Can you tell me about a statue that was erected in honor of the 12 men who killed Chief Hennessy?

Shirley Tessitore

Photo by Kandace Power Graves

There is no statue honoring New Orleans Police Chief David C. Hennessy, whose assassination in 1890 prompted a mob of city residents to storm Parish Prison and shoot or lynch almost a dozen men suspected in Hennessy's shooting. There is, however, a tall monument that marks the grave of the chief in Metairie Cemetery.

Dear Shirley,

Police Chief David C. Hennessy was shot as he walked home on the night of Oct. 15, 1890. The story is that before he died he blamed the "Dagoes." Nineteen Sicilians were arrested but not convicted. However, an angry mob broke into Parish Prison and executed 11 of the men. No one in the mob was punished.

There is no statue in New Orleans to honor these men. There is not even a statue honoring Hennessy, but he does have a very fine monument in Metairie Cemetery where he is buried.

Hey Blake,

Where was the main branch of the Canal Bank? What bank did the Canal Bank evolve into?

Cy

Dear Cy,

The Canal and Banking Company was chartered in March 1831, and its name changed to Canal Bank in 1895. After several name changes and mergers, it evolved into the First National Bank of Commerce, formed in 1971, which itself merged with Bank One in 1998. The Canal Bank was an important bank in the history of New Orleans.

The Canal and Banking Company did well in its first year of operation, and there was a profit of $405,563. The bank used $65,000 of it to build its first home on the corner of Magazine and Gravier streets. In 1845, a fire caused the bank to move into a new building on the corner of Magazine and Natchez streets. But success required larger quarters, so the bank moved again to a new location at the corner of Camp and Gravier streets.

It was this bank that constructed the New Basin Canal between 1832 and 1838, with construction costing $1,087,755 and the lives of thousands of Irish immigrants who died of cholera, yellow fever and hazardous, backbreaking work.

Between 1905 and 1919, the bank changed its name three times as the result of an astonishing seven mergers. In the early part of the 20th century, there were about 40 different banks in New Orleans. Many of them were small banks that served the various ethnic groups that had settled in the city: Italians, Irish and Germans. Many of these were eventually absorbed into Canal Bank.

One famous bank that was formed in 1833, the Citizens Bank, also merged into the Canal Bank in 1924. But while it was operating, it responded to the needs of the shopkeepers on Canal Street. Before the Civil War, when the city had distinct American and French sections, shopkeepers often hired people who were bilingual. The shopkeepers asked Citizens Bank to help them by printing money in both English and French. Since it was common for banks to print their own money, Citizens obliged. One popular denomination was the $10 bill. The front was printed in English with the number 10, and the other side bore the name of the bank and the amount -- dix -- was printed in French. It's said that from this bill, New Orleans, and then the entire South, became known as the land of "Dixes" or "Dixie Land."

In 1928, Canal Bank was reported to be the 19th largest bank in America and the 31st largest in the world. But, like many others, it was forced to close in 1933 during the Depression.

The National Bank of Commerce rose in its place and repaid all of the stockholders and creditors of Canal Bank and Trust. Eventually, after more mergers, First National Bank of Commerce came into being.