Written by his daughter Estella Laussat Willoughby in 1894: Antoine, or as the name was translated, Antony Laussat, senior, was educated in Spain, where the family had taken refuge when the bloody Revolution had made it too hot for the Nobles to remain in France. He was the youngest of six sons and two daughters. Four of his brothers having gone into the priesthood, Antoine selected arms for his career, and was enrolled as a cadet in the Guard of the King of Spain, where, as in the Guard Nobile of the Pope, none but the sons of noblemen were admitted. The famous, or infamous as some of his countrymen called him, Don Manuel de Godoy, Principe de la paz, was in the Guards at the same time.
When Napoleon as First Consul invited the Emigres home, the Laussats returned to France, dropping, as did all the nobles who returned, their title, and the offensive "de" to their name, but quickly took them up again, however, when Bonaparte assumed the purple – but Antoine had already decided to seek his fortune in the new world. He came over to the United States at the urgent solicitation of an old friend and compatriot of his father, an Émigré of noble birth, largely engaged in the West India trade, who at once took him into partnership, and in a few years he amassed, what in those days was considered a large fortune, the available part of which he lost however, in the commercial panic of 1814. After that time, he retired with his family at large tract of land he owned in Delaware, Ulster and Green counties new York, once the patrimony of Edward Livinston, and devoted himself to the education of his children and the development of his estate, until his death which occurred in 1829, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter.
Antony, the elder of the sons, left an only daughter now married, as before stated, to Mr. Emile C. Geyelin, a descendant of a good old Alsacian family, and himself a distinguished Hydraulic Engineer. They have one son, Henry Laussat Geyelin, a member of the Philadelphia Bar, who is married, and has a family of seven children.
When Napoleon as First Consul invited the Emigres home, the Laussats returned to France, dropping, as did all the nobles who returned, their title, and the offensive "de" to their name, but quickly took them up again, however, when Bonaparte assumed the purple – but Antoine had already decided to seek his fortune in the new world. He came over to the United States at the urgent solicitation of an old friend and compatriot of his father, an Émigré of noble birth, largely engaged in the West India trade, who at once took him into partnership, and in a few years he amassed, what in those days was considered a large fortune, the available part of which he lost however, in the commercial panic of 1814. After that time, he retired with his family at large tract of land he owned in Delaware, Ulster and Green counties new York, once the patrimony of Edward Livinston, and devoted himself to the education of his children and the development of his estate, until his death which occurred in 1829, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter.
Antony, the elder of the sons, left an only daughter now married, as before stated, to Mr. Emile C. Geyelin, a descendant of a good old Alsacian family, and himself a distinguished Hydraulic Engineer. They have one son, Henry Laussat Geyelin, a member of the Philadelphia Bar, who is married, and has a family of seven children.
Written by his daughter Estella Laussat Willoughby in 1894: Antoine, or as the name was translated, Antony Laussat, senior, was educated in Spain, where the family had taken refuge when the bloody Revolution had made it too hot for the Nobles to remain in France. He was the youngest of six sons and two daughters. Four of his brothers having gone into the priesthood, Antoine selected arms for his career, and was enrolled as a cadet in the Guard of the King of Spain, where, as in the Guard Nobile of the Pope, none but the sons of noblemen were admitted. The famous, or infamous as some of his countrymen called him, Don Manuel de Godoy, Principe de la paz, was in the Guards at the same time.
When Napoleon as First Consul invited the Emigres home, the Laussats returned to France, dropping, as did all the nobles who returned, their title, and the offensive "de" to their name, but quickly took them up again, however, when Bonaparte assumed the purple – but Antoine had already decided to seek his fortune in the new world. He came over to the United States at the urgent solicitation of an old friend and compatriot of his father, an Émigré of noble birth, largely engaged in the West India trade, who at once took him into partnership, and in a few years he amassed, what in those days was considered a large fortune, the available part of which he lost however, in the commercial panic of 1814. After that time, he retired with his family at large tract of land he owned in Delaware, Ulster and Green counties new York, once the patrimony of Edward Livinston, and devoted himself to the education of his children and the development of his estate, until his death which occurred in 1829, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter.
Antony, the elder of the sons, left an only daughter now married, as before stated, to Mr. Emile C. Geyelin, a descendant of a good old Alsacian family, and himself a distinguished Hydraulic Engineer. They have one son, Henry Laussat Geyelin, a member of the Philadelphia Bar, who is married, and has a family of seven children.
When Napoleon as First Consul invited the Emigres home, the Laussats returned to France, dropping, as did all the nobles who returned, their title, and the offensive "de" to their name, but quickly took them up again, however, when Bonaparte assumed the purple – but Antoine had already decided to seek his fortune in the new world. He came over to the United States at the urgent solicitation of an old friend and compatriot of his father, an Émigré of noble birth, largely engaged in the West India trade, who at once took him into partnership, and in a few years he amassed, what in those days was considered a large fortune, the available part of which he lost however, in the commercial panic of 1814. After that time, he retired with his family at large tract of land he owned in Delaware, Ulster and Green counties new York, once the patrimony of Edward Livinston, and devoted himself to the education of his children and the development of his estate, until his death which occurred in 1829, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter.
Antony, the elder of the sons, left an only daughter now married, as before stated, to Mr. Emile C. Geyelin, a descendant of a good old Alsacian family, and himself a distinguished Hydraulic Engineer. They have one son, Henry Laussat Geyelin, a member of the Philadelphia Bar, who is married, and has a family of seven children.
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