Ducros, Marcel T.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Marcel T. Ducros, notary public, was born in the city of New Orleans, August 28, 1887, a son of Louis Alfred Ducros, who was also a native of Louisiana, and was a planter in St. Bernard parish. His career throughout life was an honorable one, and his death, which occurred on the 1st of March, 1878, was considered a great loss to the community in which he resided. He was a son of Joseph Rodolphe Ducros, a Louisianian, whose father, Joseph Marie Ducros, was a native of Haute Savoie, France, and came to America in 1787, settling in New Orleans. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Michella de Armas, a native of New Orleans who died in 1882. She was of Spanish descent. Her father, Michel de Armas, was also born in the city of New Orleans, but the latter's father, Christoval de Armas, was born in one of the Canary islands, and after reaching manhood came to the United States and settled in New Orleans.

The boyhood days of Marcel T. Ducros were spent in acquiring an education, about two years being spent in Springhill college at Mobile, Ala., after which he entered and graduated from the New Orleans high school, finishing his literary education in 1854. He at once entered the office of James Graham, a notary, with whom he remained about fifteen months when he became a clerk in the wholesale dry goods house of J. Burnside & Co., where he continued about two years, then resigned the position on account of ill health and spent a few months in the parish of St Bernard, recuperating. Following this he accepted a position in the notarial office of Edward Barnett of New Orleans, where he remained until the opening of the Civil war. On the 22d of April, 1861, he reported for duty in the confederate service as a private in Company A, Louisiana Foot Rifles, commanded by Capt. Henry St. Paul. After remaining with that command for a few months he returned to New Orleans on a sick furlough and here he remained until March 15, 1862, then once more left for the front with the Orleans guards battery, on an enlist. meat of three months. After a faithful service of five months he was honorably discharged on account of ill health and again returned to his home at New Orleans. In March, 1863, before having fully recovered, he ran the blockade from the parish of St. Bernard, to Biloxi, Miss., where he remained until July 1, 1868, at which time he had recovered his usual health.

From Biloxi he went to Mobile, Ala., where he met an old friend, Major de Bordenave, who commanded the Confederate States Zouaves battalion, to which Company A, Louisiana Foot Rifles had been attached, and he rejoined his old command and was appointed ordnance sergeant of the battalion. He served in that capacity until the battalion was disbanded in the latter part of January, 1865, and on the day he obtained his discharge he joined the Twenty-fourth Virginia cavalry, commanded by Colonel Barran, and immediately Obtained a furlough of forty days for the purpose of securing a horse and accoutrements. On the 5th of April, 1865, while in Nansimond county, Va., he was captured by the Third New York cavalry in Summerton and was sent to Fortress Monroe, but shortly after was sent to the prisoners' camp at Newport News, Va., where he was kept a prisoner until the 26th of June, 1865, at which time he was paroled.

After a short time spent in Baltimore he returned to New Orleans, at which place he arrived on the 31st of August, 1865. After a few months, he entered the office of Joseph Cohn, a notary public, but on the 15th of November, 1866, he formed a partnership in the same business with Mr. Edward Barnett, and the firm existed until March 1, 1873, when it was dissolved by Mr. Barnett's death. Mr. Ducros has continued in this business uninterruptedly in New Orleans ever since, and he is now one of the leading notaries of the city. In politics he adheres to the principles of the old whig party, but is not a very active politician, his extensive business fully occupying his time. He was married in 1875 to Miss Helena Innerarity, a daughter of Pr. John F. Innerarity, of Mobile, Ala., and by her is the father of six children--two sons and four daughters.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), p. 387. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.