Valery BORDELON
Birth: About 1782, probably in Avoyelles Parish Death: 6 AUG 1858 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Occupation: Planter Burial: 7 AUG 1858 St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Cemetery, Mansura, Louisiana His birth date is figured from the 1850 census which give his age as 67 years. His baptismal record has not been found. Became a Major of the Avoyelles Battalion in 1825. He owned a large plantation in what is a major part of the town of Cottonport today. HIs land was sold to Joseph Ducote. It is possible that Valery Bordelon built the Hypolite Bordelon museum home in Marksville in the early 1800s. Hypolite was one of Valery's sons, and experts believe the home was built between XXX, and XXXX. Father: ANTOINE BORDELON I b: 1733 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana Territory Mother: Marguerite Perrine FREDERIC b: 1747 in New Orleans, Louisiana Territory Marriage 1 Constance JOFFRION b: 1 SEP 1784 in Ouachita Post, Louisiana Married: ABT 1800 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana 1 The 1840 Census shows Valery with one daughter at home. Avoyelles Parish, Roll 128, Book 1, Page 274, Image 3 of 40. Children Valery BORDELON II b: 3 SEP 1801 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Marguerite BORDELON b: 15 JUN 1803 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Hypolite H. BORDELON I b: FEB 1806 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana c: 2 SEP 1806 in St. Paul the Apostle Church, Mansura, Louisiana Appolinaire BORDELON I b: 3 NOV 1807 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Genevieve BORDELON b: AUG 1810 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana c: 18 NOV 1810 in St. Paul the Apostle Church, Mansura, Louisiana Julie BORDELON b: 1830 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Marriage 2 Celeste JOFFRION b: 8 MAY 1799 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Married: 8 OCT 1840 in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana The 1850 Census shows Valery as a widower. Living with him was his daughter Julie. They were living between the widow Hypolite Mayeux (Feroline Bordelon) and the widow Valerien Baron (Genevieve Bordelon). Avoyelles Parish, Roll 229, Book 1, Page 134a, dated September 26, 1850 by Louis Bordelon, Assistant Marshall. Obituary of Valery Bordelon which appeared in the Marksville Villager newspaper:
(Copyright, Avoyelles Publishing Company) Aug. 14, 1858 p. 2 Col. Valery Bordelon God is ordering back his men up above, exclaimed, in 1845, Marshall Scott, as he saw the death of several generals who had been present at the bloodiest battles of the Empire. Alas! Louisiana also God orders back his men of Louisiana for every day he snatches from our midst those men of the Eighteenth century, who, alone, have seen by ten generations of their prosterity. Blessed are they whose birth was coeval with that of the American Republic and with the French Revolution! They carry with them in the grave an eple poem more sublime than ever written. Col. Bordelon was one of the most brilliant specimens for the chivalrous old Creoles whom death decimates unsparingly with the daring bravery which characterized the French nobleman who gave the privileges of first fire to the English at the battle of Fontenay, then he hurried to New Orleans, La. 1815 at the first news of the invasion. Proud and brave and conscious of his merits, he refused the simple duties of a solider and said; Captain or nothing: and a company was given him,---- with which he did glorious work. Col. Valery Bordelon died, having lead a life well and nobly spent. To him could __?_ applied, as to the immortal Bayard, the word: “Without fear and without reproach”. Without fear and without reproach! no better, no more eloquent epitaph could be written upon a tombstone! Though he knew Col. Bordelon personally we had not had the good fortune of __?__ hands two or three times; yet we had been struck with the dignity and nobleness which distinguished him. We shall not soon forget the tall old gentleman who bore with so much buoyancy the three quarters of a century which he had run, and who lies down in his grave surrounded by so many sympathies. Editor of The Villager