Vincent Cousin
- Occupation
- surveyor
- Origin
- Mons, Belgium
- Sources
- DMN 1906, Wolski
- Notes
- Savardan's 'M. Vincent Cousin' (ch. XV) and Cordillot's notice; the colony's engineer-architect, Considerant's companion in the July 1856 flight; cf. the Cousin/Wolski Lexington group
Positions
- board member; engineer and architect, Société de Réunion — 1855-08-07 – 1856-07-08 (named) [savardan; cordillot]
- acting head of the colony, Société de Réunion — 1857-03 – 1858-01 (named) [savardan; cordillot] holding Bureau's delegated powers; ran the Feb-Apr 1857 land sales
From the register of positions.
Biography
Vincent Cousin
Name
Canonical: Vincent Cousin
Also: "Mr. Cousin" (the registry's provisional entry); "M. Vincent
Cousin" (Savardan, ch. XV); V. Cousin
Birth: about 1823, Mons (Hainaut), Belgium
Death: unknown; returned to Belgium 1869
Burial: unknown
Origin: Mons; surveyor (arpenteur geometre)
Occupation at colony: named engineer and architect of the colony by
Considerant -- "without great success, if Savardan is to be believed"
Ship / arrival: Cordillot has him sail December 25, 1854 with eleven
other Belgian and French colonists on the "Ariel" for New Orleans, and
reach Texas "after a trying voyage," carrying several tens of thousands
of gold francs for the colony's installation. The Uriel's manifest was
sworn at New York on February 21, 1855, from Antwerp; New Orleans may be
Cordillot's error, or a second leg. Wolski, his companion, dates the
party's arrival at Reunion May 3, 1855, after a 32-day march from
Houston (TIMELINE 1855.05.03).
Colony role
- Assisted Cantagrel with the preparations for the first arrivals
- Close to Considerant; on the board of the Societe de Reunion from
August 7, 1855
- July 8, 1856: left with Considerant for San Antonio
- On news of Bureau's illness "spontaneously decided" to return:
arrived February 14 or 15, 1857, behaving as "the true executor of
Considerant's wishes"; in March replaced Bureau, who had delegated his
powers before leaving for Austin. Per Savardan he isolated Bureau
completely, to the point of opening his mail.
- February-April 1857: liquidated -- the "town of Reunion" plan, land
sold at 10-20 dollars an acre while the bulletin advertised "4 dollars
at most"; Savardan calls the prices usurious. Du Texas calls him "the
only man who could conjure away the final disaster" (TIMELINE
1857.02.15).
- July 17, 1857: examined before the Dallas grand jury; severe
observations on details of his administration, but the matter was
quickly closed
- January 1858: resumed the administration with the recovered Bureau;
was to join Considerant at San Antonio after the year-end inventory to
begin the cadastral survey of the western lands
Post-colony
- A small shop at San Antonio with Considerant; fell ill and became his
friend's dependant
- 1869: returned to Belgium. His letters to Considerant show him back
in his father's house, lamenting the railways' effect on the
countryside and mocking the Belgians' fright at "this International
that keeps people from sleeping."
Sources
Cordillot, "Cousin Vincent," Au Texas (2003)
Savardan, Un naufrage au Texas (1858), esp. ch. XV
Considerant, Du Texas (1857), II.I
Wolski, Do Ameryki i w Ameryce (1876), ch. XXI (src/sources/wolski)
TIMELINE.md: 1855.05.03, 1857.02.15, 1857.04.06, 1857.07.16
Notes
Cousin is the Rashomon figure of the dissolution: executioner to
Savardan, saviour to Considerant. He is also the surveyor -- the man
who laid out the town and sold the land -- so the deed record of
February-April 1857 is where his administration can be checked against
both accounts. The registry carried him as "Mr. Cousin" until Cordillot
and Savardan's ch. XV supplied the forename.