Background
Christian Roselius, the son of Johann Conrad and Anna Marie (Wacker) Roselius, was born near the German city of Bremen. He was baptized Johann Christian, but in later life did not use his first name. His parents were poor.
Christian Roselius, the son of Johann Conrad and Anna Marie (Wacker) Roselius, was born near the German city of Bremen. He was baptized Johann Christian, but in later life did not use his first name. His parents were poor.
At the age of sixteen Roselius went without money to Bremen, where four years later, by the sale of future services, he secured passage to New Orleans on the Dutch brig Jupiter.
He served an apprenticeship as a printer in his adopted city and in 1825 started a magazine, The Halcyon, which was destined to a short existence. By hard study he sought to overcome his deficiencies of education, adding a speaking command of French and English to his native German and acquiring proficiency in Latin. Beginning the study of law in the office of Auguste D'Avezac in company with Alexander Dimitry, he developed a passion for French civil law and its ancient background and thus acquired an important legal equipment for Louisiana practice. He started to teach while struggling for a beginning at law.
He was admitted to the bar in 1828 and was engaged in the active practice of law with little interruption during the rest of his life. He attained the front rank of the Louisiana bar.
In 1840 he was elected to the state legislature, and the following year was named state attorney general for a two-year term. He served as a member of the state constitutional convention in 1845. In the pursuit of his profession he acquired a competence but tended to reduce it by a generous munificence. He was ready with hand and purse to help the unfortunate, including kinsmen whom he aided on one of his visits to his native country. A Whig in politics, he opposed secession as a member of the state convention that voted such a step on the eve of the Civil War.
In 1863 he declined appointment to the highest judicial office in the reconstructed state government, expressing a refusal to serve on a court subject to military interference. He was a member of the board of administrators of the University of Louisiana (later to become Tulane University) at New Orleans, 1847-55; professor of civil law in the University, 1850-73; and dean of the law department, 1865-72. Of ordinary height, Roselius was rather spare and angular and had a physical appearance that suggested a greater age than was his. He was more forceful than attractive as a public speaker. His private library was rich in Shakespeare and the Latin classics, which he read constantly. He owned a spacious home in Carrollton, a suburb of New Orleans in his day, and his hospitality was enjoyed by not a few distinguished visitors to the city. He died at New Orleans, and his funeral was held at a Lutheran church on St. Charles Avenue with interment in the old St. Louis cemetery.
Member of the board of administrators of the University of Louisiana
Roselius married the directress of a school for girls. Of his three children, one daughter survived him.