Headline: Martin Donato Story Essential In Parish History
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Contributing Writer
Someone says Etha Amling, needs to be held accountable for recounting local history and the parishwide story of Martin Donato she says, is one worth retelling.
Amling, who has been embedded in the St. Landry Parish genealogy society for decades, is a direct descendant of Martin Donato, a free man of color who was a prodigious land owner and wealthy entrepreneur that at the time of his death in 1848, owned 90 slaves, according to probate records.
For 20 years Amling has been absorbed in researching the Martin Donato family. Eventually Amling plans to publish a book on Martin Donato and his impactful life.
Readers, Amling suspects, will enjoy reading about Donato, a man of material substance and culture, whose family roots can be traced to Italy, France and New Orleans.
“During the early 1800’s Martin Donato was the richest man in St. Landry. He owned nearly 8.000 acres of land. He also owned a cotton gin and he lent money to people and the records of those transactions were kept by his wife,” Amling told the Opelousas Noon Rotary Club on Tuesday
Extensive acreage controlled by Donato extended from the current location of the Wal-Mart Distribution Center between Port Barre and Opelousas, west to the Washington Road.
Martin Donato descendant Elizabeth Guillory and her husband Larry Davis have meticulously rehabilitated and are living in a Martin Donato-constructed Creole cottage located on 80 acres between Washington and Opelousas, said Amling..
The residence that historians think was finished around 1825, is on the National Register of Historic places.
Martin Donato was also quite prolific when it came to producing children, according to Amling.
Donato apparently fathered 18 children, seven by his wife and another seven came from a blue-eyed, mulatto slave named Julie, who was bought by Martin Donato at age five along with her mother, Amling said.
Several current parish families are descendants of Martin Donatto, said Amling, whose Semien family roots originated from Martin Donato.
It is alleged, said Amling, that by 14, Julie was living comfortably inside the Donato cottage where she slept in a room alongside the master bedroom.
Julie and her family were freed by Donato shortly before his death at 92 in 1848, Amling added. After the death of his wife Suzanne Moreau in 1832, Julie took care of Martin Donato, said Amling.
Amling displayed on Tuesday what she indicated is a painting of Julie.
Also exhibited before the Rotarians were three paintings of a seated Donato during various stages of his life.
One of those paintings, said Amling, was once displayed inside the St. Landry Parish Courthouse, but it disappeared several years ago and has not been recovered, she added.
The life of Donato, who was born in New Orleans in 1756, reflects a cultural and socioeconomic parish history that was common in antebellum Louisiana, Amling noted.
Although Louisiana law at the time forbade marriages between persons of color and whites, Amling pointed out that it was not uncommon to encounter mixed unions or cohabitation throughout the state.
Interestingly Amling thinks there was an economical and social connection between the Donato property and nearby Michel Prudhomme home and plantation located adjacent to Opelousas General Hospital.
It seems logical, Amling noted, that the two families knew one another quite well.
Somewhat ironically, said Amling, Larry Davis and Elizabeth Guillory received the 2022 annual restoration award presented by members of St. Landry Preservationists, Inc. for the efforts made by the couple in restoring the Martin Donato house.
Prudhomme is buried inside St. Landry Catholic Church, while Martin Donato and his family members are buried nearby in the church cemetery.
