Gaudet, James Amedee, 1861-1939

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.

From the description of Houmas Plantations and William Porcher Miles materials collection, 1760-1927 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 24111889

James Amedee Gaudet (1861-1939) was the son of Amedee Michel Gaudet and Louis Ilsley. His father was a sugar planter and a member of the Louisiana state legislature. His mother was the daughter of John H. Ilsley, a justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. Gaudet was secretary-treasurer of the Miles Planting and Manufacturing Company; secretary-treasurer of the Miles Timber Company; and developer of Ingleside Heights, a subdivision of New Orleans. He was a business representative for William Porcher Miles and the Houmas Plantations.

William Porcher Miles (1822-1899) was born in Waterboro, S.C. He attended the Willington Academy in Abbeville District and the College of Charleston from which he was graduated in 1842. He first studied law, but then changed to the teaching profession and become assistant professor of mathematics at the College of Charleston, 1843-1855. He was elected mayor of Charleston in 1855, running against Know-Nothingism. In 1857, he was elected to Congress and championed slavery and succession until his withdrawal in 1860. During the Civil War, he served as representative from the Charleston District to the Confederate Congress. In 1863, Miles married Betty Beirne, daughter of Oliver Beirne, a wealthy planter in Virginia and Louisiana. After the Civil war, Beirne made him manager of the Houmas Plantations in Louisiana, which he had inherited from his friend John Burnside (d. 1881). Miles managed these plantations until his death in 1899.

John Burnside acquired the Houmas Plantation in 1858. It had been purchased by General Wade Hampton (1751?-1835) of South Carolina in 1812. His daughter and son-in-law, Caroline Martha and John Smith Preston (1809-1881), were sent out to manage the property and built Houmas House in 1840. They sold it to John Burnside in 1858, and Burnside bought several other plantations in the area. It is believed that he owned a total of 13 plantations in Ascension and Saint James parishes, including Houmas, Orange Grove, Conway, Clark, Riverton, Donaldson, Saint James, White Castle, and Armant. The term Houmas Plantations is sometimes used to refer to these plantations as a group. Houmas Plantation and Houmas House are located on the Mississippi River, near Burnside in Ascension Parish. Burnside managed to retain his plantations after the Civil War because he was a British subject.

(The section on William Porcher Miles is adapted from a sketch by Francis Butler Simkins in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Vol. 12.)

From the guide to the Houmas Plantations and William Porcher Miles Materials Collection, 1760-1927, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)