Étienne de Boré

Étienne de Boré
1st Mayor of New Orleans
In office December 20, 1803 – May 26, 1804
Succeeded by	James Pitot
Personal details
Born	(1741-12-27)December 27, 1741 Kaskaskia, Upper Louisiana, New France
Died	February 1, 1820(1820-02-01) (aged 78) New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Spouse	Marie Marguerite d'Estrehan

Jean Étienne de Boré (27 December 1741 – 1 February 1820) was a French planter who was known for producing the first granulated sugar in Spanish Louisiana, and essentially making sugar cane profitable as a commodity crop. He was prominent there at the time of the Louisiana Purchase; in 1803 the American governor of the territory appointed him the first mayor of New Orleans under the U.S. administration.

Early life and education

He was born to French colonists in Kaskaskia, Illinois Country, then under French control as part of La Louisiane. His parents sent him to France to be educated. He spent most of his life there. On leaving school he entered French military service in the Musketeers of the Guard, which was part of the royal household and very prestigious.

After a visit to Louisiana on business, he was transferred to the cavalry. Boré left the army with the rank of captain.

Marriage and family

He married Marie Marguerite d'Estrehan, of one of the most prominent families of colonial Louisiana. Her father Jean Baptiste d'Estrehan was the Royal Treasurer of French Louisiana and worked from Paris.

Sugar granulation and New Orleans' first mayor

Boré owned a great plantation a few miles upriver of New Orleans on the Mississippi River, in the vicinity of New Orleans' Audubon Park. There he had originally cultivated indigo. But when this product lost its market as a result of competition from Guatemala, he converted his fields to sugar cane. On his plantation, he set up a sugar mill. In 1795, with the aid of two Cubans, Mendez and Lopez, he produced the first granulated sugar known in the colony. This created a huge demand for the cultivation and processing of sugar cane. Responding to the worldwide demand for sugar, it became the colony's primary commodity crop. Louisiana began to generate profits.

After the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase territory, Boré was appointed, in late 1803, as the first mayor of New Orleans by the Governor of the Orleans Territory, William C. C. Claiborne. (Boré's service to the city began during the transitional French governorship of Pierre Clément de Laussat.) Boré resigned in May of 1804, to look after his personal affairs.

He died at about eighty years old and was interred in New Orleans' Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1. One of his grandchildren, Charles Gayarré, became a noted historian of Louisiana later in the 19th century.

New Orleans has a Boré Street, in honor of the first Mayor.

External links

• Étienne de Boré, New Orleans Public Library's transcription of a Works Progress Administration (1930s) compilation of local research on New Orleans' mayors.
• Étienne de Boré's tenure as mayor, Kendall's History of New Orleans, Chapter 4