Francois Ignace (Adolphe) Gouhenant (1804-1871) had one of the earliest businesses on the Dallas courthouse square. He opened the Art Saloon where he not only displayed paintings, but took daguerreotypes. Daguerreotypes are a very early type of photograph. He arrived in Texas in 1848, opened this business in 1851 and may have been Dallas’ first naturalized citizen in 1853. Within his Art Saloon, he taught Spanish, French and multiple different musical instruments. He hailed from France and I have to believe that he got sick of people mispronouncing his name as he later used a shortened version – Gounah. The pronunciation of his name, no matter which spelling (there are 27 found in his family’s history) sounds like Goo-nah.
In his spare time, he taught fencing, worked as a druggist, mixed paint, was a father and husband, started a Utopian settlement, established an artist co-op in France, declared bankruptcy multiple times, and built an observatory – like ya do.
If you want to hear more, his 3x great granddaughter spoke at the Allen Library about his fascinating life.
Image: his headstone in Missouri. He died after trying to catch his train as it was already in motion, caught his foot, had to have it amputated and did not survive the subsequent infection.
