CHAPRON Eugène

Louis Augustin Eugène CHAPRON, born 1824 in Orléans (FR), was married to Marie Clémence GRAVIER, born 1833 in Sancoins (FR), daughter of a marchand de bois.
In July 1858 CHAPRON and his wife Marie-Clémence announced that they had established their residence in Luxembourg under the name of CHAPRON-GRAVIER in their capacity as “entrepreneurs de la FOURNITURE GÉNÉRALE DES BOIS du réseau de chemins de fer Guillaume-Luxembourg”.
CHAPRON held contracts for delivering a total of 300.000 railway sleepers to Chemins de fer Guillaume-Luxembourg.
This must have been his main income source, but CHAPRON also had two additional minor businesses:
In 1860 CHAPRON advertised that he had started a business for selling and delivering firewood to private households in Luxembourg and, in 1862, he offered petites vaches bretones for sale.
CHAPRON was taken to court in 1865 by the Compagnie Royale Grand-Ducale des Chemins de fer Guillaume-Luxembourg for failing to deliver railway sleepers within the agreed specifications and the court case proceedings were published in the local press.
As a reaction thereto, CHAPRON started a counter-claim against Chemins de fer Guillaume in a Paris court.
Matters did not calm down since CHAPRON felt obliged to publish the following statement in 1868:

Des bruits malveillants ayant été répandus sur le compte de M. Chapron, par suite, sans doute, de son absence momentanée avec sa famille, il prie les personnes qui auraient quelque chose à lui réclamer de le faire à son domicile, à Limpertsberg, où il conserve toujours sa résidence, et où, comme par le passé il leur serait donné immédiatement satisfaction.

The Census of 1871 reveals that CHAPRON lived comfortably in Limpertsberg; he had a Kutscher and two maids in his household.
In 1876, however, CHAPRON was declared en faillite and all his goods in Limpertsberg (maison Lamort) were put up for public auction; first, all the contents of his house and subsequently the house itself.
Even his two elder daughters got caught in the debacle since they had to issue a communiqué to the effect that they declined to pay for objects delivered to the CHAPRON household, possibly having been used by them, but not personally ordered or bought by them.
All these published facts point towards the conclusion that CHAPRON and his wife had run away from their financial responsibilities in Luxembourg.
Through his highly publicised insolvency, CHAPRON made it into the local satirical paper, an “honour” reserved for well known public figures.
It is not known when and where CHAPRON died.

FamilySearch database (G7FT-MWB)