Ernest Alysius Burguières
April 11, 1885 - May 29, 1959
Ernest Burguières served as secretary/treasurer and director of The J. M. Burguières, Co., Limited for 52 years. He ran the business operations of the company from an office at 827 Union Street in the business district of New Orleans. He lobbied in Washington D.C. on behalf of the sugar industry, and testified in numerous congressional hearings. Ernest was responsible for establishing significant leases for the company, particularly the company's initial oil leases with Standard Oil, and for all of the company's banking transactions. At the time, the company owned seven plantations: Cypremort, Florence, Inez, North Bend, St. Mary, Magnolia, and Midway Plantations, totaling approximately 14,000 acres of land. Ernest traveled back and forth between New Orleans and the plantations every week of his life, tending to the operations of the company until the week he died.
He married Isabella Moore, daughter of Robert Moore and Leila Hardie, both of prominent New Orleans families. Robert Moore became a valuable benefactor for the company during the Great Depression, when the banks would not loan the company money to plant.
Ernest was involved in the development of the Intracoastal Waterway, and in earlier years, had lived in West Palm Beach where he founded a land development company called Burguières & Chipley. Along with his brother Jules, he had invested in the Southern States Land and Timber Company.
In April 1932, President Herbert Hoover selected him to be Commissioner of Immigration for the New Orleans district. When objections by the junior senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, deadlocked the nomination, Hoover gave Ernest a recess appointment. The move, however, carried little weight. After the Senate reconvened in June, it acceded to a long-held custom never to approve a candidate over the opposition of a senator from the nominee's own state. Because of this, the Senate declined Ernest's appointment. (See Donna Onebane's, The The House That Sugarcane Built: J.M. Burguières, in publication for a 2014 release, Chapter 8.)
In 1912, Ernest was treasurer of the Kenilworth Sugar Company and chairman of the Republican Committee of Louisiana, lobbying in Washington D. C. for sugar growers. He was one of the organizers and leaders of the Domestic Sugar Producers' Association of the United States, president of the American Sugar Cane League for several years, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Sugar and Rice Exchange. He chaired the building campaign for Loyola University during its growth in the 1920s and was an organizer of the College of Commerce and Business Administration at Tulane University. Alcee Fortier, Louisiana historian and biographer, wrote that Ernest was "a man of pleasing personality with many friends in many walks of life...one of Louisiana's outstanding businessmen and one of New Orleans most prominent and valuable citizens."
Ernest was educated at Spring Hill College, Georgetown University and Kentucky State University. He was active in Mardi Gras organizations and was a Duke in the court of Rex in 1914 and 1915. He was also King Sucrose of the annual Sugar Cane Festival of New Iberia in 1938 and a member of the Boston Club of New Orleans. Following his death on May 29, 1959, he was initially interred in the Jules Burguières tomb at St. Helen's Cemetery at Florence Plantation, but he was moved to a ground crypt next to it a year later.
Isabella Moore
March 10, 1896 - March 21, 1979
- First child of Robert and Leila Hardie Moore.
- Granddaughter of John Timmons Hardie and Ann Eliza Gary Hardie and David Moore and Jane Duckworth Moore of Liverpool, England.
- Was born in New Orleans and traveled extensively, spending summers in England and New London, Connecticut.
- Educated by private tutors and at Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut.
- Maid in the court of the 1915 Mistick Krewe of Comus.
- Married in New London, Connecticut at "Moorlands," one of her parent's summer homes overlooking the Atlantic.
- Established the first female-owned antiques store on Magazine Avenue.
- Sought after as an appraiser of antiques, silver and other valuables for estate auctions.
- Buried in the Robert Moore family tomb in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans.
Children
- Ernest Alysius Burguières, Jr.
- Isabella Moore "Cherie" Burguières (died at age two)
- Leila Moore Marie Burguières (died at approximately eight months old)
- Joan Burguières
- Marie Robin Burguières
