an ACADIA PARISH article

Cultures of Acadiana
a look at the French, Cajun, Creole, and Native American cultures of south Louisiana
(a project of Carencro High School - 721 West Butcher Switch Road, Lafayette, LA  70507)

Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, June 24, 1997

Estherwood's first resident may have been a pirate

by Jim Bradshaw

The Estherwood area had two earlier names, Tortue, after the Indian chief, and Coulée Trief or Trive. The Coulée Trief name involves Jean-Baptiste Trief, a mysterious person believed to have been one of Jean Lafitte's pirates, who built a cabin on the coulee, about six miles west of Crowley, about 1816. He was described as a "tall, dark, sinister-looking" man who wore large earrings like pirates once did.

There are several stories about how Estherwood got its name. A likely one is that it is the combination of two names: Wood, for a Dr. Wood who was once prominent in the area, and Esther, for the wife of a railroad executive.

Jacob Kollitz and A. D. LeBlanc established stores near the Trief cabin in the early 1890s, and a little settlement began to grow around them. Kollitz also operated the 15 room Estherwood Hotel for a time, but it was closed in 1907.

Joseph Roy was the first postmaster at Estherwood. He was appointed May 3, 1881.

The settlement began to grow just after the turn of the century with the Miller-Morris Canal, one of the first large rice irrigation systems, which helped establish the rice industry in the area, followed in 1900 by the opening of the Eureka rice mill at Estherwood.

By the spring of 1900, there were more than 30 residences in the town, new streets were being graded, and sidewalks were being put down. The town got a further impetus, when Abrom Kaplan--a pioneer developer in Acadia and Vermilion parishes--and some other businessmen organized the Estherwood Development Co. and began to promote the place. In addition to town lots, the company owned 1,000 acres of rice and timber acreage in the area. The development company held two auctions for town lots.

Estherwood's first church, the Methodist Northern, was built in 1900 and a regular pastor was assigned there in December 1901. Catholic services were first held in the village in 1904 in the home off Agricole LeBlanc. A chapel was finished there in 1910 and ministered as a mission of St. John the Evangelist Church in Mermentau.

A new school was also built there in 1900, possibly the first in the town.

Estherwood was incorporated as a village on March 12, 1901, and Henry Feitel was elected its first mayor.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).