Pierre Landry was born on the plantation of the late Dr. Francois Provost on April 19, 1841; the son of a slave and her master. He was named Caliste; and was reared by Pierre Bouissiac and his wife Zaides, free people of colour, until he was 13. As a boy, he was sent to school on the plantation and attended classes conducted by Mrs. Reno, for free children of colour. At the Provost succession sale in May of 1854, Landry was offered to the highest bidder and became the property of M. S. Bringer, one of Ascension's wealthiest sugar planters. He was sold for $1665.00.
As a young man, Caliste had been taught the trades of confectioner and cook. He subsequently became the chief pastry-man on the Bringer Estate. Joseph Berrbridge, the Chief Butler, became a close friend to Caliste. They were allowed to from a partnership and conduct the store on the plantation. Caliste became Superintendent of the yard and supervised the moss press, broom factory and wood yard. The Bringier Estate was then known as the Houmas Plantation and subsequently as the Monroe Place of Burnside, Brene and Miles. The Plantations owned in Ascension Parish were home to the most elaborately equipped sugar plantations in Louisiana. Joe and Caliste had managed a prosperous career, but with the Civil War approaching, decided to dissolve their firm.
Caliste changed his first name to Pierre for reasons unknown to family members, and left behind the self-contained world of the plantation after the Civil War and moved in 1866 to Donaldsonville. There only three years after the Civil War, Pierre "Caliste" Landry became the first African American elected Mayor to any town in the United States. He became Mayor of Donaldsonville in 1868, and served in that capacity for one year. While mayor, he worked to found two day schools and a night school for black children. In the years that followed, Landry became one of Ascension's most prominent citizens.
He built the first home in Donaldsonville owned by a free man of colour. Pierre Landry's family was one of the first African American families to own a piano in town. Music was a major part of the Laundry family. He had fourteen children, all became educated and prospered. Several became teachers. In 1870, Pierre became President of the Ascension Parish Police Jury , Justice of the Peace, and was appointed by the Governor as Tax Collector for the town of Donaldsonville. By 1872, he had become President of the School Board, State Representative and appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as postmaster. In 1878, he became State Senator for the 8th Senatorial District of Louisiana and in 1879 was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention.
Pierre "Caliste" Landry practiced law for 12 years, became a principal and a founding member of the Board of Trustees for New Orleans University, which is now known as Dillard University.
In the year 1862, Pierre was converted from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism, through the influence of a colony of Methodists. He was elected a lay delegate from the Louisiana Conference to the General Conference held at Brooklyn in 1872; joined the traveling connection in 1878 and received an appointment from Bishop W. L. Harris, serving three successful years as pastor of St. Peter.
At the Annual Session of the Louisiana Conference at Shreveport in 1881, he was appointed Presiding Elder of the Baton Rouge District by Bishop C. D. Foss, served the limit of four years in that position, and in 1885 was appointed Presiding Elder of the Shreveport District by Bishop W. F. Mallalieu. After four years of faithful service in that capacity he was appointed pastor of the St. Paul Church at Shreveport, and in two years completed the building of that edifice and rebuilt the parsonage, superintending the work himself and turning over at the expiration of his term one of the best pieces of colored church property in the Louisiana Conference. In 1891, he was named presiding elder of the South New Orleans District and in 1900, became head of Gilbert Academy, a school for young black men on St. Charles Avenue where De La Salle High stands today.
Reverend Pierre "Caliste" Landry, was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church for fifty years.
It was reported in the December 24, 1941 issue of the Times Picayune
that "He is believed to have preached to more people of his
race than any other man. This is not hard to believe because
as Reverend Landry, he built St. Peters Church on Houmas Street
in Donaldsonville and established churches in Bayou Goula, Napoleonville,
Woodlawn, Vioron, Shreveport, New Orleans and St. Landry United
Methodist in Gonzales.
1868 Elected Mayor of Donaldsonville
1870 President of the police jury of the Parish of Ascension, Louisiana
1870 Appointed by the Governor of The State, Tax Collector of the Town of
Donaldsonville.
1872 Elected a member of the House of Representatives of the State of
Louisiana
1872 President of the School Board of the Parish of Ascension
1872 Appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as postmaster of the Town of
Donaldsonville
1874 Elected to the State Senate, from the 8th Senatorial District
1875 Elected to the State Senate
1879 Elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention
1882 Again elected to the House of Representatives of the
State of Louisiana
Practiced Law for 12 years
Founder of Gilbert Academy, Baldwin, Louisiana
Incorporator and member of the Board of Trustees of New Orleans
University, now Dillard University