From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
Emil Remond was born in Nevers, France, in 1840. Having spent several years of study under a friar in France and having gained an excellent education through book and traveling, he came to Texas in 1856 to join his half-brother, Jean Priot, at La Reunion. He lived and worked at the colony until the beginning of the Civil War. He was one of the first men to enlist in the Confederate Army, entering the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry Company B. In the early part of the war he was with patrols along the borders of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Captured twice, he managed to escape each time and rejoin the Confederates. He was commended for his services in the army and after the war was given an honorable discharge. He afterward allied himself with the United Confederate Veterans and was a member of Camp Sterling Price at the time of his death.
Soon after the war Emil Remond married Ceasarine Santerre. They were among the first couples to be married in Dallas after the Civil War. The economy was so bad in Texas that he could not afford to buy a ring; so he bored a hole in a dime for the wedding. Ceasarine prized her “dime ring” all her life.
The couple moved to Hutchins south of Dallas, where Emil Remond established a brickyard. This prospered so that in a few years he was able to acquire enough funds to develop the property south of the colony townsite which he obtained when the colony dissolved. He became partners with his half-brother Jean Priot in a new brickyard. He made the brick and was the contractor for the first engine house in East Dallas; he also constructed the first brick oven in the main part of town. He was the first to use carbonate of lime in Dallas for the making of concrete.
Now Emil Remond turned his attention to Dallas County minerals, since he had been keenly interested in geology from his student days. During the colony days he had analyzed the different strata whenever a well was dug and had discovered the wonderful clay and ideal formations for making cement. The commercial value of Dallas County minerals was demonstrated by Emil Remond. As a result of his efforts to put to practical use the materials which abounded there, the lola Cement Plant in West Dallas was started.
His investigations were not limited to Dallas County. He visited and made examinations of the deposits in various counties, finding many minerals to exist in sufficient quantities to be used for commercial purposes. Often he discovered bones of prehistoric animals; his greatest find was the bone of a mastodon in a sand drift in City Park. He added these bones to his collection of minerals, clays, and fossils in the laboratory he had built in his home. Often he displayed his exhibits at the early State Fairs.
For years Emil Remond was an active member of the Dallas Commercial Club, which afterwards became our Chamber of Commerce. He died in 1906 and was buried in the old French Colony Cemetery. Ceasarine Santerre Remond died in 1923 and was buried by her husband. There were no children from this union.
By Eloise Santerre, Dallas
