Sumter, Augustin Leonce

Submitted by Mike Miller

Augustin Leonce Sumter, was born in New Orleans on Oct. 23, 1885, the son of Paul Sumter and Noemi (Barbot) Augustin. He received his education in the Notre Dame boys' school, conducted by Reverend Mother Mary Borgia, of the Sisters of Mercy, and after attended the College of the Immaculate Conception, graduating the commercial department of that college in 1905. In 1902, Paul Sumter Augustin was called on to teach white men for the Civil Service and Leonce Sumter Augustin became his assistant. In 1905, Paul Sumter Augustin was prevented from coaching persons for the Civil Service, being in the Service, and Leonce Sumter Augustin then continued the work. In 1907, when the Public Night School's Civil Service class was opened, Leonce Sumter Augustin applied for, and secured, the position of head coach in the work, continuing as such until the fall of 1913, when the demands on his time as the head of the Augustin commercial college required his abandoning the other work. In 1905, Leonce Sumter Augustin became engaged as assistant bookkeeper of the Augustin grocery, continuing as such until the business was closed in 1906. He then devoted all his attention to teaching, and began to perfect himself in English, arithmetic, stenography and bookkeeping. In 1912, he enrolled in the teachers' department of the Gregg short-school, completing this course in a very short time. In that year, he added the commercial department, and the name of the institution bearing his name (The Augustin College) is now looked upon as one of the best of its line. The first graduation exercises were held July 1, 1913 at which over one hundred persons attended the exercises. Leonce Sumter Augustin has no political adherence. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is a member of the Holy Name and St. Vincent de Paul Societies. On June 8, 1910, he was united in marriage to Miss Marie Bayhi, the daughter of Eugene Bayhi and the late Emma Tiblier. There are, at this writing, seven assistant teachers and over 125 students enrolled in the college.

Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 32-33. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.