Page 40 - Jefferson County AR 1889 History (Goodspeed)

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JEFFERSON COUNTY.
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ton, for which it w m s peenliarly adapted. I n &it, of Revolntionary fame. Some years afterhis

January, 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate marriage he went to the Isle of St. Lucia, where

army in Oompany O, Ninth Arkansas Regiment, he pnrchased a sngar and coffee estate. He also

and served for eight months, when he was dis- engaged in mercantile and shipping business,

charged, later entering the Trsns-Mississippi dealing largely in sugar and coffee, which businem

army, which surrendered at Blarshall, Texas. Mr. proved lucrative, and he became very wealthy.

Blackwell's admirable fitness for the position and He died in 1818. William Booage. father of the

the universal favor with which he has ever been snbject of this sketch, was born in New London,

regarded by the people of this section, led to his where he received unusually good educational ad-

election as county assessor in 1882,and he was made vantages, finishing hi edncation at an English

his own successor in 1888, also assisting Capt. Ben- college. He went to St. Lucia, married, and died

ton when he held the office. He has been school there in his twenty-first year, leaving a young

director, in which position he wse very active, and I wife and child, the latter then only five months

has served as justice of the peace of his township. I old and the subject of this sketch. William Bo-

He is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and the cage was one of three sons-Joseph, William and

Oumberland Presbyterian Church, of which he is Charles. Joseph went supercargo of one of his

elder. His wife also belongs to that church. Mr. father'" vessels, and died in Boiton harbor.

(Blackwell is a faithful public officer, and has , Charlen went to France when sixteen years of age,

demonstrated his ahility to discharge official duties attended military school, and became a French

jin a manner above reproach. officer of prominence. He was killed in the Crim-

Do1 Joseph W. Bceage, mayor, Pine Bluff, Ark. ean War. while storming Inkerman heights. The

From the biography of every man there may be i act of the British Parliament, known as the Wil-

Igleaned some lessons of genuine worth, for here ! I~rforceand Chaning act of emancipation. freeing

are discovered the secret of his suocess or failure. the slaves, caused the survivors of the family to

I n the history of Mr. Bocage, one of the pioneers ! come to the United States. Joseph W. Booage

of the city, and one of it most prominent men, is was then three years of age, and could speak only

found much to commend. He was born on the the French language. They made their home in

Island of St. Lucia, May 8, 1819, and is the son New Yolk City, where the mothey died, and was

of William and Marrie Ann (Lavoisier) Bocage, ' buried in old Trinity church-yard. His mother,

the mother a niece of the celebrated French while on her death-bed, gave her son to a paternal

chemist, Antoine Lauwnt Lavoisier, who was the cot~sinM, iss Sarah Ann Lillington, of IVilmington,

originator of the gasometer and discovcer of oxy- ; N. C., a danghter of Gen. John A. Lilliugton, of

gen. He was born August 20, 1743, and was guil. Revolutionary fame, with whom he remained until

lotined on Yay 8. 1704, 4 the revoIntionists of sixhen years of age. attending the *at schools dor-

He was condemned on account of his 'I ing that time. The Lillington family were wealthy,
and after sentence was passed, he asked which fact enabled his foster-motherto give him ex-
.Paris. I

wealth,
for three days' iespite that he might complete a cellent oppoiunities for acqniring an education.

tine piece of chemical analysis, hut that was denied ( Seeing he could expect nothing from his St. Lucia

him. The paternal grandfather, Joseph Isadore estate, and knowing he must seek his own fortune,

Booage, was descended from an illustrious family, . he decided to venture at once, and at sixteen years
whose estates were in the old province, the Bocage, j of age he lannched out upon the tronbled sea of life

'now known as the La Vendee, in France. He -his own pilot-going first to Conneetiout, thence

/came to the United States, in company with otliers, ! to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cinoinnati, thence

in 1709, fleeing from the French Revolution, set- down the Mississippi toVicksborg. remaining there
tling in New London, Oonn., where he married I solne months. I n 1880,a t ~ din his eighteenth year,

Miss Elizabeth Coit, denghter of Capt. William I helanded in Columbia, Chicot County, Ark., where