1891 Biography - James C. Mahon

JAMES C. MAHON, FOSTER. – James C. Mahon is a native of the British West Indies, born 1845. He is the son of William E. and Christian (Clarke) Mahon, natives of Ireland and Scotland, respectively. They were married in Barbadoes, British West Indies, where each emigrated when young. William Mahon was a planter, and followed that business all his life. He died in 1869. His widow survives him and is still a resident of Barbadoes. She is the mother of eight children, seven of whom are living, James Mahon being the only one in America.

James C. Mahon received his early education in Barbados and subsequently in England. After having completed his literary studies in England he returned to Barbadoes and engaged in a dry goods business, and after one year's experience in that line became a planter, in which business he continued for seven years, when he emigrated to the United States, locating in Illinois, and began farming. This did not suit his tastes; so he entered an insurance business in which he remained until 1872, when he removed to St. Mary parish, Louisiana, where he engaged in sugar planting for four years. From '8o to '86 he served as manager of a plantation and then purchased South Bend plantation on Bayou Sal‚, consisting of three thousand six hundred and sixty acres, eight hundred of which is arable land, five hundred swamp and two thousand and sixty sea marsh. On this extensive tract of land he has been engaged in sugar making and stock raising. He has over five hundred head of cattle and makes a ton and a half of cane per acre. He has an efficient sugar mill, with a capacity of one hundred and fifty tons in twenty four hours, which he intends increasing to a greater capacity. Mr. Mahon married in 1876 Miss Florence Hudson, a native of this parish. She is the daughter of Benjamin Hudson, a prominent planter and a descendant of one of the early families of St. Mary parish. Mr. and Mrs. Mahon are the parents of three children, two daughters and one son, viz: Anna, Beatrice, Hubert. Mr. Mahon is a charter member of the K. of P. Lodge of St. Mary No. 44, of Franklin.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, published in 1891, Biographical Section, page 376.