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Louisa (Gardiner) Lesslie (1815 - 1860)

Louisa Lesslie formerly Gardiner
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniamap
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 45 [location unknown]
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Profile last modified | Created 28 Oct 2017
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Biography

http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm


THE GEORGE LESSLIE FAMILY

BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian

Within the first few years of the founding of Ponchatoula the Lesslie family moved from New Orleans and became part of the fabric of our community.

George Gardner Lesslie was born in New Orleans 26 Feb. 1841 and lived with his family in the Crescent City until he was approaching manhood. He was the son of Peter W. Lesslie (b. ca. 1814 in LA) and Louisa ______ (b. ca. 1820 in PA). When the census was conducted in 1860, George Lesslie was living with his family in New Orleans and working as a pattern maker.

When the Civil War began in the spring of 1861, George came to Ponchatoula and enlisted in Company K of the Seventh Louisiana Infantry. This company of mostly Ponchatoula men was called "The Livingston Rifles" {Ponchatoula was then in Livingston Parish}, and was led by future Ponchatoula mayor Thomas M. Terry. George and the other men of this company were enrolled into Confederate service May 5, 1861 at Camp Moore, located near Tangipahoa, LA. After a few weeks of marching and drilling, George and the other men of the regiment were sent by train to Virginia and became part of Robert E. Lee's fabled Army of Northern Virginia.

On September 17, 1862, General Lee's army fought off a Federal force about twice its size in the vicious struggle at Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle of Sharpsburg, or Antietam as the Yankees called it, was the bloodiest day in American history with more men killed or wounded than on any other day in that war or since that time.

George was hit in the shoulder by an enemy musket ball and lay bleeding on the field as the Yankee forces surged over his position. He was captured and sent to hospital in Frederick, MD, which was part of a prison of war camp. After a few months his wound healed sufficiently so that he was exchanged in the spring of 1862 and re-entered Confederate service. George was also wounded in the Battle of Bristoe Station when a bullet pierced his left leg. Because of the multiple wounds he had received and had not properly healed, George was given a medical discharge in the autumn of 1863 and returned to Ponchatoula.

New Orleans was occupied by the enemy when George came back to Louisiana, and his father and some other family members may have left the Crescent City to come to the Confederate controlled Northshore. Within a year of his discharge from the army, George married Mary Jane Davis, who was born 1 Oct. 1836 in Mobile, Alabama. They were married 3 Aug. 1864 at Yellow Water, west of Ponchatoula by Livingston Parish Justice of the Peace, Dan Settoon.

Still suffering from his wounds, George and Mary farmed a small place in the piney woods north of Ponchatoula and began their family. As he aged, George's wounds from the war continued to plague him. In November 1898, he applied to the state for pensions then being authorized for needy Confederate veterans, and was soon approved for the assistance.

George's father Peter W. Lesslie had moved to Ponchatoula sometime in the 1860's. He purchased Lots 7 & 8 in Square 25 in the town of Ponchatoula from German immigrant Michael Biegel in March 1869. Michael Biegel operated a grocery store on Lot Eight, which is today the site of the Ponchatoula Fire Department and Ponchatoula Police Station complex. Peter Lessie and his wife Mary J. Lesslie sold the same property back to Michael Biegel in Jan. 1871. Peter Lesslie and his wife continued to live in the Ponchatoula area for many years and were living north of Ponchatoula near their son George in 1880.

George G. Lesslie and Mary Jane Davis Lesslie were living near Ponchatoula in 1900, and George was working as a carpenter. Living in the household at that time were their daughters Louise and Jessie, and their son Jim.

George G. Lesslie died at his home 26 May 1902 and was buried in the Wetmore Cemetery west of Ponchatoula. George and Mary had nine children, of whom the names of the following are known to this writer: Peter W., b. ca. 1865, d. 1928 in New Orleans, m. Gardis F. Dilly; George; Florence, b. ca. 1870; Norman Gardner, b. ca. 1875, d. 1912 in New Orleans, probably buried in Wetmore Cemetery; Louise V., b. ca. 1878, m. Tim Murphy, living in New Orleans in 1933; James "Jim" M. Davis, b. Oct. 1881, living in Hammond in 1936, d. 1962, m. Alice Howell; and Jessie Lesslie, b. ca. 1883.

After her husband's death Mary Lesslie applied for and eventually received a Confederate widow's pension from the state of Louisiana. She moved to Hammond by 1910 and was living with her son Jim, who like his father was a carpenter. In 1930, Mary was boarding with the Clarence and Edith Hooks family in Hammond. After a long and useful life, Mary died 2 Nov. 1933 in Hammond at the age of 98, and was buried beside George in Wetmore Cemetery.

Anyone with questions, comments, or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.

Sources





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