The National tribune., 1906-09-27
AN oCTORooN's ROMANCE.

I
| Large Estate He Bequenthed Her-Fil-
hioI Member Of Old Louisiana Family
There was submitted to the District
Court of the Ouachita District of Lou
isiana, at Monroe, a few days ago &
suit of much Importance in that part OF
the State and of romantic Interest
everywhere. It was the case of the
legal heirs Of Roland Filhiol against
Inez Schmidt. The question at issue is
whether a large estate. the most val
liable in northern Louisiana, shall go
to the legal heirs of its former owner
or become the property of an octoroon
and her two illegitimate children.
The Arkansas Hot Springs are claim
ed OF; behalf of the estate. but outside
of that the property left by the late
Roland Filhiol is valued at nearly n
million dollars. When it is considered
besides that the Filhiol family is one
of the most ancient and distinguished
in Louisiana, that the estate includes
heirlooms dating from the Spanish and
French Nominations, that all the prop
erty is claimed by a woman Of negro
trict the race prejudice is perhaps
stronger than anywhere else in the
South. the interest taken in the case
here will be understood.
A few months ago Roland Filhiol.
the richest man in northern Louisiana,
descendant of that Don Juan Filhiol
who was once Governor of Upper Lou
isiana, and the owner of much land in
tc,to A,l- l,41 L.
plantation in Ouachita. He was a bach
elor, and his brother, Hardy FilhioI, at
once got the necessary order for the ex-
animation of his bank boxes in the
hope of finding a will.
The will was found, but to the sur
prise of all, after leaving a plantation
and some money to his brother and
!egacies to other relatives, it gave the
bulk of the estate, amounting to some
100000. to Inez Schmidt. of New Or
leans. No one in Ouachita had ever
heard of the woman, and even in New
Orleans no trace could be found of her,
until a bright reporter one day discov-
cred that the name of a woman living
in the heart of the fashionable district
Of New Orleans was given in the direc-
tory as Mrs. Filhiol Roland" He Wis
tied the house and found handsome
young woman, who at once admitted
that she was Inez Schmidt, the missing
legatee.
At first there was talk of secret
marriage, but inquiry soon disclosed the
fact that although there were two chill
dren and although the letters of Roland
Filhiol to Inez breathed devoted affec-
tion-they We're read in court and af-
fected all those who heard them-there
had been no marriage. Later the fact
developed why this was the case.
Although SO white that very few per-
sons could detect any African blood in
her, Inez is, under the laws of Louisi-
ana, a negress within the prohibited
degree, and no marriage can be SOL
emnized between white and negro
In Louisiana. The two went to Cincin-
natl some time ago intending it is un-
derstood. to get married there, as there
is no law against the intermarriage of
the races in Ohio, but the ceremony did
not come off. The laws of Louisiana
specifically provide that a marriage
celebrated in another State in order to
avoid the prohibitions of the Louisiana
statute Is null and void in Louisiana.
Had Filhioi and IneZ married in Gin
cinnati the children would have re-
mained illegitimate in the eyes Of the
Louisiana law.
In the trial Of the suit the District
Judge refused to allow the introduction
Of any evidence as to the negro blood
of Inez. holding that her race or color
had nothing to do with her claim, and
that her title or lack of title to the
property could not be affected by the
fact that she was white or black. Much
interesting evidence was then struck
out, but there is practically no dispute
as to the facts, and the story is as fol-
lows:
Some 10 years ago a prepossessng
young octoroon, IneZ by name, kept fur
nished rooms for men on Bourbon street
near st. Louis, New Orleans. in the very
heart of Creole New Orleans. Her rooms
were over the shop of one of the most
famous of carnival costumers, a few
doors from the French opera, and con-
venient to the many excellent French
restaurants in the quarter.
1t was a central and convenient loca-
ton for cotton and sugar planters vis-
iting New Orleans during the gay sea-
son who preferred comfort and free
dom to the crowded hotels. Among
those who lodged there was Roland Fill
hioI. at that time a bachelor of 40 and
fond Of city life and city pleasures.
There he met the dark-eyed but
creamy-skinned young woman who kept
the house, and the two fell in love.
The liaison was kept secret. Fearing
that their relations would become
known If Inez continued tc keep her
lodging house, Filhiol bought and fur
nished for her handsome home on
Second street near st. Charles avenue,
where she lived quietly as Mrs. Roland,
her position and descent being wholly
unsuspected by the noighbors or by Fill
hiops friends in Ouachita.
Two children were born of this union,
and Roland Filhiol, who was devoted to
Inez and to them, evidently thought of
marrying her and thereby legitimiziag
them. They went to Cincinnati, where
they registered at the Gibson House as
"R. NJ. Filhiol, lady, two children and
nurse" The clerk did not like the
word LADY" and insisted upon Filhiors
changing 1t to wife, and this change
constituted an important point of evil
dence as tending to show that she and
Filhiol lived publicly as man and wife.
The nurse who figured in the hotel
register was none other than IneZs own
mother. The father, Schmidt by name,
married the mother during the period
of Republican and negro ascendency in
Louisiana, 1S68-1S7S, when marriages
between whites and negroes We're legal.
Tracing back the ancestors of IneZ,
the lawyers found that her mother, the
old nanny or nurse in the Cincinnati
register, was Laure or Laura, a quad
room of Thibodaux, La. who married
Blumenthal Schmidt, a Hebrew. The
mother of Laura was Lorette Thibo-