Paul Tulane

Paul Tulane (May 10, 1801 – March 27, 1887) was an American philanthropist and donor, born near Princeton, in Sherry Valley, New Jersey, son of Pierre Louis Mathurin Tulasne deformed in "Tulane" (July 16, 1767, Rillé, Indre et Loire, France - Sherry Valley, Princeton, July 21, 1847), commercial trader in French luxury manufactured goods between France (Nantes) and his establishment in St Marc (St Domingo). Louis Tulane, the father traded mainly with Pierre Dubern (1735 - 1810), manufacturer in Nantes, France (source: see Wikipedia in French, come in Pierre Dubern and the book by Serge Chassagne, a great French historian), who exploited a factory of Indians and a merchant of Paris Jean François Mermillod (see source on election in paris). He never had any establishment of slaves in Santo Domingo, as implied by demagogic writings. He was only a young 25-year-old merchant, as his son Paul would become, on a larger scale. Louis Tulane is not on the list of landowners, in St Domingue, compensated, between 1828 and 1834 (6 volumes), by the French government, in execution of the law of April 30, 1826. After the revolt of 1791, in Santo Domingo, Louis Tulane went into exile in Cherry Valley in 1792, near Princeton, took American nationality in 1793 and bought a 500-acre farm in 1799 from an exiled Belgian, Peter Anthony Malou (1753 - 1827), patriot and priest. This farm remained in the family until 1847, then sold in 1850 (see History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey, 1883).

Louis Tulane, devout Catholic, baptized in Rillé by his uncle, Pierre Tulasne (1742, Rillé - 1811, Cuon, near Baugé) parish priest of Baugé, refractory priest and deported to Spain by the French revolutionaries, registered the birth from his arrival in Princeton, of his eldest son Louis Stephen Tulane (August 4, 1795, Princeton - October 2, 1871, Wetumpka, Alabama) in the only authorized Catholic parish, of the 13 American colonies (predominantly Anglican), the parish of St Joseph of Philadelphia. now "Old St Joseph's". General de Rochambeau and the Marquis de La Fayette came to pray there in 1782, during American independence.

It says on page 11 (source: records of the St Joseph's church): Tulane, the 17th, by Rev. G. Lagrange, at Princeton, N.J. Louis Stephen, born Aug. 4, 1795, of Louis Mathurin Tulane, and his wife Mary Jeanne Velligus; sponsors: Stephen Lebreton and Alexandra Constance Angot.

Since, the distance being probably too great between Philadelphia and Sherry Valley, for the services, Louis Tulane would have taken the Presbyterian religion.

Louis Tulasne (Tulane), Paul's father is the son Gatien Tulasne-Jaminière (1739, Rillé - 1783, Rillé) seneschal of the lands and seigniories of Gizeux, royal notary in Baugé, resident in Rillé (April 22, 1759 – August 18, 1783 ), bailiff of the barony of Rillé and the brother of Gatien Pierre Urbain Tulasne-Jaminière (1764, Rillé - 1823, Rillé), royal notary in Baugé resident in Rillé (3 October 1784 - 9 July 1816), of which there are descendants. by the women, who still own the domain of "La Jaminière". The notary office in Rillé still exists " 1 rue de l'Eglise ". It is a beautiful house. The great grandfather of Paul Tulane is Pierre Urbain Tulasne (1709, Hommes, Indre et Loire - 1749, Rillé), merchant, master butcher in Rillé.

On February 25, 1815, before a notary in Château-du-Loir (Indre et Loire, France), the two brothers divided the inheritance of their father Gatien, who died in 1783. The notary Gatien Pierre Urbain bought his brother Louis his share of land and farms for 5,925 Francs at the time, on Rillé (transcription of transfer act, February 25, 1815, archives of the department of Indre et Loire, France).

Paul Tulane, was educated in private schools, including Somerville Academy in New Jersey, until the age of fifteen. He worked briefly in a store in Princeton and then spent from 1818 three years traveling the southern United States with his first cousin Paul Tulasne-Jaminière (1795, Rillé – 1830, Tours), lawyer, son of notary Gatien Pierre Urbain Tulasne-Jaminière and his older brother Louis Stephen Tulane. Louis Tulane returned several times to France. On June 5, 1835, during a travel from Le Havre to New York, on the ship "Albany", he was designated: age 65, merchant, United States (source : document district of New York, Port of New York)

In 1840, Paul with his father, visited their native town, Rillé, and the commercial ports of France, and made his observations on the decadence of the foreign trade of the ports of Bordeaux (Louis the father had already left Bordeaux in 1790 - see source "Revue Touraine Généalogie") and Nantes because of the flight of slaves to the West Indies, convinced him that a similar fate would befall New Orleans in the event of emancipation in the United States.

It was from his two tours that Tulane developed a keen interest in New Orleans and in the economic, cultural, social and educational development of this state of New Orleans, devoting his fortune to it, which was already a quarter million dollars in 1840 (see source: office of Education: 1898)

In 1822, he established Paul Tulane and Co. in New Orleans, a retail and wholesale dry goods and clothing business. Later, he invested in real estate in both New Orleans and New Jersey. By 1828, he had amassed a fortune of over $150,000. His business operated for nearly 40 years. He retired with a large fortune in 1857. About this time he bought the John P. Stockton home in Princeton, now known as the Walter Lowrie House, where he subsequently resided. During the American Civil War, Tulane was the largest donor in New Orleans to the Confederate States of America, but the historian John D. Winters in his Civil War in Louisiana (1963) does not give the amount Tulane contributed.[1] For many years he gave liberally to the charitable institutions and Presbyterian churches of Princeton and New Orleans. He donated $300 (1874 value) to erect a Confederate monument in Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans. Tulane has been described as one of the most generous contributors to the Ladies' Benevolent Association of Louisiana; an institution dedicated to producing Confederate monuments.[2] In 1882, he donated $363,000 (1882 value) to improve higher education in the city of New Orleans. Tulane's Act of Donation ultimately resulted in the renaming of the University of Louisiana (founded as the Medical College of Louisiana) to The Tulane University of Louisiana, in his honor and turning the once public institution into a private one, the only such instance in United States history.

He died near Princeton and is buried in the Princeton Cemetery on Witherspoon Street. In his honor, he has several streets named after him throughout the country, including Tulane Street in Princeton, and Tulane Avenue in New Orleans.