Bio
St. Landry Clarion Newspaper?
Opelousas, LA, Saturday, December 12, 1903?Vol. XIII
(Also ran in the Times Picayune, New Orleans)??
Rudolph Adelbert Sebastian Mayer (1834-1903)?Biography and Obituary??
Son of Professor Karl Mayer, Leader of the Royal Opera in Munich, Bavaria (note: Germany), died at his residence in Opelousas, Louisiana (note: 650 E. Bellevue St, now 629 E. Bellevue St.), on Monday, November 30th, 1903, at 6:40 a.m., aged 68 years, 3 months and 3 days.??
The burial service of the Episcopal Church was read at the house by Reverend Mr. Slack, of Algiers; at the interment, which took place in the Protestant Cemetery at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Reverend Mr. Hayne, of the M.E. Church officiated. Professor Mayer, while born Episcopal and reared a Catholic, after the age of 30, believed that all creeds, if conscientiously followed, were equally good. He believed in one Supreme God, or as he often expressed it: "One first great cause, "For that there is a God all Nature cries aloud thro'all her works;" on doctrinal points, he entertained rather unitarianistic views. In his demise, an old landmark and artistic genius has passed away. On his father's side he came from a race of musicians, teachers and scientists, on the distaff side, they were soldiers. As a child he learned the piano and violin, and later thevioloncello; at the age of 12 he entered the Conservatory of Music at Munich, Bavaria, under Joseph Menter, the famous cello virtuoso; at the age of 15, he secured a position as solo violoncellist at the Opera in Ratisbon, and a professorship at the Theological College.
(Cite Note #1, Joseph Menter (1808-1856) Born on January 17, 1808, in the Bavarian village of Daudenkofen, near Landshut, he began as so many of his colleagues did, with the violin, but soon abandoned it to take up the Violoncello. He had scarcely completed his twenty-first year before he found a position in the Hohen- zollern-Hechingen band. In 1833 his vocation took him to Munich, where he took a place in with the Royal Opera at Munich. He belonged to the Kapelle there until his death, which occurred on April 18, 1856. Menter is the father of the well-known Piano virtuosa of that name, and made himself known outside his sphere of work by concert tours in Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, and England, as well as by several Cello compositions, of which a few were published after his decease. He composed several fantacies and arias with orchestral accompaniments).
In 1854 Mayer was selected, after a competitive examination, made doubly severe on account of his youth, as concerto player under Richard Wagner in Zurich, Switzerland. Although his father (note: Karl Mayer) was the leader of the classical school in Bavaria, bitterly opposed to the Wagnerian school, he was honored with the friendship of that great Maestro Wagner and idolized his memory. In 1856 he accepted the position of solo violoncello, at the French Opera in New Orleans, spending his summers in the Parish of St. Mary, where he met and married Mary, daughter of the late Mark O'Rourke, Sr., a veteran of the Mexican, and afterwards of the Civil War. The Professor always described this period as the happiest of his existence, and the friends there, as among the closest to his heart; during this period he prosecuted his studies in photographic chemistry, under direction of the late Dr. Bonzano of New Orleans, and later under Baron Von Liebig (Cite note: Justus Von Liebig, "The father of organic chemistry"); he perfected himself in the then young art of photography, and while seeking for the utopian art of taking pictures in their natural colors, discovered a process of making water coloring indestructible by the usual destroying agencies; he later took out letters patent under the name of "Mayerotype;" by this process, portraits are given the coloring of life, and the most delicate half tints of the photograph are preserved, and the whole is rendered permanent, neither exposure to light, heat, color, or moisture, having any effect upon them whatever. A fine photograph portrait is perhaps the most pleasing and beautiful production of science and art, and but for its want of life color, surpasses the finest delineations of the most facile pencil. It is "a thing of beauty," and would be "a joy forever," but for its doubtful durability; the Mayerotype supplied these deficiencies in photographic portraiture, viz: the absence of natural coloring, and the want of absolute durability. The softness of the portraits by this process, and their absolute freedom from the "mannerism" of "stippling," or any of the other systems of mechanical "handling" inseparable from miniature painting, so far as results are concerned realized the dream of photographic explorers:--the fixation of the image in life colors, by the action of the light itself, so exquisitely soft, and delicate are the tints, and gradations of light and shade, the eyes so clear and moist, and natural, the expression so true and life-like, and the toute ensemble, having such apparent relief and roundness as almost to tempt one to employ the sense of touch, to convince the overcredulous organ of vision. The coloring was of course done by hand; and under intense heat, combined or assimilated by fusion, with the graduated shades, of the silver print, taken from an ordinary negative, the result gave a photo with the most delicate half tints preserved, under a magnifying glass, the stippling of the artist, so painfully evident in the finest miniature, entirely disappeared, the coloring blended perfectly--with the delicate tones of the photo.
(Cite Note #2, Richard Wagner. Born May 22, 1813, died February 13, 1883, German opera composer, conductor and musical writer. Wagner changed the concept of opera by viewing it as a "total art work", one of his most noted works, "Tristan und Isolde" (1865). Wager won the patronage of King Ludwig II in Bavaria).??
In 1861 Professor Mayer was hurriedly summoned to Europe by the illness of his mother, who died shortly after his arrival. He opened an art studio in Munich, and later in Vienna, for the exploitation of his Mayerotype process; his business in connection therewith, carried him to all the art centers of Europe. During his travels in Austria he became associated with an Austrian officer of artillery named Eigner, in the elaboration of a breech-loading rifle, which they perfected between them, Mayer converting his parlor into a gun shop for fear that the secret might escape, where the two enthusiasts burned the midnight oil, and frequently the furniture, to feed the forge; with characteristic zeal, Mayer sank all his means and the sums realized by the sale of the Mayerotype patents, and then pawned everything in sight to carry on the experiments, consisting of a breech loading contrivance, a rifled barrel, and a bayonet ring-lock. His enthusiasm was evoked by a desire, to furnish the Confederacy with a new rapid firing arm; when his funds became exhausted a Mr. Martino, of London became associated with the inventors, and probably sided them financially to carry on the experiments; shortly after Martino wired from London to send on the model, completed or not, as he had an offer from Admiral Semmes, of the Confederate Navy.??
Cite (Note #3, Admiral Semmes, Admiral Raphael Semmes, 1809-1877, Semmes was assigned to the CSS Alabama. Captain Semmes and the "Alabama" spent 22 months at sea capturing or sinking 69 ships valued at 6 million dollars. In June 1865, President Jefferson Davis appointed Admiral Semmes a Brigadier General).??
The model not being completed, Mayor refused to send; in the meantime The Alabama sailed. Later, Mayer being an intense Southerner, offered the invention for nothing to the Confederacy, receiving an acknowledgement of his patriotism from John Slidell representative of the Confederacy in Paris, and also informing him that owing to the inability of the Confederacy to manufacture the guns, his offer was declined.??(Note #4, John Slidell, 1793-1871, American politician and diplomat. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. congressman from 1843 to 1845, and Senator from 1853 to 1861. He was appointed in 1861 as Confederate envoy to Paris during the Civil War).??In this offer, no small one from a man who had beggared himself in the perfection of the gun offered, he doubtless had the consent of the chivalrous Eigner, a soldier of the D'Artagnan type, whose prowess on many a hard-fought field had won promotion,--for others. After this Professor Mayor made an ineffectual effort to interest the Russian War Department, and becoming tired of the red tape of the Bureaucrats at St. Petersburg, he proceeded to Paris, sought an interview with Napoleon (Note: Napoleon III), which was at first refused, and referred by the Secretary of the Emperor, and "Chief de Cabinet" to the Minister of War in May, 1864; the ministry must have been strongly impressed with the value and originality of the invention, for a short time afterwards, he had an audience with the Emperor (Note: Napoleon III) of so cordial a nature, that it raised his hopes to the highest pitch of expectancy, but suddenly the negotiations came to an abrupt, inexplicable termination, probably due to the fact that the French government erroneously supposed the Professor was still a German instead of an American citizen; and the causes that terminated in the France-Prussian War even then brewing, causing Germans to be viewed with suspicion.??
(Note #5, Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, 1808-73, Emperor of the French 1852-1870, son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland. He made two abortive attempts on the French throne (1836, 1840), for which he was imprisoned. He escaped to England (1846), but when the Bonapartist tide swept France after the 1848 revolution he was elected first to the Assembly and then to the presidency (1848). Engineering the dissolution of the constitution, he assumed the title of emperor. He declared war on Prussia in 1870, and suffered humiliating defeat, after which he went into exile in England).??
Out of funds, despondent and disgusted, the Professor moved to London, and accepted the position of General Manager of the Photo Publishing House of Henry Herring, and afterwards Reynolds of Regent Street. With the usual luck of inventors, Mayer and Eigner reaped nothing but debts and discomfiture, from their invention, others even getting the credit of originating the idea.
In 1865 Enfields were converted into breech loaders, by fitting on the "Snider" breech mechanism, but they proved ineffectual; after exhaustive tests with 104 different kinds of breech loading rifles, the "Henry" Barrel and the "Martini" breech was adopted in 1871 by the British army, and the new arm was known as the Martini-Henry rifle, and the drawings and specifications of the Mayer-Eigner rifle that had attracted the attention of Semmes, drawings perfectly familiar, and probably secured by Martino in 1864 (note: their earlier financier), show where the principle of the Martini-Henry rifle originated, both as regards the breech loading, and the bayonet ring lock, and probably the rifling of the barrel. Considering the efficiency of the Confederate forces imperfectly armed as they were, what might have been the result, had they adopted the Mayer-Eigner rifle.
After remaining two years in London, Professor Mayer accepted a position as Manager of the Fine Art Department of Marcus Ward & Co, of Belfast, Ireland, and afterwards with James McGill, of the same place.??(Note # 6, Marcus Ward & Co. A Belfast family created Marcus Ward & Company, the world's leading Christmas card manufacturer, also it was a stationery, color-printing and publishing business that gained an international reputation for the quality of its products. This firm for a while monopolized the whole of the better-class trade. Beginning with the use of German chromos, usually mounted on card with lithographed borders in gold and colors of home manufacture, they soon issued reproductions of original designs by artists of repute.??In 1868 he opened a Photo and Fine Arts Studio in Castle Place, Belfast, (Note: Rudolf Mayer & Co) where he turned out his Mayerotypes, in large numbers and painted by a corps of talented artists, one in particular, Miss Sedley, now Mrs. Reese, of Belfast, whose excessive modesty kept her in the background of the artistic world. During this period of prosperity, the Professor's musical talents were ever at the call and service of friends and charitable entertainments.??
In 1870 he was compelled by his asthma to move to a warmer climate, so, he revisited his old haunts in St. Mary, retuning much improved in health, the same year, to wind up his business affairs in Belfast, and then moved to Opelousas (Note: where his home was built in 1874 at 650 East Bellevue St, LA), where he lived up to the hour of his demise, devoting himself to his first love, music, varying his occupation with photography, painting, musical and dramatic composition and gardening. He organized the Opelousas Philharmonic Society, ninety strong, in the early eighties (note: 1880's); it was the finest amateur musical and dramatic organization in the South, their Friday night concerts and occasional operatic and melodramatic entertainments being a pleasing memory to many.
The Professor organized and conducted any number of brass and string orchestras, both male and female. He would go to enormous trouble and expense to the limit of his means, selling himself of luxuries (to an invalid necessities, sic) to discover and develop latent musical talent; had he possessed the means he would have converted his Academy of Music into a free conservatoire of music and the fine arts; as this was denied him, his energies were expended in arranging, composing, staging and leading successfully operettas, melodramas and classical concerts, using successfully the crude materials at hand in a provincial town. He was always ready to participate in church or charity entertainments, regardless of creed, many of time leaving a sick chamber at imminent risk of life (note: Home on Bellevue St. Opelousas, LA), and against all protests, in order not to disappoint, and to participate in them. To relieve the monotony of teaching, he taught, until the nervous tension became too great, and snapped beneath the strain. He was younger at nearly seventy than most men at forty, possessing a wonderful stock of nervous, but frequently misdirected energy, which was stimulated by opposition, that always wisely, he was seemingly without personal ambition, or any desire to accumulate money; this may have been due to his life long struggle with asthma, but more probably due to a development of the artistic, at the expense of the business sense; when in health he could always make money; in fact, he always said, contemptuously that "any fool could make money"; he never cared to accumulate more than enough to pay his debts, or to carry into execution some project, and always one of no material benefit to himself.?
?In despite of his chronic complaint, his regular habits, good appetite, will power and recuperative forces, were so good and strong, that the exercise of the most ordinary precaution, he would doubtlessly have exceeded the age limit allotted to man, but besides constant imprudent exposure to different temperatures, he was slowly, imperceptibly, but none the less surely sapping the foundation of his nervous force and energy. Passionately fond of Nature in all her myriad forms, he fairly worshipped at her shrine, and not a day passed that he did not detect some new, hidden beauty in tree or shrub, or flower, a moonrise or a sunset, with its gorgeous colorings, was enough to awaken his artistic instinct, and lead to improvisations, on violin, violoncello or organ; his touch on the two former instruments, even up to a week of his demise was still exquisite and full of expression, giving one some idea of the pathos of his playing, when at the age of 15, he won the encomiums of Joseph Menter, and the great Wagner.
He was an accomplished linguist, a hard student and a voracious reader, devouring everything, from the ancient, to the German, French and English classics, works on science and philosophy, to the daily record of current events in papers and magazines. Honest, moral, abstemious, with a culture, and personal charm, lightened by flashes of wit and a keen sense of the ridiculous, with power of mimicry and satire keen as a Damascus blade, that often set the table in a roar, small wonder, that coupled with his musical talent he had, in his day, the entrée of the most exclusive circle in Europe, which never diverted his simple democratic tastes, he loved society for its culture, and hated it for its hypocrisy. While not particularly interested in politics, he was a life-long and consistent Democrat, intuitively grasping the idea that Democracy represented the centrifugal force in the Republic; and he had a perfect aversion to monarchism in any shape or from, and resistive under restrictions, governmental, or otherwise, save those founded on common sense, or established scientific facts. By birth, education and instinct a gentleman, he was respected in every community where he had ever lived. The end came so unexpectedly, that of the members of his family, only his wife and unmarried daughters were with him at the close, when his tired soul, wearied with life's fitful fever, laid down in blissful rest.??
He leaves a widow, four sons and three daughters to mourn his loss, viz: Dr. F. J. Mayer, of Lafayette; Dr. Chas. R. Mayer, of New Orleans; Dr. R.A. Mayer, of Vermillion; Prof. L.W. Mayer, of the S.W. La. Industrial Institute; Mrs. Juno (sic) R. Todd, of St. Mary, and Misses Edith and Hilda Mayer, of Opelousas.??May his ashes mingle with the elemental forms of the nature he loved, and the poetry of his soul hover as a sweet memory over his resting place.??-
Breaux-??
Time Picayune, New Orleans, 1903?
St. Landry Clarion, 1903
Additional History & Genealogy
Karl Mayer was Court Musician and Leader of the Royal Bavarian Orchestra of the Court of King Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. Karl Mayer married Louise Biehl, and they lived at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Bavaria (Germany) as guest of King Ludwig I. In 1834, their son Rudolph Adelbert Sebastian Mayer was born in Nymphenburg Palace in Munich Bavaria. Rudolf Adelbert's godfather was Prince Adalbert, nineth son of King Ludwig I, for whom he was named (Adelbert Sebastian, with a slight variation in spelling of "Adalbert").
Rudolph Adelbert Sebastian Mayer was educated at Queen's College in Belfast, Ireland. He became a professional musician, a member of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera, in which he played violoncello. He was a man of several talents, a chemist, having attended lectures under Leibig, who was termed the "Father of Organic Chemistry." Professor Rudolf Adelbert Sebastian Mayer invented the first breech-loading rifle in France. It was patented to M. Martini and it became the "Martini-Henry Rifle", which was used by the British army for twenty years. Prior to this, the rifle was offered to Napoleon for the Confederacy in Paris, where Mayer, at first, was only granted a meeting with the Secretary of the Emperor, then the Minister of War, but impressed them enough where he gained a brief audience with Emperor Napoleon himself. Rudolf Mayer was a teacher of music and inventor, a noted photographer, even developed a technique of color photography, almost 100 years before a similar technique became worldwide. His color technique was patented as the "Mayerotype", and then later sold.
In 1852, Professor Rudolph Adelbert Sebastian Mayer, came to Louisiana where he met Mary Dunnon O'Rourke, who had been born in the Village of Castlepollard, in West Meath, Ireland. Mary Dunnon O'Rourke came to Louisiana with her father at the age of 12. They lived in New Orleans where she was educated in both French and English at Madame Durant's Boarding School. Rudolf Mayer and Mary O'Rourke came to live in Opelousas, LA where the built their home at 650 E. Bellevue St. in 1874 (Now 629 E. Bellevue St.). They had seven children: Fredrick Joseph, Fannie, Edith, Charles, Rudolf Adelbert II, Hilda and Lionel Waldemar Mayer.
Lionel Mayer, youngest son of Professor Rudolf Mayer and Mary Dunnon O'Rourke, became one the first Professors at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, LA (Now University of Lafayette). Also, he taught in New Orleans, and was a court stenographer in Opelousas for many years. Professor Lionel Waldemar Mayer married Rena McKinney, daughter of Ernest Albert McKinney of Rapides Parish, LA, and his wife, Charlotte Louise Gelvin, on August 23, 1901. Lionel Waldemar Mayer died August 25, 1943. Lionel and Rena Mayer had six children: Lionel Adelbert, Marie Louise, John Waldemar, Fredrick Joseph, Charles Rapheal and Henry Lastrapes Mayer.
Lionel Adelbert Mayer was married twice. His first wife was Alice Terry. Together they had one daughter named Edith. His second marriage was to Ruth Taylor Victor and they bore no children. Lionel Adlebert Mayer was an animologist throughout his life.
Mary Louise Mayer was married to Dr. Gilbert J. Mistric, an Opelousas dentist. They adopted one daughter, Elizabeth, whom later married Frank Dimmick and had three daughters: Lindsey Beth, Melanie and Mimi. Marie Louise was an established china painter.
Fredrick Joseph Mayer married Evelyn Devalcourt. Fredrick Joseph was a doctor of general practice medicine and together bore three children: Lionel, Fredrick, Jr. and Evelyn. Lionel married Elaine Ledoux and had three sons: Mark, John and Fredrick. Fredrick married Joan Marie Daigle and had one daughter, Debra Ann Mayer. Evelyn married Gerald Lugert of California and had three children; one which died: Christie, Gerald, Jr. and the deceased, Lessely. Dr. Mayer later married Estelle of Burley, LA.
Henry Lastrapes Mayer married Gertrude Hopkins and was an investment broker in Lafayette, LA. They had one son, Henry, Jr. who married Phil Barras and bore two children: Robyn and Henry, III.
Charles Rapheal Mayer married Geraldine Vaughn Kerr, daughter of first sitting judge in Opelousas, Judge Ennis Shaw Kerr. Charles and Geraldine were married in Kenner, LA on April 3, 1932 in a civil ceremony. The matrimony was later solemnized at St. Landry Catholic Church in Opelousas. "Jerry" was born on October 20, 1912 and Charles Rapheal was born on September 11, 1912. They bore two children: Charles Rapheal, Jr. and Carolyn Vaughn. Charles, Jr. married Emma Jean Bercier and had two children: Karl Andrew, their adopted son and Maureen O'Rourke. Charles and "Jeannie" were married at St. Landry Catholic Church on July 20th, 1957. Carolyn Vaughn was married to Joseph Robley Sebastien on January 15, 1961 at St. Landry Catholic Church by Rev. Alcide Sonnier. They had twelve children: Joseph Robley, Jr., James Michael (deceased), Geraldine Vaughn, Christopher Michael, Heidi Marie, David Charles, William Kerr, Carrie, Jonathan Kent, Stephen Paul, Margaret Anne, and Theresa Claire Sebastien. Carolyn's marriage was dissolved in 1974. She later married Dr. Charles Caffery Bertrand, originally from Washington, D.C. (His father was from Lafayette), a long time Opelousas pediatrician.
The only thing that could be traced back further than Karl Mayer was his sister. Only her nickname is remembered. It was "Mina." Mina Mayer was an opera singer from Germany. She married the Prime Minister of Bavaria and decided to remain in Germany with him while many others left for the United States. Together they bore no children because of the Prime Minister's old age, but he did have children from his first wife. Mina Mayer at one time sent jewelry to the United States by an American. When Rudolf Adelbert Sebastien Mayer (her nephew) received his aunt's shipment, he received only half of what she sent while the American made off with the rest. The package contained jewels from the Royal Family in Bavaria. Three pieces still exist among the family (unknown as to whom).
The Martini-Henry Rifle is a weapon of Empire. Unlike the Snider-Enfield it replaced, it was England's first service rifle designed from the ground up as a breechloading metallic cartridge firearm. It protected and served the British Empire and her colonies for over 30 years. This robust weapon utilized a falling block, self-cocking, lever operated, single-shot action designed by Friedrich von Martini of Switzerland. The barrel used the Henry Rifling System, designed by Alexander Henry. Henry Peabody, an American, was actually the father of the Martini action. His design utilized an external hammer to strike a firing pin for cartridge ignition. Mr. Martini's refinement of the design basically consisted of conversion to an internal coiled spring activated striker. Martini's improved design flourished and Mr. Peabody's is nearly forgotten.
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