[1][a][2] His parents were Huguenots who fled religious persecution in France and settled in Pinache (now the town of Wiernsheim) in the state of Baden in the German Confederation.

[4] When the Richmond and Danville Railroad (precursor to the Southern Railway) expanded its headquarters at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in 1886, it commissioned a statue of Benjamin Franklin to stand over the entrance.

He was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[1] Jouvenal was survived by his wife, two sons (Rudolph and Adolph),[8] and four daughters (Caroline, Clara, Emma, and Wilhelmina).

[9] Jouvenal's son, Rudolph, was also a sculptor and stonecutter, and was chosen from a field of 225 stonemasons to carve the capstone for the Washington Monument.

Among his more notable works are a statue of Benjamin Franklin, and portrait busts of Alexander Hamilton, Martin Van Buren, and Daniel Webster.