Harriet Bynum Fourniquet Papers

Harriet Bynum Fourniquet, born Harriet Jane Bynum, was born around 1814 in Lake Concordia, Louisiana, to Benjamin Bynum and Mary Rines Bynum. Harriet was the youngest of four children of Benjamin and Mary; her sister Ann Bynum Ewing was born in 1806, brother Benjamin Bynum, Jr. in 1808, and Mary Bynum Eskridge was born in 1810. Benjamin Bynum died on October 9, 1815, and her mother later remarried Judge John Perkins, who owned Sommerset plantation in Louisiana and the Briers plantation in Natchez, Mississippi. Mary Bynum Perkins and Judge John Perkins had three children together: John Perkins, Jr., born in 1819; William Perkins, born in 1821; and Rachel Perkins, born in 1824. Mary Perkins died on August 12, 1824. Shortly after her mother’s death, Harriet was sent to school in Baltimore, Maryland. On May 30, 1833, Harriet married Edward P. Fourniquet, a lawyer and bank from Natchez, Mississippi. In 1838 they built a home in Natchez called Greenleaves. Harriet and Edward had four children: Mary, born in 1838; Edward, born in 1840; Zilpha, born in 1843; and Emma, born in 1846. The Fourniquets spent the first years of their marriage in Natchez, but by 1850 were living in Pass Christian, Mississippi, in Harrison County. Harriet Fourniquet died in childbirth on March 16, 1855, and is buried with her infant son Louis in Live Oak Cemetery in Pass Christian.