Daughter of an Austrian banker
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 smae time as theFrench Revolution. The negroes in Haiti came from the desert tribes andwarriors in Africa. The mulattoes had the warrior blood mixed with thearistocratic French blood . They were no longer content to be slaves andstarted slaughtering the whites. Many whites escaped with their livesonly.
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 tellthem where her gold was hidden . They tied her ahir to the mane of ahorse and let the horse drag her to her death. she was an Austrianbanker's duahgter Margarita von Hoff.
Marie Rosalie Merlin had a string of pearls and when she and LouisJean Lusson were driven down to board a ship the mob was after them shethrew one peaarl at a time to the mob and they would scramble after itand it helped them escape.
A piece of a New Orleans newspaper wasframed in back of the minaitures dated 1815 so they must have lived inNew Orleans until then. some of the children probably stayed longer.
An Augustinian priest, a gentleman, that Imet at St. Denis parish where we had a mausoleum had just returned fromNew Orleans. He knew my son Louis when he and his brother were at aCatholic boarding school. This particular day he asked me if any of myfamily lived in New Orleans. He told me he saw portraits of the Lussonsand Merlins in the Catildo the old Spanish Museum in New orleans. It isbeing renovated and the protraits are all put away and no one seems toknow where a list is . The renovation may take another year but I intendto get photographs some time in the future. Today there are some richMerlins in New Orleans. I phoned on eand he told me they were Russianand all related. They are probably Russian Jews. There are now Lussonsin the directory.
