Tristram Tupper Jr. ^{2 3 4 5 6 7 8}

   FamilySearch ID: K6M5-GS7.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Census in 1850 in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ¹⁰ The 1850 census recorded in the parishes of St. Phillip and St. Michaels Tris. Tupper, merchant, 60, living with wife Eliza, 50; Tristram Jun., clerk, 19; Catherine, 16; George, 11; Cordelia D., 9; and Richard, 3. His real estate was valued at $7000. Everyone was born in South Carolina except Tristram in Maine.

2. Residence: Age: 48 Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Self in 1880 in New Orleans, Orleans, LA. ⁵

3. Residence: Tristram Tupper Jr., 4 Franklin Street.. in 1861 in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ¹¹ The 1861 Charleston Census recorded these Tuppers:

2 Ann Street, brick, Samuel Y. Tupper, occupant and owner.
74 Broad Street, brick, office of James Tupper, owner.
76 Broad Street, brick, James Tupper owner, office of Henry W. Carr.
58 Church Street, brick, Samuel Y. Tupper, owner; occupant William H. Swinton.
4 Franklin Street, brick, Tristram Tupper Jr., occupant and owner.
241 Meeting Street, wood, James Tupper, occupant and owner.
5 Prioleau Street, brick, Estate Thomas Napier, owner; occupant Tristram Tupper & Son.
30 Smith Street, wood, James Tupper, owner; occupant Morris Edwards, f. p. c.
52 Tradd Street, brick, Tristram Tupper, owner and occupant.

4. Occupation: Tupper & Sons commission merchants, 5 Prioleau Street in 1861 in Charleston, Charleston, SC. ¹¹ The 1861 Charleston Census recorded:
5 Prioleau Street, brick, Estate Thomas Napier, owner; occupant Tristram Tupper & Son.

5. Book: Biography of Tristam Tupper Jr., 1914. ¹²
From "Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form" published in 1914:

Tupper, Tristram, was born in Charleston, S. C., July 4, 1831, the fifth son of Tristram Tupper of Dresden, Me., and Elizabeth Harral Yoer of Charleston. He was educated in Charleston under that distinguished educator, Dr. Braus, LL. D., president of Charleston college, the father of Dr. J. D. Bruns and grandfather of Dr. H. Dickson Bruns of New Orleans. Dr. J. D. Bruns and the South Carolina poet, Henry Timrod, were schoolmates and intimate friends of Tristram Tupper.

Through such influences, he acquired a studious habit and closer application to whatever he undertook. After leaving college, he entered the office of his brother, the Hon. James Tupper, who was master of the court of equity of South Carolina for a number of years, intending to study law. Owing to the death of his brother, Furman Tupper, who at the early age of 21 was captain of a company of South Carolina volunteers in the Mexican war, he was sent as the representative of T. Tupper & Sons of Charleston to look after the firm's business with the sugar planters of Louisiana, with whom the firm did a large commission and purchasing business.

He proved such a success on this first trip, that his father induced him to continue, and at an early age, he became a member of the firm of T. Tupper & Sons, which had been established about 1812 by T. Tupper, Sr. During T. Tupper, Jr.'s visit to Bayou Teche, he met and married Miss Sidney Conrad Palfrey, the daughter of Judge and State Sen. William Taylor Palfrey, and Sidney Thurston Conrad, sister of Charles Magill Conrad, the secretary of war under Filmore. The Hon. Charles M. Conrad was originally from Virginia, but he moved to Louisiana with his father's family, and he represented that state as United States senator before, and Confederate States senator during the Civil war.

Miss Palfrey was sent to Georgetown convent at an early age, owing to the death of her mother, and to the fact that her uncle, C. M. Conrad, as a member of the cabinet, resided in Washington, and with whom she spent her week-end holidays. After their marriage, T. Tupper, Jr., returned to live in Charleston and there they resided until the breaking out of the Civil war.

His brother Frederick was then sent to Louisiana to assume charge of that part of the firm's affairs. T. Tupper, Sr., fearing a long struggle between the states, sent T. Tupper, Jr., with exchange on England to Louisiana to pay for all the sugar and molasses purchased and held on consignment by the firm. Before he could ship the sugar purchased in Louisiana, the blockade of Charleston had taken place and he was compelled to ship the sugar via Memphis, and the Memphis & Charleston R. R. to the Carolinas.

As soon as he could return to Charleston, he joined the Marion artillery and served during the remainder of the war on the coast of South Carolina under Gen. Beauregard. The latter offered him the quartermastership of his division with headquarters at Columbia, S. C., which he refused, saying that he had joined the army to fight, not to do clerical work. As an explanation of this offer of Gen. Beauregard, it may be stated that T. Tupper, Sr., was president of the South Carolina R. R. about that time, and was its first vice-president when the road was built, afterwards succeeding Gov. Aiken as president when the latter resigned.

The army of South Carolina was rushed to relieve Gen. Lee, but the surrender took place before they reached him. With the exception of James Tupper, who had been made lame by a fall in early childhood, all of T. Tupper, Jr.'s brothers were in the Confederate army. Samuel V. Tupper was on Kirby Smith's staff, Frederick Tupper in the Marion artillery, and George Tupper colonel in Wade Hampton's cavalry division, C. S. A. During the bombardment of Charleston, T. Tupper, Jr., sent his family with 3 competent servants, all slaves, to Williamston, S. C., where they remained until after the war.

With nothing but his country home left, the city home having been sold, he went to New York to see what the prospects were for going into business with no capital. Such firms as Morton Bliss & Co., and Phelps, Dodge & Co. received him very cordially, and all the firms with whom T. Tupper & Sons had been doing business offered to give them any credit they needed to start business again. T. Tupper, Sr., had been in business for 50 years without having failed or encountering any trouble.

After returning from the North, T. Tupper, Jr., came to New Orleans to renew his business relations with the planters of Louisiana, organizing the firm of Price, Hine & Tupper, of which he was the general manager. Previous to that, however, he bought sugar and molasses for his old New York constituents. Price, Hine & Tupper did a large commission business, and in connection with this organized the Attakapas Mail Transportation Co. to connect with the Morgan, Louisiana & Texas R. R. at Brashear City, afterwards Morgan City.

At one time the company had 3 steamboats, the Minnie Avery, St. Mary and Iberia, as well as a small mail boat running between Morgan City and St. Martinville, and with stage lines from New Iberia to Opelousas and to Lafayette and as far west as Orange, Tex.

T. Tupper, Jr., having early considered the Avery salt mines as the most valuable asset of Louisiana, tried to organize a railroad company to convey the salt to New Iberia, but was unable to get the capital. Mr. Chouteau, of St. Louis, afterwards leased the mines and the steamer Minnie Avery was built to bring the salt, via Berwick's Bay, but the outside passage was too rough for a river boat.

In 1874 Mr. Tupper sent Mr. Edwin de Leon to England, where a large subscription to stock was raised to organize a stock company to develop these mines, but when the fight on the 14th of September, that year, took place the subscribers feared that another civil war was about to start and withdrew their subscription.

In the reconstruction period, Metropolitan and U. S. troops were sent to put down the uprising in the Teche parishes, but when the troops reached Morgan City, all the boats belonging to the Attakapas Trans. Co. were disabled, their president, Mr. T. Tupper, having reached Morgan City before the troops. One boat was aground in Grand Lake; one lost a wheel, and the third boat had an engine disabled. For this ''mishap,'' he was arrested, brought to New Orleans and put under a $5,090 bond, but was never tried. Mr. Charles M. Conrad was his attorney and bondsman.

During the time of Mr. Tupper's efforts to build the Avery-Iberia R. R., he took to the salt works many distinguished men, among them being Sen. Don Cameron of Philadelphia. As a matter of Louisiana history as early as 1812, John G. Palfrey, of Palfrey & Shepherd, Mrs. Tupper 's grandfather, a New Orleans cotton press owner, who had retired and moved to Teche, made salt from the salt springs on Avery's Island, then known as Petite Anse, the property of the Marsh family, one of whom Judge Avery married.

Mr. Tupper was for years vice-president of the chamber of commerce, when Mr. Joseph Oglesby was president, which body often selected him to represent them in Washington, D. C., on most important matters.

One of Mr. Tupper 's greatest ambitions was to open up a business with the countries south of us. In fact, at one time, success was about to crown his efforts, when united efforts through jealousy of other southern ports combined to crush the project. But he has lived to see many of his ambitious enterprises realized.

Price, Hine & Tupper continued in business until 1873, when the crisis of that year compelled their New York correspondents and bankers to call in loans. The banks of New Orleans became involved and a number failed, which, joined with the failure of the sugar crop of Louisiana and inability to collect money due by the planters, caused the failure of Price, Hine & Tupper.

At that time the Attakapas Mail Transportation Co. lost the mail contract for Bayou Teche. The steamer Iberia was put on the mail route to Port Eads and the Minnie Avery put on the Atchafalaya river, when she struck a snag and went to the bottom without insurance. Capt. Muggah, who was in command, was the hero of the Last Island, who, when he found the storm raging too high for his boat to weather, cut off the cabin, anchored to the windward of Last Island and saved a number of lives of his patrons whom he picked up out of the water and put them in the hold of his vessel until the storm abated. Their only food for several days was pickled fiddlers that the gentlemen caught and put into a pickle bottle that was half full of vinegar.

When the New Orleans & Brazilian S. S. Co. was organized about 1876, Mr. Tupper was elected president and went to Washington with Gen. Bussey representing the cotton exchange at New Orleans to urge the passage of a bill before Congress to pay American ships for carrying the mail direct from New Orleans and New York to Brazil, instead of paying the English ships to carry first to England and from there to Brazil. After spending 2 sessions of Congress in Washington, the bill was defeated,

John Roach & Sons of Philadelphia offered to build the ships and put two in the New Orleans trade, which would have given 1 steamer a month between New Orleans and Brazil, if the New Orleans merchants would take $150,000 in stock. As it was impossible to get subscription to this amount, the enterprise fell through.

During his stay in Washington, Mr. Tupper worked with the representatives from southern Louisiana to have the Mississippi river commission organized. While in Washington, he formed a connection with the Barber Asphalt Paving Co., and after a number of years of hard work and the assistance of Mr. Charles A. Whitney and A. C. Hutchison and other St. Charles avenue property owners, St. Charles avenue, which was impassable during the bad weather in winter, was paved. This is a monument to his energy and perseverance.

Mr. Tupper is living at this time, in the 83d year, and up to a year ago was actively employed in business. Mr. Tupper comes from an ancient family, of Saxon origin. Martin Farquhar Tupper of Norwood, London, wrote, on Jan. 14, 1882: ''There was a Thuringian magnate by the name of Conrad Von Treffurth who, in 1260, was hailed von Toppherr, or chief lord of many clans.'' Being Protestant and hostile to Charles V and Philip, they incurred persecution and loss of all things. They are found at Hesse Cassel about 1520, whence 3 brothers Tupper migrated severally to Sandwich, in Sussex, Guernsey, and Chichester, their names being Robert, Henry and William. In later Saxon records we find the name spelled in several ways, finally becoming Von Topper in Germany and Tupper in England.

From this later country came Thomas Tupper, born in 1576, an Episcopal minister and one of the founders of Sandwich, Mass. In direct descent came Thomas Tupper, Jr., who married daughter of Gov. Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and through his wife, his children inherited Martha's Vineyard: Eldad, Dr. Benjamin, Dr. James, who married Deborah Allen, daughter of Jonathan Allen; Tristram, Sr., and Tristram Tupper, Jr., the subject of this sketch.

Dr. Benjamin and Dr. James Tupper were both in command of a Massachusetts battalion at Bunker Hill and surrendered to a Maj. Tupper, who was in command of British marines. The Magazine of American History of Oct., 1889, has an article headed "Antiquity of the Tupper Family." The 250th anniversary of the town of Sandwich, Mass., was productive of many interesting historical and genealogical reminiscences.

In a number of the Springfield Republicans in 1889, this item appeared: "A thriving farm on the line of Cape Cod Ship Canal, not far from Sagamore had been in the hands of the Tupper family since it was first settled in 1624. Thus, this has passed from father to son through 6 generations to the present Mr. Tupper, who is doubtless the nearest example we have in America of the entailed estates in England.

Tupper Lake in New York state is named after a member of the Tupper family, Major Anselm Tupper, of Revolutionary fame, having been drowned in it. Martin Farquhar Tupper, the celebrated and greatly beloved poet of England, and Sir Charles Tupper of Canada were cousins of Mr. Tristram Tupper.

Of Mr. Tupper's immediate family, there were 4 children, of whom two are deceased. James Tupper died in infancy. William Palfrey Tupper was born in Charleston, S. C., July 19, 1859; died in New Orleans, Dec. 30, 1890. Married Angela Plaisance of Natchitoches parish, La.; Sidney Conrad Tupper, wife of Alfred Penn, and Allan Tupper. Two grandchildren, Tristram Tupper Penn and Alfred Penn, Jr., all residing in New Orleans. Mrs. Tupper died in 1899.

6. Book: History of New Orleans: biography of Tristram Tupper Jr., 1922. ⁶
Tristram Tupper. A notable American business man, Tristram Tupper became associated with prominent men in the commercial life of the South and the nation a number of years before the Civil war, and from the close of the way until the end of the century his enterprise and influence were constantly asserted and reflected in the City of New Orleans. The story of his life even briefly told serves the purpose of illustrating some of the notable episodes in the commercial and civic history of the Crescent City.

Tupper is a name that appeared in history in varying forms both in England and the Saxon districts of Europe from the time of the middle ages. About 1520 three Tupper brothers left Hesse Cassel and established homes at Sandwich , in Sussex, England. The founder of the American family was Thomas Tupper, who was born in 1576, was an Episcopal minister and was one of the founders of Sandwich, Massachusetts. His son, Thomas, Jr., married the daughter of Governor Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and his children inherited Martha's Vineyard; the third generation of the family was represented by Eldad Tupper, the fourth by Dr. Benjamin Tupper, Sr., the fifth by Dr. James Tupper, the sixth by Tristram Tupper Sr., and the seventh by Tristram Tupper Jr., whose name appears at the head of this article. Dr. Benjamin and Dr. James Tupper were American officers in the Revolutionary army at the Battle of Bunker Hill. New England has many permanent memorials of the Tupper family and their enterprise.

In the English branches of the family the poet Martin Farquhar Tupper, Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper of Canada were also kinsmen.

Tristram Tupper, Jr., was born at Charleston, South Carolina, July 4, 1831, fifth son of Tristram and Elizabeth Harral (Yoer) Tupper. His mother was a native of Charleston, while his father came from Dresden, Maine. The elder Tupper had established a sugar and commission and exporting business at Charleston about 1812, which subsequently became the firm Tupper & Sons. Of the sons of Tristram, Sr., all but James, a cripple, were soldiers in the Confederate Army.

Tristram Tupper received his education at the College of the City of Charleston, and was an intimate friend and classmate of Dr. J. D. Bruns, later of New Orleans, a son of the president of the college. He left collect to take up the study of law under his brother, James Tupper. Soon afterward occurred the death of his brother Furman, who had been a captain in the Mexican war. Tristram, Jr., was then sent as a representative of T. Tupper & Sons to look after the firm's business with the sugar planters of Louisiana, and his success was such that his father induced him to continue, and at an early age he became of a member of the firm.

After his marriage in Louisiana he took his wife to Charleston and lived in that city until the breaking out of the Civil war. He was then sent to Louisiana to settle up the firm's obligations in the state, and on returning to Charleston joined the Marion Artillery and served the rest of the war on the coast of South Carolina under General Beauregard.

With the disorganization of business and credit as a result of the war and with nearly all his personal property gone except his country home, Mr. Tupper went to New York, where he was cordially received by some of the prominent firms that had formerly done business with T. Tupper & Sons. With credit connections re-established, Mr. Tupper then came to New Orleans, buying sugar and molasses for his old New York constituents and also organizing the firm of Price, Hine & Tupper, of which he was the general manager. This firm did a large commission business. Mr. Tupper also organized the Attakapas Mail Transportation Company to connect the Morgan, Louisiana & Texas Railroad at Brashear City, afterward Morgan City. About that time he also tried unsuccessfully to interest capital in the development of the Avery salt mines of Louisiana, and failing of substantial aid from American sources resorted to England, and had the promise of sufficient support to open the mines when the battle of September 14, 1874, occurred at New Orleans. This battle, seeming to be a precursor of another Civil war, the English subscribers withdrew. For his responsibility in disabling the boats of the Transportation Company during the reconstruction ere he was arrested by Federal officers but never tried.

Mr. Tupper for many years was vice president of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce and was frequently selected to represent the body in Washington. One of his greatest ambitions was to open up commercial relations with the countries of the south, and at one time success seemed to be his, when united efforts by other Southern ports combined to crush the project. His personal business affairs grew and prospered, and Price, Hine & Tupper were in business until 1873, when the failure of many Louisiana banks and the failure of the sugar crop and slow collections caused the firm to fail.

Mr. Tupper was elected president of the New Orleans & Brazilian Steamship Company about 1876 and was the representative of the Chamber of Commerce sent to Washington to urge Congress to place the contract for carrying mail from New Orleans to New York to Brazil with the American line instead of the English ships. The bill was defeated in Congress and the enterprise subsequently fell through. During this mission to Washington Mr. Tupper was also associated with other men from Southern Louisiana for the purpose of having the Mississippi River Commission organized. While at the capital he also formed a connection with the Barber Asphalt Paving Company. This resulted in a number of years of hard work on his part, assisted by other public spirited New Orleans men, as a result of which St. Charles Avenue was permanently paved.

In the course of Mr. Tupper's early business engagements in Louisiana he met and married Miss Sidney Conrad Palfrey, daughter of William Taylor and Sidney Thurston (Conrad) Palfrey. Her father served as judge and state senator of Louisiana and during the Civil war as a senator in the Confederate States government. Mrs. Tupper was a child when her mother died, and she was largely educated in Georgetown Covent at Washington, where at the same time she kept in close touch with her uncle Conrad, then a member of the President's cabinet. Mrs. Tupper died in 1899. She was the mother of four children, James dying in infancy, while William Palfrey died at New Orleans December 30, 1890. The surviving children were Sidney Conrad, wife of Alfred Penn, and Allen Tupper.

Tristram married Sidney Ann Conrad Palfrey, daughter of William Taylor Palfrey and Sidney Ann Thurston Conrad, on 24 Apr 1856.¹ (Sidney Ann Conrad Palfrey was born on 31 Aug 1837 in , , LA, died on 30 Apr 1899 in New Orleans, Orleans, LA ¹³ and was buried in New Orleans: Lafayette Cemetery Number 1, Orleans, LA ⁸.)