation at colony: interpreter (Santerre's list agrees)
Occupation in Dallas: farmer (Sandell)

Ship / arrival: none -- he was already in Dallas when Considerant first
  passed through in 1853. Santerre has him, with John Allen, meeting
  Cantagrel at New York in October 1854.

Colony role
  - 1855: appears to have helped Cantagrel buy the colony land and prepare
    for the first arrivals
  - Not a Fourierist (perhaps, like Gouhenant, a former Cabetist), but a
    founding shareholder of the Societe de Reunion
  - He and Louisa joined the colony for a time in 1856; his English made
    him the colonists' interpreter

Post-colony
  - 1860: still in Dallas with his wife
  - Sandell: he and Louisa were among the few original colonists who spoke
    English on arrival

Land
  1867 town register: L. Bourgeois, lots 7 and 8, block 5 1/2, and lot H2,
  block 34 -- three town lots in the year's assessor list.

Sources
  Cordillot, "Bourgeois Lucien," Au Texas (2003)
  Sandell, colonist directory
  Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list; ch. VI
  deeds.py: 1867 town register

Notes
  Bourgeois is the colony's local fixer: a Frenchman already on the ground,
  not a believer, useful for his English and his contacts. That a
  non-Fourierist held founding shares in the Societe de Reunion says
  something about how the Texas company was actually assembled.

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