Paul Conrad and the Louisiana Lottery
Paul Conrad (b. 1840) was a New Orleans businessman who served as a Confederate soldier. He had been shot in the left shoulder in battle during the Civil War, but remained active in the Louisiana Field Artillery into the 1870s. As a rule, in the post-war South, Confederate veterans were held in especially high regard, and Louisiana Governor S. B. Packard commissioned Conrad as Captain in his "Governor's Life Guard." Paul Conrad became an employee of the Louisiana State Lottery Company in 1870, becoming its president in 1890. Subsequently, the United States Congress banned the interstate transportation of lottery tickets and lottery advertisements. As a result, the company remained in Louisiana until its charter expired; Conrad moved its operations to Honduras where it was shut down in 1907. LaRC Manuscripts Collection 463 consists of personal and business papers of Paul Conrad, with numerous artifacts of the 19 th century Louisiana lottery. Included are handwr...