Jahncke, Ernest Lee

Submitted by Mike Miller

Ernest Lee Jahncke. For fifty-four consecutive years, the name of Jahncke has been represented in the business activities of New Orleans. Fritz Jahncke arrived in New Orleans from Hamburg, Germany, in 1870, and was the founder of the Jahncke interests and Jahncke family. He was a native of Hamburg and married Margaret Lee, who was born in Philadelphia. They left three sons, Ernest Lee, Paul F. and Walter F. Jahncke, who have since collectively and individually continued the various interests of the Jahncke family.

Ernest Lee Jahncke, who was born at New Orleans in 1880, was educated in the public schools, and graduated from Tulane University in 1899 with the degrees Bachelor of Engineering and Mechanical Engineer. He has since become widely known in ship building and maritime circles, being president of the Jahncke Dry Dock Corporation, president of the Jahncke Service Corporation, a director of the Canal Bank & Trust Company of New Orleans and vice president and member of the administrative council of the Atlantic Coast Ship Builders Association of Philadelphia.

During the World war, Mr. Jahncke served the government as gulf director in charge of the Sea Service Bureau and navigation schools of the United States Shipping Board. He is a member of the National Foreign Trade Council at New York, the American Society of Civil Engineers in New York, is past president of the New Orleans Association of Commerce, and a member of the Board of Administrators of Tulane University, a trustee of Newcomb College for Women. He belongs to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon College fraternity, the Boston Club Pickwick Club, New Orleans Country Club, the Audubon Golf Club, the Metairie Golf Club, the Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans: India House (Hanover Square) New York, the New York Yacht Club and the Engineers Club of New York. He is also a member of the American Society of Naval Architects, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers. He was king of the carnival in the 1915 Mardi Gras activities.

Mr. Jahncke married in I9a7 Miss Cora Van Voorhis Stanton, daughter of Adele Townsend Stanton, and granddaughter of Mary Ashley Townsend. Her grandfather, Edwin N. Stanton was secretary of war in the cabinet of President Lincoln. The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Jahncke are: Stanton, Adele Townsend, Ernest Lee, Jr., and Cora Stanton Jahncke.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 382, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.