Athanase De Mezieres
De Mezieres came to Louisiana apparently about 1733. Just when
he went to Natchitoches, where he would spend the greater portion
of his career in America, has not been ascertained,
but it is known that he was here as early as September 27, 1743.

The date of his discharge from the French service was September 15, 1763.
During those twenty years he rose from the rank of cadet to his service as
lieutenant-commander of the post of Natchitoches.

His good breeding gave him rank with the best of families of the
frontier post, and on April 18, 1746, he was married to
Marie Petronille Feliciane Juchereau de St. Denis,
daughter of the man who, for more than a quarter of a century,
had controlled the destiny of western Louisiana.

As Spanish commandant of Natchitoches Post, De Mezieres
was a skilled Indian agent,
careful businessman,
a mathematician of ability,
and fluent in French,
Spanish,
Latin,
and many Indian dialects.

His beginning of "merchandise diplomacy" with the Indian tribes
led to Natchitoches becoming one of the most important trading posts
in the New World, as is evident in the following report to his superior
concerning business done in the 1775.

Senor Governor- General - MY DEAR SIR:
According to the census which was taken at the beginning of the year,
this jurisdiction consists on one hundred thirteen homes,
in which live one hundred five heads of families,
with eighty-six women, seventy-seven youths capable of bearing arms,
one hundred six infants and children,
thirty-four unmarried young women,
one hundred young girls, and eighty four bachelors and
non-residents dispersed in hunting and trade with the villages
or in the pay of the citizens.
There are two hundred seventy-seven pieces of firearms
and thirty-one targets (blancas).
There is stock to the number of one thousand two-hundred-fifty-eight
heads of horses,
one thousand, eight hundred forty-two cattle,
over three hundred sheep and goats and seven hundred eighty-two hogs.
Since last March there have been exported more than
one thousand horses, about one hundred mules,
one hundred-twenty dressed buffalo skins,
and thirty-six thousand deer-skins.
Source: Athanase Dc Mezieres, Bolton

Author's note: I interviewed a descendant of DeMezieres in 1998
who remembered from his childhood a portrait of Athanase,
which hung in his grandmother's home.
He remembered that the tattoos on his ancestor's face was the reason
the painting was removed and he had no idea what became of it.