Charles Patton Dimitry

Charles Patton Dimitry (July 31, 1837 – November 10, 1910) was an American author, poet, journalist, inventor, historian and Confederate soldier. He was the second son of author and diplomat Alexander Dimitry and also the grandson of Marianne Celeste Dragon. His catalog features a massive amount of literary publications one of his most notable works was The House in Balfour Street published in 1868. The author used two pseudonyms Tobias Guarnerius Jr. or Braddock Field his father Alexander used the pseudonym Tobias Guarnerius in some of his works. Charles worked for newspaper publications across the country including New Orleans, New York City, and Washington DC.

Charles was born in Washington D.C. along with his brother John Bull Smith Dimitry and sister Virginia Dimitry Ruth. They were educated in New Orleans by their father Alexander. Charles and his brother John eventually attended Georgetown University. Their father was the first person of color to attend the same institution. Charles wrote fictional and non-fictional works throughout his life. Toward the end of his life, he published historical content about New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.

Charles was a member of the Louisiana Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and became the state historian of the society. On January 16, 1888, he filed for a patent for the improvement to indelible ink which he invented. Charles won many awards for his writing. In June 1863, The Magnolia Weekly awarded Charles the $500 prize for best original serial story entitled Guilty or Not Guilty. In another instance, the Committee on Prose Compositions of the Press Convention on February 26, 1884, in New Orleans awarded Charles a prize of $50 for his essay The Massacre of St. Andre. He died in New Orleans at 73 years old.

Early life
Charles was born in Washington D.C. on July 31, 1837, to diplomat Alexander Dimitry and Mary Powell Mills daughter of prominent architect Robert Mills. He was ethnically an octoroon (1/8th black). Charles and several of his siblings were born in Washington while their father Alexander was the principal clerk for the Southwest postal department. The family moved back to New Orleans where Charles and his siblings were educated at College Hill, Mississippi at Saint Charles Parish. Their father Alexander established the school and he was also the dean. Charles' father was the first person of color appointed superintendent of public education in the state of Louisiana from 1847 to 1854.

Two incidents publicly threatened the family's prominent social status. Because of abusive racism and the disqualification of interracial marriages in the late 1700s and early 1800s in New Orleans Charles' grandmother Marianne Céleste Dragon passed as a white person on public records. Marriage records list her as a white woman. Two legal incidents almost identified her as a person of color, which would destabilize her legal status. The first incident occurred in the 1830s with the Forstall sisters Pauline and Josephine. Property was given to Marianne by the Frostall family and Pauline and Josephine sued to have the property returned. The Forstall sisters claimed she was pretending to be white, and the property was left to a woman of color. The white Marianne had to return the property. The court sided with Marianne allowing her to keep her property and her white status, ruling that the family had been in possession of the right to be categorized as a person not born of Negro extraction.

The second incident occurred when Charles was around 16 years old in 1853, his first cousin George Pandely was running for a seat on the Board of Assistant Aldermen. The assistant aldermen was responsible for urban infrastructure in New Orleans including streets and sidewalks a seat similar to a city council member. He was elected but forced to resign about seven months later because Victor Wiltz accused him of being of African lineage. It was against the law for people of African descent to hold public office. Pandelly took Victor Wiltz to court in the case Pandelly v. Wiltz (1854), in the case George's opponent, accused George's grandmother of having African ancestry to discredit his elected position. Pandelly took his opponent to court for slander. Pandelly won the case but no damages were rewarded, and the Pandely Affair inspired later generations to create a new genealogy where they claimed descent from a mythical, Indian princess of the Alibamu tribe named Malanta Talla. New Orleans records indicate both their grandmother and great-grandmother were not of Indian descent. Their great-grandmother was a former slave named Marie Françoise Chauvin Beaulieu de Montplaisir. She belonged to Mr. Charles Daprémont de La Lande, a member of the Superior Council.

Charles' father Alexander Dimitry became the first person of color to hold the position of U.S. Ambassador of Costa Rica & Nicaragua. But because the affair made national headlines an Ohio publication called Alexander African in 1859 discrediting the President of the United States because it was illegal for people of African descent to hold office. Charles attended Georgetown University in the late 1850s while his father and brother John Bull Smith Dimitry were diplomats.

Later life
Charles was a private in the Louisiana Guard, Confederate Army. Most of his family served the Confederacy. His brother Alexander Godgrand Dimitry died in battle. His other brother John Bull Smith Dimitry briefly served until he was injured in battle. John joined his father at the Confederate Post Office in Richmond, VA where they both had prominent positions. After the war, around October 1865 Charles was arrested by Union forces for writing slander against the White House of the United States government in the Commercial Bulletin in Richmond, Virginia. He was released on probation. At the end of the war, he continued writing. Around the same period from 1864 to 1866 he published a series of novels in serial Guilty or not Guilty, Angela's Christmas, The Alderley Tragedy, Two Knaves and a Queen, and Gold Dust and Diamonds. His most notable work was published in 1868 entitled The House in Balfour-street. Some of his works were published under the pseudonyms Tobias Guarnerius Jr. or Braddock Field. Charles and his brother John both received master's degrees from Georgetown University in 1867.

He was an active journalist for the remainder of his life from 1865 until his death. Some of the publications that he was employed include Washington D.C. News Papers: Patriot, The Post, and The Sunday Gazette. In New York City he also wrote for: The World, The Daily Graphic, New York Star, and the Brooklyn Times-Union. In New Orleans: Bee, South Illustrated and Louisiana Illustrated of New Orleans, Louisiana. He married Nannie Elizabeth Johnston the daughter of Reuben Johnston in 1871. She was from Alexandria, Virginia. They tried to make one child, but it was stillborn. She died after almost nine years of marriage in 1880 and they had no surviving children. Charles was 43 years old and never remarried. Charles was a member of the Louisiana Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and became the state historian of the society. Towards the end of his life, he completed historical works about Louisiana including: Louisiana Families, Louisiana Story in Little Chapters and In Exile. He also invented an improvement to indelible ink and received a patent on January 16, 1888. In June 1863, The Magnolia Weekly awarded Charles the $500 prize for the best original serial story entitled Guilty or Not Guilty and the Committee on Prose Compositions of the Press Convention on February 26, 1884, in New Orleans awarded Charles a prize $50 for his essay The Massacre of St. Andre. Towards the end of his life, Charles became known as the blind historian of Louisiana because he lost his eyesight. He died in New Orleans at 73 years old.