Formento, Dr. Felix Sr.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Dr. Felix Formento Sr. comes from an old and distinguished family of Italy, having been born in Piedmont, in 1790. He graduated in medicine at the University of Turin in 1813, and took part as a surgeon in the last campaign in France, of the Emperor Napoleon I. At the downfall of the Napoleon dynasty he left Europe and came to the United States. Soon after he joined as physician the expedition commanded by General Lallemand, who, at the head of a heroic band of exiled French soldiers like himself, undertook to found the settlement known as "Champ d'Asile," in the then province of Texas, a dependency of Mexico. In 1818, after the dispersion of that unfortunate expedition, Dr. Formento sought a refuge in New Orleans under rather romantic circumstances. While serving in the "Champ d'Asile," at a time when complete demoralization existed among the remaining few disappointed members of that expedition, Dr. Formento was induced by the famous privateer, Lafitte, to visit his headquarters in some island or locality in the vicinity so as to give his professional services to his daughter, to whom he was greatly devoted. She had been affected for some time with some serious disease--typhoid fever it was thought. Dr. Formento remained for several weeks at Lafitte's house and was treated with the consideration of a king or, still better, as the savior of the celebrated privateer's only daughter. After her recovery Lafitte gave the young Doctor many tokens of gratitude, and also provided him with the means of reaching New Orleans, where he arrived during the year 1818. He then began the practice of his profession, in which he very soon acquired a wide-spread reputation, and attained to great eminence as a practitioner. He also greatly distinguished himself in the epidemics of yellow fever, which at that time were quite frequent, and particularly did he do so in the great cholera epidemic of 1832. In 1836 he married Mrs. Palmyre Poullault ('nee' Lauve), by whom he became the father of three sons and one daughter: Dr. Felix, notice of whom is given below; another son died of disease contracted while in the confederate service during the Civil war, and the third is a director of a bank in Italy. The only daughter married a wealthy and influential manufacturer of Turin. At the great financial crisis of 1837, while Jackson was president, Dr. Formento was the possessor of a large fortune, but during that time, like so many others, he was financially ruined. Very much affected by the loss of the Wealth which he had acquired after many years of incessant struggle and hard work, he left New Orleans for awhile and took refuge in the village of Plaquemine, Iberville parish, where he continued the practice of his profession. At the solicitation of numerous friend, in New Orleans he soon returned to that city, practicing with success until 1851, when he left for Europe with his family. In 1860 he returned to the United States, but in 1862, when New Orleans fell into the hands of the federals, he went back to Italy, where he lived until his death which occurred in Pignerol, January 6, 1888, at which time he had attained the advanced age of ninety-eight years. Up to the last he retained to a remarkable degree his brilliant intellect. He did not lose interest in the affairs of his adopted country, but followed her extraordinary development and progress to the end with deep satisfaction. He never occupied any public office in this country. With his great talent as a physician he combined the most precious and amiable qualities of heart and soul. Modest, kind and devoted to his friends, of an unbounded charity, of refined and elegant manners, very dignified in appearance and remarkably handsome, he was to the end, and in spite of many years of absence, remembered by all those who knew him, as a fine type of the old school gentleman physician.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), pp. 410-411. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.