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His case was appealed and ultimately reached the U.S. In 2003, Harvey resident Patrick O'Neal Kennedy was sentenced to death after being convicted of violently raping his eight-year-old stepdaughter. 1860-1938), carried on development of the canal and its surroundings. Harvey and Destrehan initiated construction of the canal locks leading to the Mississippi. She was the daughter of Nicolas Noel d'Estrehan and granddaughter of Jean Noel Destréhan. Harvey's wife, née Louise Destrehan (1827-1903), was a great-granddaughter of Jean Baptiste d'Estrehan. During this time, Joseph Harvey would rename Cosmopolite City after his family surname.
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Harvey was founded as a company town at its founding, developed by Joseph Hale Harvey (born March 7, 1816). D'Estrehan built his home where the ditch met the river banks, naming the settlement "Cosmopolite City". He paid them with small parcels of land located downriver in Mechanicsham, now the city of Gretna. Years later, d'Estrehan paid German settlers in the area to work on widening the ditch they used wooden shovels. He used his slaves to dig the ditch that would become the Harvey Canal, cutting south from the banks of the Mississippi River to the back of Bayou Barataria, to provide better access. During the French colonial era, the first owner of this land was Jean-Baptiste d'Estrehan de Beaupre, royal treasurer and comptroller for the French Louisiana colony.
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