William Alfred Freret, Sr. (1804 – June 14, 1864) was
Mayor of New Orleans
The post of Mayor of the City of New Orleans (french: Maire de La Nouvelle-Orléans) has been held by the following individuals since New Orleans came under American administration following the Louisiana Purchase — the acquisition by the U.S. ...
from May 10, 1840, to April 4, 1842, and again from February 27, 1843, to May 12, 1844.
He was born in
, and was of mixed English and French descent; his father was an English merchant who settled in New Orleans and married a
Creole woman. His father built on the boy's natural mechanical talent, sending him to Europe to be educated in engineering and the mechanical arts. He returned to New Orleans and eventually succeeded to his father's business of compressing cotton for shipment abroad. Under his direction, the Freret Cotton Press Company became the first large industrial firm in New Orleans, and propelled him to public visibility and a political career. Despite his mixed European heritage, he joined the
Native American Party
The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...
, a new political group that sought to limit the influence on public affairs of Creoles and other groups viewed as "foreign." Under its banner he won the 1840 mayoral election, with 1,051 votes to the 942 of his predecessor
Charles Genois.
His meticulous temperament made him one of the most efficient mayors in New Orleans' history; he was a hands-on administrator notorious for his surprise inspections of city facilities, for example. His term was marked by the continuation of the city's recovery from the combined effects of the borrowing and spending of previous mayors and the nationwide economic crisis of 1837; and hampered by the curious administration he inherited, in which the city was divided into three autonomous — and often acrimoniously competing — "Municipalities". Despite these difficulties, he succeeded in establishing a free public school system and obtaining backing for it at the state level. This is considered to be his greatest achievement.
At the expiration of his term he ran for re-election but lost to
Denis Prieur, a former mayor; who, however, was mayor for only eight months, resigning to take a state office. Freret was elected, this time as a Whig, to serve the remainder of Prieur's term. He ran for a third term in the elections of 1844; but they seem to have been marked by widespread fraud. In any case, he lost to
Joseph Edgard Montegut
Joseph Edgard Montegut (1806–1880) was the 15th mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th ...
.
In 1850, he was appointed Collector of the Port of New Orleans by President
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
.
William Freret's remains were interred in New Orleans' St. Patrick Cemetery. The city's Freret Street was named for him.
"The Rebirth of Freret Street," by Ian McNulty
in ''Gambit'', August 9, 2011; accessed 19 April 2015.
References
External links
(Kendall's ''History of New Orleans'', Chapter 9)
Freret
in the Louisiana Historical Association
The Louisiana Historical Association is an organization established in 1889 in Louisiana to collect and preserve the history of Louisiana and its archives.
The organization was formed, in part, for the operation of New Orleans' Memorial Hall
A m ...
's ''Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'' (Scroll down)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freret, William
1804 births
1864 deaths
Mayors of New Orleans
Cotton press
19th-century American politicians