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Catherine Braithwaite

Catherine Braithwaite (1836-1899) was the matriarch of the Braithwaite family of Louisiana during the late 19th century.

Biography[]

Catherine Braithwaite was born at Braithwaite Manor, Beauregard Parish, Louisiana in 1836 to the well-established Braithwaite family, a family descended from English settlers. She became the family's matriarch, and she gave birth to Gareth, Bartholomew, Gerald, and Gertrude, who would become involved in her family's illegal businesses upon coming of age. After the American Civil War, the Braithwaites' African-American slaves were emancipated, but the Braithwaites quickly recovered by forging an alliance with the neo-Confederate Louisiana Raiders gang and selling moonshine to them. In 1899, the Van der Linde Gang, which allied itself with the Gray family, destroyed Billy Lime's still in Bayou Nwa, and their gang members Hosea Matthews and Arthur Morgan then returned some moonshine to Braithwaite Manor in exchange for payment. Catherine was infuriated, as she was hestitant to buy back her own liquor, but she ultimately settled for paying $.50 a barrel and then hiring the two men to give away the liquor for free at the Gray family's Rhodes Parlour House as promotional advertising. She also hired the Van der Linde gang to burn the Gray family's tobacco fields at Caliga Hall, but she then betrayed the gang and kidnapped John Marston's young son Jack Marston. The Van der Lindes returned in force, killing all of her sons in a shootout at her manor and setting her estate on fire. She confessed that she had sold Jack to the New Orleans crime bross Angelo Bronte, and - refusing to leave her mansion behind - she perished in the flames.


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