Maestri, Caesar

Submitted by Mike Miller

Caesar Maestri has become one of the progressive and representative business men of his native state, where he is manager of the Liberty Ice Company of Baton Rouge and the Republic Ice Company of New Orleans, his home being maintained in the latter city. In addition to being manager of these two important industrial corporations he is also treasurer of each. Mr. Maestri is a scion of the third generation of the Maestri family in New Orleans, his paternal grandfather having there lived virtually retired after coming from his native Italy to the United States. Caesar Maestri was born in the city of New Orleans, on the 22d of June, 1885, and is a son of Natale and Melia (Maestri) Maestri, representatives of different branches of the same family line. Natale Maestri was born in Italy, December 24, 1853, and there his wife was born February 16, 1856, their home being still maintained in New Orleans. It was about the year 1861 that Natale Maestri accompanied his parents on their immigration to the United States, and he was reared and educated in New Orleans. At the age of eighteen years he returned to the fair land of his birth, where he remained one year and where his marriage was solemnized in 1872. After his return to New Orleans he engaged in the poultry business, and later extended his operations to the livestock business. In 1894 he organized the Beauregard Furniture Company, and he continued as the president of the same and as virtually the sole owner of its business until 1912, since which time he has lived retired, as one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of the Louisiana metropolis. He is loyal and liberal as a citizen, is active in the furthering of charitable and benevolent agencies in his home city, and in 1893 he provided and presented a modern swimming pool for the Beauregard children's playgrounds in New Orleans. He is aligned loyally in the ranks of the democratic party and he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Catholic Church. Of the children the eldest is Abina, who is the wife of Dr. Vincent Li Rocchi, a successful veterinary surgeon engaged in practice at New Orleans; Caesar, of this sketch, is the next younger of the children; Richard is secretary of the Liberty Ice Company of Baton Rouge; Walter, who is vice president of this company, resides in New Orleans; and Eva remains at the parental home. The parochial and public schools of New Orleans afforded Caesar Maestri his earlier education, which was supplemented by his attending Holy Cross College in that city. After leaving college, in 1902, he continued to assist in the furniture business of his father until 1920, and in this connection had become secretary and treasurer of the Beauregard Furniture Company. In 1920 he became treasurer and manager of the Republic Ice Company of New Orleans and also of the Liberty Ice Company of Baton Rouge. He has since continued his effective service in these connections and has done much to develop the large and prosperous business of the two corporations. The manufacturing plant and the Offices of the Liberty Ice Company are situated on Stone Street, near North Boulevard, Baton Rouge, and the plant has a capacity for the output of eighty tons of ice daily. In New Orleans the plant of the Republic Ice Company, with a daily productive capacity of sixty tons, is situated at the corner of Lapyrouse and Galvez streets. Mr. Maestri adheres closely to the faith of the democratic party, he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church, and he has membership in the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, an appreciable part of his time being passed in the capital city, though he still resides in New Orleans, where he is the owner of valuable real estate, including his fine home place on Gentilly Boulevard. December 20, 1905, recorded the marriage of Mr. Maestri and Miss Mary L. Carey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Carey, who now reside in the great city of Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Carey being a boiler contractor. Mr. and Mrs. Maestri have five children, whose names and respective years of birth are here recorded: Melia, 1907; Natale, 1910; Mildred, 1912; Lavurn, 1914; and Clara, 1923.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 30, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.