Michel Thevenet

Occupation

banker

Origin

Paris, France

Sources

Santerre, Foster, DMN 1906, Cordillot

Positions

• receiver, SCEAT liquidation — 1858 – c. 1861 (appointed) [santerre XI; sandell II] Cordillot omits him and has Bessard appointed only after Bureau's death (1859)
• District Clerk, Dallas County — 1868-fall – 1870-03 (appointed) [sandell IV; brown1892] 'appointed District Clerk in the fall of 1868'; John M. Laws held district and county clerk from March 1870
• Alderman, Third Ward (long term), City of Dallas — 1872-11-08 – 1873-03-22 (elected) [sandell IV; brown1892] resigned in the charter dispute (Brown: April 24, 1873)

From the register of positions.

Biography

Michel Thevenet


Name
  Canonical: Michel Thevenet
  French: Michel Thévenet
  Also: "Mishel Therenet" (the 1892 county list); M. Thevenet (the 1868
    memorial); Mr. Thevenet (DMN 1906)

Birth: France; about 1821 (the DGS 1969 census list gives 39 in 1860)
Death: unknown
Burial: unknown

Origin: Paris; a banker (Santerre's list). Santerre's receivership
  narrative calls him "ex-banker."

Family
  Mrs. Thevenet was on the seven-lady hospital committee of January 1873
    whose work seeded Parkland (Sandell IV)
  Julian Thevenet (registry) is presumably a son

Occupation at colony: unclear
Occupation in Dallas: banker, land

Colony role: receiver. In 1858 the directors placed the colony in
  receivership and named Thevenet and Alexis Bessard to liquidate; the
  stockholding colonists took land at $4 an acre (Santerre XI, Sandell II).
  Sandell's Dallas-side account has him running the receivership account
  through the Gaston & Thomas bank, J. B. Adoue agent, under Cantagrel's
  direction, selling at 12 1/2 cents on the dollar around 1860 -- the
  mechanism that diverges from Savardan's 1857 Cousin sales (TIMELINE
  1858.??, 1860.??). Cordillot's Bureau notice omits him and has Bessard
  alone after 1859.

Post-colony
  - 1860: a household of one in the census, per the DGS list (not yet
    located on the roll)
  - June 4, 1868: second signer, after Long, of the memorial for a
    Trinity-navigation tax
  - Fall 1868: appointed District Clerk of Dallas County under military
    rule, following Long (Brown 1892; Sandell IV)
  - November 1872: elected alderman, Third Ward (long term), in the first
    election under Reconstruction; resigned with the whole council in the
    charter dispute with Austin, March-April 1873
  - August 1870: on the council committee laying out the east-side streets
    with Nussbaumer (Sandell IV)

Land
  Thevenet's Addition, recorded Vol. 106 p. 128, is in the Murphy & Bolanz
  books (addition book 1, p. 1; block book 3, p. 1137) -- an East Dallas
  subdivision under his name.

Sources
  Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list; ch. XI
  Sandell, assimilation thesis (1986), ch. II-IV
  Lewis, Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County (1892), pp.
    228, 238, 280
  Cordillot, Au Texas (2003), Bureau notice and appendix
  DGS 1969 census list; src/colonists/offices.py

Notes
  The banker who wound the colony up and then, ten years later, sat as a
  Reconstruction appointee and an elected alderman. His 1860 census line
  and his death are the gaps; Thevenet's Addition is the deed-book thread
  to pull.

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