Bres, Joseph Hughes

Submitted by Mike Miller

Joseph Hughes Bres, who is superintendent of the public schools of West Baton Rouge Parish, was born in the City of New Orleans. July 11, 1884, and is a great-grandson of Jean Bres, who came from Ville Franche-sur-Mer, Alpes Maritimes, near the City of Nice, France, and established his home in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, the remainder of his life having been passed in this state. He married the widow of Pierre Landreneau, nee Marie Seghers. His sort, Jean Baptiste, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Caldwell Parish, January 9, 1820, and he became and long continued one of the substantial and honored citizens and representative planters of that parish. After his retirement from the plantation homestead in 1859 or 1860 he and his wife removed to the City of New Orleans, where his death occurred in 1907, his wife having passed away in 1904.

Joseph Ray Bres, son of Jean B, and Elizabeth (Adams) Bres, was born in Caldwell Parish, on December 21, 1854, and attended school in New Orleans after his parents' removal to that city. He was for two years a student in the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, and was successfully established in the abstract business in New Orleans at the time of his death, June 9, 1913. In this business he was for a number of years associated with J. G. Richardson, and after severing this alliance he continued in business in an individual way. He was a democrat of pronounced loyalty, but held no public office, except that as a young man, in 1883, he held a clerkship in the Louisiana State Land Office. Mrs. Bres, whose maiden name was Sarah Ella Hughes, was born in Mobile, Alabama, and she preceded her husband to eternal rest, her death having occurred in 1906. Of the children of this union Joseph H., of this review, is the first born. Nell, who was graduated from Newcomb College in 1907, is the wife of Ernest L. Eustis, a civil engineer, and they maintain their home in New Orleans. Edward Sedley, who is now established in the practice of his profession, that of civil engineer, with headquarters in the City of New Orleans, served with distinction in the World war, he having been assigned to the One Hundred and Fourteenth Engineers and having been in service with this command in France from September until December, 1918. He there participated in the now historic Meuse-Argonne offensive, and after his return to his native land received his commission as major. Since then he has been commissioned as lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Bres was graduated from Tulane University, with the degree of Bachelor of Engineering. Miss Sarah was graduated from Newcomb College, New Orleans, with the degree of B. A. in Home Economics, and she is now (1924) a teacher in the Monroe City High School, this state. Harold Adams, who now resides at Houston, Texas, where he holds a position with the local branch of the Ford Motor Company, was in the naval aviation service in the World war, with the rank of ensign, and was stationed at Queenstown, Ireland. He was, for three years, a student in the civil engineering course at Tulane University, New Orleans. Allen Vincent was graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis (1923), and is now an ensign on the United States steamship "Colorado." Lawrence, the fifth child, died at the age of eleven years, in 1905.

Joseph H. Bres was afforded the advantages of private and public schools in New Orleans, and was graduated from the Boys' High School as a member of the class of 1902. Thereafter he completed a course in Tulane University, in which he was graduated in 1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For two years he was principal of a consolidated school at Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish, and by successive reappointments he has served continuously since 1908 as superintendent of schools for this parish. Under his jurisdiction are thirteen white schools and thirteen for the instruction of colored pupils. The corps of white teachers numbers thirty-eight, and the colored teachers are seventeen in number.

Mr. Bres is aligned loyally in the ranks of the democratic party, and at Brusly he and his wife are active communicants of the Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist. He is affiliated with Plaquemine Council No. 970, Knights of Columbus and he is specially prominent and influential in the affairs of the Improved Order of Red Men, his basic affiliation being with Uncas Tribe No. 64, at Brusly. He is past great sachem of the Louisiana state organization of this fraternal order, and at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1924, is great representative and great chief of records of the state supreme body of the order. He is a member of the National Education Association, the Louisiana Teachers' Association, the National Geographic Society and the Tulane Alumni Association. He has an attractive home place, with eight acres of land, at Brusly.

On the 14th of August, 1911, at Brusly, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bres and Miss Effie Vaughan, daughter of the late Henry L. and Cecilia (Blanchard) Vaughan, the father having been the overseer of a large plantation in West Baton Rouge Parish at the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Bres have four children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here recorded: Margaret Sarah, September 16, 1913; Katherine Elizabeth, February 2, 1916; Marie Estelle, December 2, 1917; and Joseph Vaughan, February 22, 1920.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 125-126, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.