Natalie (St.-Martin) Benjamin (1812-1881)

She was a French Créole and married her husband in 1833 at the Cathedral of St. Louis in New Orleans. Because her husband was Jewish, an agreement was made that should they have any children, they would be raised in their mother's faith as Catholics. Their first home was at "Bellechasse," a sugar planation near New Orleans worked by 150-slaves. They also kept a townhouse in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Their marriage eventually crumbled and in 1848 Natalie left her husband and went to Paris, taking with her their only child. She was said to have lived quite lavishly and enjoyed several affairs. As was the custom of the time, she and her husband never divorced, and he made annual trips to Paris to visit them. After the Civil War, he fled to London, enabling him to visit his wife and daughter more often. He died there in 1884, and they are buried together in the Père-Lachaise cemetery, survived by their daughter.