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Size | 2 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1900 items) |
Abstract | Christian Miltenberger, physician, was married to Marie Aimee Mersier (fl. 1803-1841), whose family owned coffee plantations in Saint Domingue on the island of Hispaniola. After their marriage in 1803, the Miltenbergers moved first to Cuba, where they owned property and slaves, and eventually to Louisiana. Miltenberger practiced medicine in New Orleans from about 1809 until his death. The collection includes business papers, estate papers, records of medical observations, and family correspondence of Christian Miltenberger and his family. Most are financial and legal papers relating to Miltenberger's medical practice and to the estate of his father-in-law, Antoine Mersier (d. ca. 1795). In addition to his medical practice, Miltenberger also owned real estate, slaves, and other property in New Orleans and neighboring parishes. Included are bills, accounts, contracts, inventories, leases, receipts for the sale of property, and baptismal and marriage certificates. The small amount of correspondence relates chiefly to family affairs and includes letters from Miltenberger's French relatives in Bordeaux, Mirambeau, and Alsace, who also discussed economic and political conditions in France. Some letters after 1825 relate to the question of indemnity for property losses of French residents of Saint-Domingue, which became Haiti in 1804. Also included are notes and observations on yellow fever and other diseases, accounts with patients in New Orleans, and some data on individual medical cases that Miltenberger treated. |
Creator | Miltenberger, Christian, 1764-1829. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | French |
Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, 1990
Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, August 2004
Updated by: Laura Hart, January 2021
Note that this inventory incorporates parts of the inventory to the Christian Miltenberger Papers that was compiled in the 1950s. The order of the papers has been modified slightly, folders have been renumbered, and information has been added, while the description of the papers, with some additions and revisions, remains basically the same.
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Christian Miltenberger (1764-1829) appears to have lived in Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola until 1803. In 1802, he married Marie Aimée Mersier (fl. 1803-1841), daughter of Antoine Mersier (d. ca. 1795), who owned coffee plantations and slaves on the island. In 1803, the Miltenbergers left Saint-Domingue for Cuba, and, around 1809, moved to New Orleans, where Miltenberger practiced medicine until his death. He also appears to have owned real estate, slaves, and other property in New Orleans and in other parishes. Note that Mersier is often spelled Mercier and that Miltenberger is sometimes written Milten Berger. There are also letters that address Christian Miltenberger as Dr. Berger.
Back to TopThe collection includes business papers, estate papers, records of medical observations, and family correspondence of physician Christian Miltenberger and his family. Most are financial and legal papers relating to Miltenberger's medical practice and to the estate of his father-in-law, Antoine Mersier (d. ca. 1795). In addition to his medical practice, Miltenberger also owned real estate, slaves, and other property in New Orleans and neighboring parishes. Included are bills, accounts, contracts, inventories, leases, receipts for the sale of property, and baptismal and marriage certificates. The small amount of correspondence relates chiefly to family affairs and includes letters from Miltenberger's French relatives in Bordeaux, Mirambeau, and Alsace, who also discussed economic and political conditions in France. Some letters after 1825 relate to the question of indemnity for property losses of French residents of Saint-Domingue, which became Haiti in 1804. Also included are notes and observations on yellow fever and other diseases, accounts with patients in New Orleans, and some data on individual medical cases that Miltenberger treated.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, financial and legal materials, and other items, not including bills, receipts, accounting sheets, or ledgers. Because of the large number of bills, receipts, accounting sheets, and ledgers, these items have been filed separately in Subseries 1.2.
Includes the following:
1739-1794 | Slave lists, legal papers, inventories, chiefly related to the holdings of Antoine Mersier in Santo Domingo. In the 1790s, there is business correspondence of Mersier with coffee traders in Nantes, France. Records of slave sales appear through 1827. |
1795 | Chiefly inventories of of Antoine Mersier's property and other documents relating to Mersier's death. |
1802-1809 | Miltenbergers' marriage certificate; record of the sale of a house in Cuba to Miltenberger; slave sales in Cuba, 1806-1809. |
1810 | Miltenberger's application to practice surgery in New Orleans. |
1815 | Accounts of the treatment of yellow fever cases; letter from one of Miltenberger's relatives in Mirambeau discussing the economic depression in France and inquiring about the report of an English expedition against New Orleans. |
1816-1826 | Letters from relatives in France and materials relating to the yellow fever epidemic, including a paper Miltenberger presented to the Medical Society of New Orleans (1819). A letter of 28 August 1820 shows that Miltenberger was active in the Masons; he is addressed as the president of a commission investigating the formation of a Masonic hospital in New Orleans. Around 1825, there are materials relating to French claims against property lost in Saint-Domingue. |
1828 | Family correspondence, including letters that document Miltenberger's providing financial assistance to persons wishing to immigrate. |
1829-1841 | Beginning in October 1829, materials relating to Christian Miltenberger's estate. Also items relating to French claims in Saint-Domingue. A 20 October 1841 letter to the sons of Christian Miltenberger from M. Miltenberger in Schlestadt, Alsace, gives family and business news from Europe. |
Undated | Includes the inventory of books in a medical library; various plans for addition to the Miltenberger house in New Orleans; and letters about the treatment of a sick female slave. |
Folder 1 |
1739-1769 |
Folder 2 |
1770-1779 |
Folder 3 |
1780-1789 |
Folder 4 |
1790-1794 |
Folder 5 |
1795 |
Folder 6 |
1796-1798 |
Folder 7 |
1802-1809 |
Folder 8 |
1810-1819 |
Folder 9 |
1820-1823 |
Folder 10 |
1824-1825 |
Folder 11 |
1826 |
Folder 12 |
1827 |
Folder 13 |
1828 |
Folder 14 |
1829 |
Folder 15 |
1831-1841 |
Folder 16 |
Undated |
Reel M-513/1 |
Microfilm copy of folders 1-16, 1739-1841 and undated |
Arrangement: roughly chronological.
Chiefly financial papers, including bills, receipts, charts of accounts, and pages from ledgers. These papers include bills from Miltenberger to his patients for services rendered. They also document his seemingly extensive property holdings in New Orleans. An 1827 tax receipt shows that he also held real estate and slaves in Plaquemines Parish, located south of New Orleans. Materials in 1829 include a summary of receipts and dispersals for 1820 through 1826. After Miltenberger's death in 1829, items tend to consist of tax receipts. These and other items indicate that the family still held considerable property through 1839.
Folder 17 |
1750s-1770s |
Folder 18 |
1780s |
Folder 19 |
1790s |
Folder 20 |
1800s |
Folder 21 |
1810s |
Folder 22 |
1820 |
Folder 23 |
1821 |
Folder 24 |
1822 |
Folder 25 |
1823 |
Folder 26 |
1824 |
Folder 27 |
1825 |
Folder 28 |
1826 |
Folder 29-30
Folder 29Folder 30 |
1827 |
Folder 31 |
1828 |
Folder 32-34
Folder 32Folder 33Folder 34 |
1829 |
Folder 35 |
1830-1831 |
Folder 36 |
1832-1833 |
Folder 37 |
1834-1835 |
Folder 38 |
1838-1839 |
Folder 39 |
Undated |
Arrangement: chronological according to last date.
Folder 40 |
Volume 1: Account book of Christian Miltenberger, 1819 1825, 32 pp.Includes records of his management of the account of T. Bayle with the Louisiana State Bank, perhaps as executor of Bayle's estate. |
Folder 41 |
Volume 2: Journal of Christian Miltenberger, 1816-1827, 648 pp.Contains records of patient visits, 1816-1827 (pages 1-625), and "Livre d'histoires commence le 23 mai 1798 a Asylum," (pages 626-648), which appears to be a history of Rome. |
Folder 42 |
Volume 3: Account book of Christian Miltenberger with the Bank of Louisiana, 1821 1829 |
Folder 43 |
Volume 4: Memorandum book belonging to Christian Miltenberger, 1824-1829, 71 pp.Contains records of rentals of houses and slaves; illnesses of slaves; household accounts; list of plays attended; bank accounts; records of bills owned Miltenberger and owed by him. |
Folder 44 |
Volume 5: Notebook belonging to Christian Miltenberger, 1817-1834, 167 pp.Contains notes on the treatment of yellow fever cases, the use of quinine, remedies against dysentery and rabies, and other medical topics. Also includes lists of births and deaths in the family; births and deaths of slaves; records of the departure from Saint-Domingue; accounts of clothing materials sold by Miltenberger's wife; accounts of rentals of property; debts owed by slaves and by Miltenberger, and other topics. |
Folder 45 |
Volume 6: Printed pamphlet titled "Banques aux Etats Unis" by A. St. Georges, 1843, 18 pp.Discusses the workings of banks in the United States, especially the Bank of the United States, and compares United States banks to French banks. Pamphlet was published at New Orleans. Also included is an article on United States cotton production and export, 1833-1842. |
Folder 46 |
Volume 7: Memorandum book, owner unknown, undated, 32 pp.Includes notes on science and religion and on the sermons of John Wesley. Also included are miscellaneous notes and a few names and address, chiefly of people in South Carolina. In English. |
Microfilm: M-513/1
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