McDonogh, John

Submitted by Mike Miller

John McDonogh was born at Baltimore, Md., December 29, 1779, of Irish parents--John and Elizabeth McDonogh, and in 1800 was sent by his employers as supercargo in a ship to Liverpool with instructions to take back a cargo of goods suitable for the Louisiana trade, to New Orleans. Arriving here October 3, 1800, he sold the greater part of the cargo to merchants and established a store to sell the balance. His plans were all successful, and loading the ship with Louisiana products he sailed for Baltimore. In 1804 he was given an interest in a similar enterprise, and on his arrival here he determined to make the city his home. Shortly after he and Shepherd Brown .entered into a partnership which continued until the death of Brown In 1815, after which McDonogh carried on business alone. He failed in 1810, to win the love of Micaela Leonarda, afterward the Baroness de Pontalba and in 1842 did not succeed in winning Miss Johnson. He afterward amassed an immense fortune and finally died in 1850.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 490-491. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.