Career
Born to a Jewish family in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, Godchaux immigrated to the United States in 1837. In 1845, he founded the Leon Godchaux Clothing Company, a department store that anchored Canal Street in New Orleans for years to come. He then purchased the town of Bonnet Carre in Saint John the Baptist Parish and changed its name to Reserve which went on to become the largest sugar refinery in the United States federal by his 12 sugar cane plantations across southeast Louisiana.
He was a multimillionaire thanks to the profits from his sugar empire, and his department store in New Orleans.".
