Dr. Louis Palamon Ledoux was born in Opelousas, LA, in 1822, the son of a French emigre. Instead of following the path of his older brothers and settling into plantation life, the more studious Louis left home in 1840 and went north to Groton, MA, to prepare for college at Lawrence Academy. The family’s intent was for him to enter the legal profession, but after a period of soul-searching, he announced, to the dismay of his Catholic family, his desire to become a Protestant minister.

Although the death of his parents deprived him of financial support, the undaunted scholar enrolled in Amherst College in 1844, where he supported himself by teaching. In 1848, he graduated and entered Union Theological Seminary of New York City and received his degree in 1851. Rev. Ledoux began preaching at the Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, NY and was pastor successively in Newport, NY, Monroe, MI, and Richmond, VA. The Presbyterian Church of Cornwall-on-Hudson called him in 1858. Three years later the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was bestowed upon him by Indiana State University in recognition of a treatise on “The Hypocrisy of Infidelity.”

In September of 1865, circumstances changed the course of his life. Because of repeated attacks of a bronchial condition that finally resulted in him losing his voice, he resigned his pastorate. In order to support his family (he had married Katherine Reid, and they had two sons Albert R., b. 1852 and Augustus D., b. 1858) he decided to take up teaching. This was not a difficult choice, for as a pastor he had taken into his family a few sons of summer parishioners who were very grateful to have their boys spend the winter in the country. During the village period his school was located at the southeast corner of Bayview Avenue and Hudson Street and later in what was to become the Elm Park Hotel, currently an apartment building at the foot of Mountain Road.

In April, 1867, Dr. Ledoux bought the Wood Farm and moved his school to the new location on a spur of Storm King Mountain. The Wood family had owned this farm for more than a century. The property was part of a tract of land purchased in 1763 by Luke Wood from Robert J. Livingston of New York. The Wood farmhouse was probably the first dwelling built on the Mountain; a portion of the original framework and the old chimney still stand as part of the Cottage.

The principal building that Dr. Ledoux used as his school – known then as the Cornwall Heights School – was a three-story Noah’s Ark-shaped house that Ira Wood constructed for use as a boarding house, primarily for summer guests. Even after the relocation, the facility was rented out during the summers, for Cornwall was a very popular resort in those days.

The little enterprise flourished, but never exceeded 30 boys. In 1872, because of the ill health of his wife, Dr. Ledoux decided to sell the School. His wife had shared equally in the care of the institution and had stamped upon it the quality of a “home school,” influencing its students probably as much as the various members of the faculty.

Dr. and Mrs. Ledoux traveled to Europe, and after two years and her recovery, they returned to the Heights. Here, they built the “Tower House” on land reserved from the Wood Farm and conducted the “Ledoux School.” This second venture could never exceed 12 students, a stipulation that Mr. Oren Cobb insisted upon when he had bought the Cornwall Heights School back in 1872.

On September 30, 1885, at the age of 63, Dr. Ledoux succumbed to a complication of heart failure brought on by his old nemesis bronchitis, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in nearby New Windsor.