Dr. Armand Mercier
A person on Facebook was seeking help to find the tomb of Armand Mercier. I thought I might help him out so I went to my favorite site for New Orleans
Mercier, Dr. Armand | |
Date of Birth: | 1812-00-00 |
Death date: | 1885-09-07 |
Age: | 73 years |
Sex: | M |
Notes: | One of the most distinguished medical scientists in |
Obituary citation(s): | |
· Daily Picayune, 1885-09-08, Pg. 4 col. 4 | |
· Daily Picayune, 1885-09-08, Pg. 4 col. 6 | |
· Daily Picayune, 1885-09-13, Pg. 10 col. 5 | |
Biographical Reference(s): | Fortier, Alcée. Tinker. Escrits de Langue |
http://nopl.minisisinc.com/NOPL/scripts/mwimain.dll/491/1/0?SEARCH&ERRMSG=[WWW_NOPL]NoRecord.htm/ 11/8/11
Wow! “One of the most distinguished medical scientists in New Orleans
I went to East Bank Regional Library to look at the Daily Picayune microfilm and obtain the obits. They are shown on the next below.
Daily Picayune, 1885-09-08 Pg 4,
Daily Picayune, 1885-09-13, Pg 10, Col
Obits for Dr. Armand Mercier
The Daily Picayune microfilm is difficult to read but we can learn several interesting things about Dr. Armand. He was born in New Orleans Paris
However there is no information that I can glean from the obit which addresses either his funeral or his grave.
Going back to Page 1, there are two references, one in English and one in French. Below is the information from the first reference.
Mercier, Dr. Armand, late of New Orleans, enjoyed the distinction of acting as the first president of L’ Athénée Louisiannais[1], society composed of Louisiana men of letters, which has for its purpose the promulgation and the preservation of the French language and its literature among Louisianians, He capably filled this position of honor up to Jan., 1881 when he was succeeded by Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard. Dr. Mercier was a man of culture and literary attainments and contributed a number of articles to Competus Redus, the official organ of the above mentioned society. Shortly after his death in 1885 he was ardently eulogized before the society in a paper by Lèona Queyrouze, entitled “Dr. Armand Mercier’s Death.”
I tried to find L’ Athénée Louisiannais Competus Redus at the library but it could not be found the day I was there.
Adjacent to the information from Fortier above is a longer write-up regarding Dr. Alfred Mercier, the brother of Armand. Apparently he is even more accomplished than Armand.
I went to my favorite free sites for family trees, Rootsweb and Family Search, but found very little info.
Next I went to Mocavo, a new site which returns gobs of information but it is not well prioritized. I search with quotes around Armand Mercier. I found a number of items:
- There is a Mercier Family Organization at http://www.famillesmercier.org/
- They need to add Albert and Armand to their “Outstanding Personages.”
- “Dr. Armand Mercier, the most celebrated surgeon in
New Orleans - There is a listing for his Armand’s death certificate in USGWarchives
The next site of interest is, like Mocavo, returns lots of stuff and it is not well prioritized: Google/Books. Again I searched for “Armand Mercier” and only considered entries consistent with his birth in 1812 and his death in 1885.
This yielded a very interesting assortment of publications regarding Armand in various sectors including court cases, medical procedures, L’ Athénée Louisiannais and Creole Culture. He is truly a man of many talents.
Finally around the 10th page of Google book search, I found some interesting results.
This is the Second Reference on Page 1. The complete text is available online.
“Respectfully Dedicated to Monsieur the Doctor Armand Mercier” This is the Eulogy mentioned on page 3, again available entirely online.
To reach these documents directly you could search for “Escrits de Langue Fran caise en Louisiane” and “Armand Mercier” for the first one.
I did not find the tomb of Dr. Armand Mercier but I learned he was a very smart person with a broad spectrum of activities. Perhaps there is further info in these two eulogies which are in French or in his death certificate.
November 8, 2011
