Pierre Adolphe Rost

Pierre Adolphe Rost (1797 – September 6, 1868) was a Louisiana politician, diplomat, lawyer, judge, and plantation owner.

Born in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, France in 1797, Rost received his education at the École Polytechnique in Paris, where men were recruited into either the civil service or military service. As an artilleryman, he was credited for brave conduct in the defense of Paris on March 30, 1814. Rost applied for a commission in Napoleon's army after the Emperor's escape from Elba, but he was too late for the Battle of Waterloo.

Escaping from what he thought to be an oppressive régime, Rost emigrated to New Orleans, arriving in the spring of 1816. Then he became a teacher in Natchez, Mississippi, and studied law under Joseph Emory Davis, the brother of Jefferson Davis.

Next, Rost moved to , where the majority of the people spoke French, a factor he was confident would bolster the success of his law practice. In 1826, he was elected to the Louisiana State Senate, where he served for four years.

In 1830, Pierre Rost was nominated for Congress, but at the time of the nomination he was engaged to Louise Odile Destrehan [des Tours] (1802 - Feb. 24, 1877). When they decided to wed before the congressional elections, the distractions of marriage caused him to somewhat neglect his political campaign. The unfortunate result was that he was defeated by a few votes to Henry Adams Bullard.

Shortly after losing his bid for Congress, near the end of 1830 he moved with his family to New Orleans (his wife already had one or two children from a previous marriage) and resumed practicing law. Rost continued in his law practice for the next eight years, until the summer of 1838 when he took his family on a trip to Europe to visit his mother and sisters. The Rost family returned to the U.S. in the autumn.

...
Wikipedia