Grubb Family Tree

From Baptismal Certificate of Louis Jean Lusson of St. Simelio parish at Nantes:

The 18th of November 1754 has been baptized in this church Louis Jean née yesterday, son of the legitimate marriage of Pierre Lusson and Jeanne Cormier, his wife, has been godfather Mr. Louis Beranger and godmother Perrine Le Masson who have signed with us the father present P Le Masson Louis BerangŽ Pierre compte Pierre cacuet Pierre Lusson and Hawzante Vicaire

From a letter 2 February 1968 by Louis C. O. Lusson, Wayne Pennsylvania to Elizabeth Maynard Grubb:

The negro revolution took place in Haiti about the same time as the French Revolution. The negroes in Haiti came from the desert tribes and warriors in Africa. The mulattoes had the warrior blood mixed with the aristocratic French blood. They were no longer content to be slaves and started slaughtering the whites. Many whites escaped with their lives only.
Louis Jean Lusson and Marie Rosalie Merlin, his wife, escaped to New Orleans. Madame Merlin (Margarita Von Hoff) refused to leave her home and was killed by negroes. She refused to tell them where her gold was hidden. They tied her hair to the mane of a horse and let the horse drag her to her death. She was an Austrian banker's daughter Margarita von Hoff.
Marie Rosalie Merlin had a string of pearls and when she and Louis Jean Lusson were driven down to board a ship the mob was after them she threw one pearl at a time to the mob and they would scramble after it and it helped them escape.
A piece of a New Orleans newspaper was framed in back of the minaitures dated 1815 so they must have lived in New Orleans until then. Some of the children probably stayed longer.
An Augustinian priest, a gentleman, that I met at St. Denis parish where we had a mausoleum had just returned from New Orleans. He knew my son Louis when he and his brother were at a Catholic boarding school. This particular day he asked me if any of my family lived in New Orleans. He told me he saw portraits of the Lussons and Merlins in the Catildo the old Spanish Museum in New Orleans. It is being renovated and the portraits are all put away and no one seems to know where a list is. The renovation may take another year but I intend to get photographs some time in the future. Today there are some rich Merlins in New Orleans. I phoned one and he told me they were Russian and all related. They are probably Russian Jews. There are now Lussons in the directory. . . [genealogical data back to Louis VI of France]

From "L’influence de la franc-maçonnerie française dans le Département Oriental de Cuba dans les années 1820 – Les apports de la prosopographie" by Agnès Renault and REHMLAC:

A la Nouvelle-Orléans, l’ancien réfugié Louis Jean Lusson créa un Grand Consistoire des Princes du Royal Secret, dans lequel étaient inscrits quelques-uns des ex-réfugiés de Santiago tels Pierre Joseph Duhulquod[3] et le médecin Christian Miltenberger.

.....

D’autres maçons célèbres étaient rentrés. C’est notamment le cas de Louis Jean Lusson, qui apparaît dans la documentation en 1819. Le Français Jean Favier lui vendit une hacienda qu’il possédait dans le parage Ojo del Agua, car il s’était retrouvé “sans le sou”. Lusson lui avait remis 1000 pesos, ce qui correspondait au tiers de la valeur de l’hacienda. Il devait lui faire un second versement après la récolte de 1820 et un troisième avec celle de 1821.[9] Lusson fit son testament le 17 avril 1821, déclarant être âgé.[10] Deux de ses enfants, Louis et Rosalie Emilie, firent une procuration à Antonio Soler en 1826 pour qu’il réalise “l’inventaire, la division et répartition, des biens laissés par doña Rosalie Merlin” leur mère. Ceci laisse supposer que Lusson mourut entre 1821 et 1826.[11]

[3] Il exploitait une terre dans le district de Zacatecas et Jean Baptiste Desbois était son voisin. Ce dernier était aussi membre du Grand Consistoire de Louisiane.
....
[9] AHPSC (Archivo Historico Provincial de Santiago de Cuba) 66f37v 3f216, 21 septembre 1819
[10] Ibid. 15f94, 17 avril 1821
[11] Ibid. 77f344v, novembre de 1826

According to Scott Ferrel, online source:

Lussons:
Pierre LUSSON of France m. Jeanne CORMIER.

Their son Jean Louis LUSSON b. Sept. 1754 at Nantes (Loire-Atlantique).Jean Louis LUSSON m. Marie Rosalie MERLIN in Haiti. They fled from Haiti to New Orleans during the Haitian revolution.They had issue:Louis, Marie, Eugenie, Hortense, Eugene (b. New Orleans circa 1806), and Jean Camille Modeste LUSSON (b. New Orleans 1808).The New Orleans port record referring to Eugene in 1823 might relate to this family.

Our line then continues from Jean Camille Modeste LUSSON, who left New Orleans as a young man, emigrating to Cuba where he owned a sugar plantation near Santiago.He married Adele Schweig (or Schueg) in 1833, presumably in Cuba. Adele predeceased Jean Camille, who died in Cuba in 1846, leaving his three children under the care of their maternal grandparents.Of the surviving three children, mentioned elsewhere on this board, the daughter Marie Rosalie (b. 1828) emigrated to France and the two sons (Louis Modeste b.1836 and Pierre Merlin b.1840) emigrated to the United States.