Perrilliat, Arsne [Arsene]

Passport for Arsene: 1  2 3 - submitted by Marsha Holley

Passports for his wife, Charlotte Beatrice Perrilliat: 1  2 - submitted by Marsha Holley

Biography submitted by Mike Miller

Perrilliat, Arsne, widely known civil engineer, son of Victor and Marie Lise (Blanc) Perrilliat, was born in Paris, France, July 10, 1865, while his people were temporarily residing in that country. Victor was the son of Francois Perrilliat, who was a descendant of the Perrilliat Bottonet family, from Grand Bornand in the Duchy of Savoy. Francois M. came to Louisiana from Savoy when a young man, and died in New Orleans in 1829 at 46 years of age. Victor Perrilliat was born in New Orleans in 1820, and was educated in Bordeaux, France. Returning to this country, his home, he married Marie Lise, daughter of Francois Arsne and Marie Ang lique (Labatut) Blanc. Francois A. Blanc was one of 10 children of Louis A. Blanc who was born in Lyons, France, May 22, 1758. Arsne Perrilliat came to New Orleans, when he was 18 months old, and it was here his first schooling was obtained, at the private school of Mrs. Vatinel in the old French quarters which was attended by the flower of the creole families of the early seventies. His next school was that of George C. Preot, which was more advanced, and was taught by such well known teachers as Messrs. Venable, Gessner, Deiler, and others. From this he went to the University of Louisiana, of which Prof. Richard H. Jesse was dean, and which became Tulane university in 1884. Mr. Perrilliot graduated at this institution in 1883 with the degree of B. S., being one of the first to receive a degree from the University of Louisiana. In his class were Arthur S. Wheeler and Sidney P. Delaup, of New Orleans; Charles B. Stafford, now of Chicago, and others. Most of Mr. Perrilliat 's studies were under Prof. Ayres, now president of the University of Tennessee. After graduating he first worked on surveys for the Mississippi river commission, and later was assistant to chief engineer Samuel H. Gilman of the New Orleans Cotton Centennial Exposition in 1884. From 1885 to 1888, inclusive, he taught at Tulane university with the rank of assistant professor of physics, mathematics and chemistry. During vacations he took courses in higher mathematics in the University of Virginia and worked in Edison's laboratory in Schenectady, N. V., specializing in electrical work. While there he conducted tests for the first dynamos built for electric railways. In 1888 he accepted the position of general superintendent of the Edison Electric Light Co., of New Orleans, and in the fall of the same year was appointed a member of the hoard of state engineers of Louisiana by Gov. Nicholls and served until 1908. June 17, 1897, the degree of civil engineer was conferred on him by Tulane university. In 1900 Gov. Foster appointed him chief of engineers of the Louisiana national guards, with the rank of colonel, and 1905 he was made chief of ordnance with the rank of brigadier general by Gov. Blanchard. In 1900, with E. L. Corthell, of New York, and J. A. Ockerson, of St. Louis, he was appointed by the secretary of war to represent the United States government at the International Congress of Navigation, held that year in Paris, and in 1908 Mr. Perrilliat was again appointed by the secretary of to a similar function at St. Petersburg. Among his duties during his connection with the state board of engineers he was in charge of the levee construction of the Atchafalaya basin levee. This was the work in which Mr. Perrilliat took most pride. Beginning this in 1890 when the district was annually devastated the worst crevasses on record, among which was the Morganza crevasse, he left it in 1908, with the reputation of the best protected district in the Mississippi valley. He was the leading spirit in the closure of Bayou Lafourche which, to that time, was hopelessly inundated every year by crevasses which since its closure has developed into one of the richest portions of the state. In 1908 Mr. Perrilliat left the service of state to become managing engineer of the Hercules Co., which engaged in general engineering and contracting work.

Mr. Perrilliat went several times to Holland, to southern France, and northern Italy to study and investigate the dyke and levee construction of those countries, and in 1906 was sent by the United government to Holland for that purpose. He has written a number of papers and monographs on the subject of dyke construction. He was the originator of the construction of dykes on Mississippi river by mechanical means, having begun in 1893 urge and advise a method of construction which has saved millions of dollars to Louisiana and the United States government levee construction. In professional associations Mr. Perrilliat a member of the old academy of sciences in 1888, is now a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International congress of Navigation, and the Louisiana Society of Civil Engineers. Socially he is an officer of the Boston club, a member of the Chess, Checker and Whist, the Louisiana, the Country, and the Round Table clubs, the Athenee Louisianais, and the Louisiana Historical Society. He is one of the members of the board of administrators of the Charity hospital. In politics Mr. Perrilliat has always been a democrat, but believes in voting for principles rather than for party. In 1896 Mr. Perrilliat was married to Charlotte Beatrice Hollywood, of Indianapolis, and they have one daughter, Marie Lise Perrilliat.

Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 787-789. Edited by Alc e Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.