Biography
Born in St.-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, Marchesseault was described as a carousing onetime New Orleans gambler.
During his term as Water Overseer of Los Angeles, Marchesseault and a partner laid wooden water pipes that burst and turned streets into sinkholes.
Struggling with mounting debts, he slipped into an empty Los Angeles City Hall Council chamber on Jan. 20, 1868, and shot himself to death.
Marcheassault Street in Los Angeles is named for him.
Read more about this topic: Damien Marchesseault
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)