Creator: Gaudet, James Am?d?e, 1861-1939.
Collection number: 2334
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Abstract: Secretary-treasurer of the Miles Planting and Manufacturing Company, which controlled 13 large sugar plantations; developer of a subdivision of New Orleans; and business representative of William Porcher Miles. Business papers and correspondence passed down to Gaudet, arranged in two series: 1) Financial and legal papers, 1760-1927, about 800 items, relating chiefly to the ownership of Houmas Plantations in Ascension Parish and other Louisiana property, including deeds, mortgages, wills, claims, notes, receipts, agreements, and some correspondence among successive title holders and their legal and business agents. There are also lists of slaves and freedmen, agreements with Chinese laborers, plans for land drainage, and memoranda of cotton sales, sugar crops, and plantation stores. 2) Letters from William Porcher Miles at Houmas Plantations to Henry Eustis at New Orleans, 1894-1896, about 400 items, concerning cultivation and sales of sugar, his opposition to national legislation relating to the sugar market, Miles Planting and Manufacturing Company activities, state and national politics, civic and social events, and family and personal affairs.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Family and business papers of Gaudet, secretary-treasurer of the Miles Planting and Manufacturing Company, which controlled thirteen large sugar plantations; developer of a New Orleans subdivision; and business representative of William Porcher Miles. Series 1 contains papers relating to the ownership of the Houmas plantations and other Louisiana property and includes lists of slaves and free blacks (1840s-1850s).