Chamberlin, Hugh

Submitted by Mike Miller

Hugh Chamberlin is one of the prominent and influential exponents of the real estate business in the City of Baton Rouge, and in this connection marked discrimination and progressiveness have attended his operations. He is the owner of valuable plantation properties, and is one of the substantial business men and liberal citizens of the capital city of his native commonwealth.

Mr. Chamberlin was born in West Baton Rouge Parish, August 4, 1867, a son of William Benjamin Chamberlin and a grandson of Benjamin Chamberlin, both natives of Johnstown, New York, where the latter passed his entire life, he having been one of the leading lawyers in that part of the old Empire State.

William Benjamin Chamberlin was born in the year 1819, and in his native Johnstown he was, reared to the age of nineteen years. his educational advantages in the meanwhile having been or excellent order. At the age noted he came to Louisiana, where for a number of years he was a successful teacher ii the schools of East Feliciana Parish. After his removal to West Baton Rouge Parish he there served twelve years as clerk of the court, and in the meanwhile he carried forward his study of law and was admitted to the bar. In that parish he thereafter continued in the active practice of his profession as one of the leading members of the bar of the parish until his retirement, and in the meanwhile he had maintained a law partnership with Col. Henry M. Favrot, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work, in the personal sketch of his son, Leo M. Mr. Chamberlin served as a lieutenant in a Louisiana command in the Mexican war. He was long a leader in the councils of die democratic party in his parish, and he and his wife were devout communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He continued his residence m West Baton Rouge Parish until his death, which occurred in December, 1887, his wife having there in 1876 and her birth having occurred maiden name of Mrs. Chamberlin was Mary Pamelia Clark. William Benjamin, eldest of was born in the year 1851, and was a planter at Chamlerlin Station, West Parish, at the time of his death, August 27, 1911; Mary Hester, who now resides at Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the widow of Sterling Hereford, who was a planter in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, at the time of his death, in 1881; Catherine L. is the wife of George C. Burr, who is associated with the Burr Brothers Lumber Company at Gloversville, New York; Margaret is the wife of Walter N. Bynum, of Baton Rouge, who is a lawyer by profession and who was for a number of years superintendent of the Louisiana State School for the Blind; Guy died at the age of eleven years; Leah died in early childhood; Hugh, of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; and John died in childhood.

Hugh Chamberlin was for four years a student in Montgomery Bell Academy, Nashville, Tennessee, and upon leaving this institution, in 1885, he went to Gloversville, New York, where he was employed in a saw mill until November, 1888. He then returned to his native parish, and after being engaged in the cattle business two years he turned his attention to sugar planting. With this line of industry he continued to be actively identified in West Baton Rouge Parish until 1899, when his initiative ability and good judgment lead him to engage in the real estate business. His success in this important line of enterprise finally led him to establish his headquarters in Baton Rouge, where he has maintained his home since 1908 and where he has gained prestige as one of the leading exponents of real estate enterprise in the fair old capital city, his well appointed offices being in the Reymond Building. He is the owner of valuable real estate in Baton Rouge, and of well improved plantation properties in West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes. He is a director of the Capital Building and Loan Association, of which he has served as vice president and for which he has been the appraiser for the past fifteen years, and he is a member also of the directorate of the Mortgage Loan & Realty Company, another of the important business corporations of Baton Rouge. As a citizen and business man Mr. Chamberlin is a vital exponent of progressiveness, and he is a valued member of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. He has found no measure of reluctance in maintaining loyal allegiance to the democratic party, and while he has had no ambition for political preferment he gave effective service as a member of the executive committee of his party in West Baton Rouge Parish. He is a communicant of St. James Church, Protestant Episcopal, and Mrs. Chamberlin is a popular factor in the representative social and cultural circles of Baton Rouge. Mr. Chamberlin holds membership in the Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club. His marriage to Miss Margaret Roberts was solemnized at Winchester, Kentucky, September 4, 1923, and Mrs. Chamberlin claims the old Blue Grass State as the place of her nativity, her birth having occurred at Danville, Kentucky.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 73, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.