I am seeking information about my great-grandfather Jose Augustin Quintero, 1829-1885. I believe he was past president of the Pickwick Club. Do you have any information about him?

Wallace Goodey III

Jose A. Quintero, a colorful figure in New Orleans' history, is interred in the Army of Tennessee Memorial in Metairie Cemetery.

Dear Wallace,

I normally don't write about anybody's ancestors, but yours led an especially interesting life and readers might like to know about this colorful figure in our city's history. I must tell you, however, that Jose A. Quintero was never president of the Pickwick Club. However, Lamar C. Quintero, his son, was president of this august group from 1911 to 1914.

Joseph Quintero was born in Havana, Cuba, the son of a Cuban tobacco planter and an English mother. At the tender age of 12, young Quintero entered Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass. While he was there, his father died and the young man was thrown on his own resources. He chose to stay in school and continued his education by giving Spanish lessons.

Around 1829, Quintero returned to Cuba and completed his law studies. He then decided to pursue a career in journalism, and writing on behalf of Cuban patriots so angered the authorities that he was arrested three times. Conditions got worse for Quintero when, during the ill-fated filibustering expedition of Narcisco Lopez in the 1850s to liberate Cuba, he was confined in Morro Castle. After a court-martial, he was condemned to death.

The resourceful Quintero managed to escape and headed for New Orleans, then on to Texas. where he became the editor of Ranchero, a Democratic paper in San Antonio. In 1857 he returned to New Orleans, and in 1859 he was in New York editing a Spanish illustrated paper published by Frank Leslie.

Quintero was very attached to the South, so when the Civil War broke out he forsook the Yankees. He enlisted in the Quitman Guards in Texas and went with that company to Virginia, where he met President Jefferson Davis. On Sept. 4, he was commissioned by Davis as a confidential agent of the Confederacy. He was detailed to Mexico as a spy for the South and remained there until the war ended.

Quintero decided to live permanently in New Orleans, and again took up the practice of law. However, he felt the call of journalism (Ah, yes, I know it well.) and he established himself with the Daily Picayune as an editor.

In 1867 he was appointed Consul for Belgium and also held the position of Consul for Costa Rica until his death, which came after an illness of several months.

His obituary in the Picayune declared his to be "a life devoted to noble labors, the service of patriotism and friendship." The writer went on to claim that "in New Orleans no man was more widely known or more generally beloved."

He is interred in Metairie Cemetery in the Army of Tennessee Memorial.

Hey Blake,

I am trying to find maps of the original streetcar lines that ran throughout New Orleans from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s.

Dawn Falgout-Loebig

Dear Dawn,

I guess that you haven't read it in my column before, so I'll tell you that there are two really good places to find old maps: the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library. The main branch of the library is located at 219 Loyola Ave., and it is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection is located at 410 Chartres St., and its hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Hey Blake,

I visited One Eyed Jacks on Toulouse Street and realized it looked familiar. Was it the Toulouse Theater at one time?

Bill Austin

Dear Bill,

Yes, One Eyed Jacks at 615 Toulouse St. was at one time the Toulouse Theater, a popular place for decades. And in between, the place had another name: the Shim Sham Club. There must be lots of folks who have that deja vu feeling when they go to One Eyed Jacks today, because it is a revamped version of the two establishments that preceded it.