E. D. Estilette

Edmond Ducre Estilette, known as E. D. Estilette (December 19, 1833 – November 7, 1919), was a lawyer and state district court judge from Opelousas, Louisiana, who from 1872 to 1877 was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives during the era of Reconstruction. In 1876, he was the House Speaker, sandwiched in between the terms of the Republican Michael Hahn of St. Charles Parish in suburban New Orleans.^[1]

Biographical sketch

A native of St. Landry Parish in South Louisiana, Estilette attended the former St. Charles College in Grand Coteau.^[2] In 1857, Estilette received a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical studies from Yale University. While in New Haven, Connecticut, he married the former Fannie Thompson Bacon (1834-1897), whom he outlived by more than twenty years. The couple had one child, Julia B. Estinette Dupré (1860-1944). Estilette's sister-in-law married a Yale professor, Eugene L. Richards.^[3][4]

After returning to St. Landry Parish from Yale, Estilette engaged briefly in school teaching and was the editor of an independent newspaper The Opelousas Patriot. The publication was razed in the spring of 1863 in an invasion of U.S. Army troops during the American Civil War. Estilette then turned solely to his law practice and was appointed and then elected district attorney of the 8th Judicial District, which then encompassed St. Landry as well as Calcasieu, Lafayette, and Vermilion parishes in southwestern Louisiana. He was the state House Speaker under terms of the Wheeler Compromise. A decade after his legislative service ended, Estilette was appointed Judge of the 13th Judicial District, which consistes of St. Landry and Acadia parishes. In 1888, he resumed his legal practice. Over the years he was associated in the practice of law with not only his son-in-law but also Judge John E. King.^[2]

Judge Estilette is interred with other family members, including the Duprés, at Myrtle Grove Cemetery in Opelousas.^[2]

References