Landry, Daniel Joseph

Submitted by Mike Miller

Daniel Joseph Landry. In naming the prominent citizens who have attained success in their various lines of endeavor in Calcasieu Parish, especial mention should be given Daniel Joseph Landry, president of the Lake Charles Railway Light and Water Works Company, the Lake Charles Gas Company, the City Delivery Company and the Lake Charles Realty Company. A resident of Lake Charles since 1880, he has been one of the leading factors in the development of the community, not only as a business man but as a public-spirited citizen.

Mr. Landry was born November 29, 1862, in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and is a son of Dr. Joseph Alfred and Aloysia (Leveque) Landry. His father, a native of the same parish, received his early education at Bardstown, Kentucky, following which he pursued his medical studies at Tulane University and was duly graduated therefrom. During the remainder of his life he continued in the practice of his calling, his death occurring in 1870. Daniel Joseph Landry received his education in the parochial and public schools in Brusly, West Baton Rouge Parish, and at the age of eighteen years, in 1880, located at Lake Charles, where he entered the employ of Perkins & Muller, operators of a large sawmill at Westlake, Calcasieu Parish. He remained with them in various departments for ten years, and in 1890, in company with his brother, Joseph A. Landry, T. J. Bird and Paul O. Moss, engaged in the ice business, which was the forerunner of the present public utilities system of Lake Charles. Subsequently these same men built the railway system, the gas company and the water works system. Mr. Landry was vice president of the Lake Charles Railway, Light and Water Works Company, the Lake Charles Gas Company, the City Delivery Company (retail ice and wholesale and retail coal), and the Lake Charles Realty Company, until the death of his brother, Joseph A., August 8, 1923, at which time he succeeded his brother in the presidency of these concerns. Each of these companies had small beginnings and each grew and prospered under able management and the cooperation of all the officials connected with them, combined with rendering the best of service to Customers. This latter policy has been greatly appreciated by the people of Lake Charles and the surrounding community, and their appreciation has taken the form of continued and added patronage. Mr. Landry has few interests aside from his business and his home. Aside from his operations in the former held he cares little for anything save his home, his family and his garden, however, as a good citizen he has been a generous contributor to every worthy civic enterprise, and during the World war was a member of the Calcasieu Parish Council of Defense. His religious connection is with the Catholic Church.

On January 3, 1887, at Lake Charles, Mr. Landry was united in marriage with Miss Irene Eva Lyons; who was born at Plaquemine Brul, St. Landry Parish, a daughter of Joseph J. and Evalina (DeVillier) Lyons, natives of St. Landry. Mr. Lyons was a deputy sheriff, constable, and member of the police force, and active in democratic politics at Lake Charles for years. During the war between the states he had fought as a soldier of the Confederacy. Both he and Mrs. Lyons are deceased. Twelve children, eight of whom are living, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Landry: Mary Iris, the wife of M. D. Marshall, proprietor of a brokerage business at Lake Charles, who has three children, Daniel J., Laura Frances and Irene; Edith, who is unmarried and resides with her parents; Ethel, the wife of George Herbert, of Lake Charles, who has one son, George; Gladys, the wife of H. V. Delabratoune, Jr., cashier of the Southern Pacific Railway Company at Lake Charles, who has one daughter, Ruth; Maude, the wife of R. L. Pennington, in Greenville, South Carolina, who has one child, Azalie; Cyril Jefferson, a private of "A" Troop, Sixth United States Cavalry, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia; Benson Hubert and Aloysia, at home.

NOTE: The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 369-370, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.