Claiborne, Charles Ferdinand

Submitted by Mike Miller

Claiborne, Charles Ferdinand, 727 Common street, New Orleans, La., was born at New Orleans, La., Feb. 2, 1848; son of William C. C. and Louise (De Balathier) Claiborne, the former of whom was born at New Orleans and the latter at Paris, France. In the course of his education Mr. Claiborne attended the Christian Brothers' school and the University of Louisiana. He was admitted to the bar in 1869 and has been engaged in practice as an attorney since that date, a period embracing very much of the important history of New Orleans, La., and the South, with all of which Mr. Claiborne has been vitally concerned and identified. His youthful experiences, of course, were more or less affected by the stirring events preceding the Civil war, as was his early manhood shadowed and darkened by the sanguinary conflicts, privations and hardships of that heroic struggle and the trying days of reconstruction that followed. In all of this Mr. Claiborne has participated hand to hand, an actor in a drama of prodigious scale, and passing through those clouded years of internecine strife has seen the land of his nativity emerge not only from the devastating blight of civil war, but also from the almost equal harrowing scourge of yellow fever, and come out into the glorious light of liberty, peace, plenty, health, and boundless prosperity. It is, indeed, a wealth of experience. Mr. Claiborne served as a member of the Guibet battery, Sept. 14, 1875. In national politics Mr. Claiborne affiliates with the Democratic party, but his progressive tendencies and hearty cooperation with all movements having for their object the betterment of living conditions for the people, have led him to ally himself, in local political contests, without regard to party alignment, and in accord with these principles he has been repeatedly elected as a member of the city council of New Orleans, serving in that capacity from the year 1888 to 1892, inclusive, as a result of election upon a ticket put forward by the Young Men's Democratic association, and again he was elected and served in the city council from 1896 to 1900 as a candidate of the Citizens' league. He was a gold Democrat and favors tariff for protection as well as revenue. Mr. Claiborne is now and has for some years been serving as a member of three important commissions in the city of New Orleans, namely, those of the New Orleans public library, City park and Delgado Museum of Art. In Dec., 1913, he was appointed by Gov. Luther E. Hall one of the judges of the court of appeals for Orleans and other parishes. Dec. 23, 1875, Mr. Claiborne was married to Miss Amelie Soniat du Fossat, a daughter of Meloney Soniat du Fossat, of New Orleans, and to them the following children were born: Marie Louise, now the wife of Dr. Louis Perrilliat; Charles de Balathier, who married Miss Virginia Couturie; Amelie, who became the wife of Martin Levering Matthews; Lucy, and Martin Duralde.

Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 102-102. Edited by Alcee Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.