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A. B. Langlois, early collector of Louisiana Fungi
Augustus Barthélémy Langlois was born in the Department of the Rhône, France, 24 April 1832.  His early education was at Monthrison in the Loire Region.  In 1855 he went to Cincinnati where he completed studies at the College of Mount St. Mary of the West, and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest 11 June 1857.  His first priestly post was at Point-à-la-Hache, Plaquemine Parish,  Louisiana.  Perhaps his large frame suggested he would be more successful than his predecessor, who had been murdered, perhaps by his parishioners. After 35 years at Point-à-la-Hache, Langlois was sent to St. Martinville in 1887. He died there at 5:30 pm, 31 July 1900, at the age of 69. He is buried in a crypt beneath the Epistle side of the altar of St. Martin de Tours Church where he was pastor.  The funeral took place at 8:30 am, 2 August. His death was noted in the Botanical Gazette 30:359 (1900).  (Copy of contemporary photograph, Jim Weber)

Shirley Tucker identified Langlois' lichen collecting sites, primarily in southern Louisiana (Tucker, S. C. l970) . The dots clustered in the extreme southeastern Mississippi River delta are near Point-à-la-Hache; the cluster north of the delta in St. Tammany Parish are near the site of a church retreat house which Father Langlois attended yearly.  The localities in south central Louisiana are in St. Martin and surrounding parishes (Lafayette, Acadia, St. Landry, and others). Langlois corresponded with several prominant mycologists, including J. B. Ellis, and a number of Louisiana fungi were formally described due to the efforts of Langlois. Langlois described several species on his own, including Volutella ellisii, which was named for Ellis.  One "fungus" described from bald cypress leaves currently in the Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University, is not a fungus but a gall.
An unusually large number of priests attended the funeral of Father Langlois and signed the church record book in early August 1900 (there have been reports of 1901, but the church record is clear on 1900 as his death year).  Among those who signed the record was a young priest, Father Lohman, who later was pastor at St. Mary Magdaline in Abbeville, and herein a coincidental link between today and the past exists.  Years later, a young girl, Renée, was chosen by her class to present the old infirm Father Lohman with a parting gift as he prepared to return to France before his death. As the mother of the website keeper she provides a direct link to Father Langlois. (Photograph of page from church record, Jim Weber)
Publications Of Langlois' collection of about 20,000 specimens, the flowering plants were donated to Catholic University, Washington, D.C., before his death.
Sources
Fr. Jean Marie Jam, St. Francisville, Louisiana, and Mr. Robert D. Landry, Port Allen, Louisiana, helped by providing information on A. B. Langlois. In the summer 1982 Father Jam was host to Nancy Smith Weber, Jim Weber, Bill Cibula, several other members of the Gulf Coast Mycological Society, and Meredith Blackwell.  He provided information from his readings of local church history and provided for our examination of record books in which Father Langlois recorded baptisms, marriages, and funerals.  He also suggested thatFather Langlois might have been chosen for the Point- à -la-Hache because of his large frame (see above).
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Last Modified: 19 March 2004