When Oscar Gabriel Richard, St., died on July 4, 1923, Louisiana lost one of its “captains of the sugar industry.” Oscar Richard, Sr. developed the process of refining and canning the famous Golden Gate syrup can that became synonymous with Sunshine in Louisiana’s East Iberville Parish. The boats loaded the syrup from the dock of his sugar factory in Sunshine for transport to several parts of the country. Alongside his sugar factory which produced the syrup, Oscar owned all or part of several plantations: “Golden Gate”, “Avery”, “Willow Glen”, “Magnolia”, and “Granada”. His industry and talent allowed him to rise from clerk in his father’s small store in Fourth Ward, then known as Forlorn Hope, to one of the most important planters and businessmen in Sunshine.
Oscar Richard’s roots were French. Some of his French ancestors came to Nova Scotia before settling in Louisiana, and others came to Louisiana directly from France. His first ancestor was Michel Richard, born in France around 1630. Oscar was descended from Pierre, son of Michel, (b 1662), who married Marguerite Landrie around 1688. The eldest of Pierre’s sons, René (b 1689), continued the descendant of Oscar and married Marie-Josephe Babin around 1711, and their son Claude (b. around 1716, d. February 11, 1747) became Oscar’s ancestor. Claude married Cécile Melançon (b. c. 1720), daughter of Jean Melançon and Marmite Dugas on November 21, 1740. Their son Joseph (b. November 23, 1744, d. November 24, 1793) continued the link to Oscar.
Joseph Richard, son of Claude and Cécile Melançon of Acadia, was orphaned during the “Great Disturbance” of the Acadians by the British in 1755. His name and age (12) appear on the list of Acadians in Maryland early after the Acadians were transported there. He arrived in Louisiana with other Acadian immigrants from Maryland after the Spanish took control of Louisiana. Records indicate that he was the first to settle in Ascension Parish, marrying Anna Landry, at Ascension Catholic Church in Donaldsonville on June 6, 1774. He settled in the eastern part of Ascension Parish. Iberville immediately after his second marriage on April 26, 1784, to Cécile Dupuis (b. around 1769, d. March 7, 1799), daughter of Jean-Baptiste Dupuy and Anna Richard, childless widow of Joseph Brand.
The son of Joseph and Cécile Dupuis, Pedro Paulo (Pierre Paul) (b. December 3, 1787; d. January 10, 1834), was Oscar’s grandfather. He married Marie Brassett (b. May 25, 1795), daughter of Joseph Brassett and Théodose Goudreau, on November 23, 1812, in St-Gabriel. His estate, dated 1835, mentions two children: Victorine and Pierre. Pierre (b. December 26, 1823) was Oscar’s father. On April 18, 1846, he married Amélia Ramouin (b. September 11, 1829; d. July 6, 1888) daughter of Foseph Barthelomi Ramouin of France and Marie Émélie Hébert of Sunshine.
Oscar Gabriel Richard, Sr. was born in Sunshine, Louisiana, on November 28, 1860, too late in the year for his birth to be recorded on the 1860 census. On this 1860 census, Pierre Richard, is listed as a farmer, and Marie Amélia Ramouin already had three children; Marie Émilie (9), Agnès Cécile (5), and Joseph B. (3). On the 1870 census to the family: Oscar (10), Alfred (5), and Alice (4). On the 1880 census, Oscar was a store clerk; at 20 years. He had probably begun his illustrious career. Marie was born on February 13, 1861, and died on June 15, 1953, in New Orleans, where she resided with her daughter Gertrude.
Sources: Les Richard d’Amérique du 17e au 20e siècle / Research P. Richard