Colonel Maunsel White (ca. 1783 - December 17, 1863) was an Episcopalian Irish-American politician, merchant, and entrepreneur. He is remembered for promoting the use of peppers and peppery sauces — a brand of which his descendants still manufacture today. Although he is usually associated with New Orleans, he also resided in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, where he owned Deer Range Plantation, in addition to three other plantations. http://www.answers.com/topic/maunsel-white

The 1849 was important in the history of hot sauces because it marked the first recorded crop of tabasco chiles, the vital ingredient of McIlhenny Company's Tabasco Pepper Sauce. That crop was grown by a prominent Louisianan, Colonel Maunsell White on his Deer Range Plantation. Tobasco was an early misspelling of Tabasco, the Mexican state. Colonel White manufactured the first hot sauce from the "Tobasco" chiles and advertised bottles of it for sale in 1859. About this time, he gave some chiles and his sauce recipe to a friend, Edmund McIlhenny, who promptly planted the seeds on his plantation on Avery Island.  http://groups.msn.com/FoodiesCorner/hotsaucehistory.msnw