Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1997

Rayne moved when rails passed Poupeville

The town moved north in 1880

by Jim Bradshaw

A post office was established at Poupeville on Aug.5,1858, with Octave P. Bonin as first postmaster.

When the railroad moved west in 1880, it bypassed Poupeville by a mile or two to the north. When Poupeville was left stranded, the settlers decided that if the railroad would not come to them, they would move the town to the railroad. The Catholic church was dragged by ox-team to a site nearer the railroad, followed by three stores operated by J. D. Bernard, M. Arenas, and Francois Crouchet. Houses would soon follow. The village of Rayne was established by May 21, 1881, when the post office was given that name, and the town was incorporated in 1883.

Jules Poupeville set up his store at Queue Tortue sometime before 1854, the year in which he sold two houses and the store to Jean Remy Vion, and as late as 1871, the Opelousas Courier is still referring to the settlement as Queue Tortue. It is uncertain when it became known as Poupeville, or if that name was known outside of the immediate area of the Poupeville store.

Father Joseph Anthonioz and other Jesuit priests were visiting the area in the 1870s. Father Anthonioz baptized Valerien Dupuis, son of Alexandre Dupuis and Ordalise Blanchard, there on Jan. 18, 1872. In 1875. Father Anthonioz bought 162 acres from the U. S. government, and a church building went up on it in 1877. There was a school at the place a year later.

Mervine Kahn came to Rayne in 1884 and bought a general store then operated by A. S. Chappuis. By 1888, Kahn was considered the leader of its merchandising business. The editor of the Opelousas Courier visited "the thriving little city" and reported in the March 21, 1885 issue that he had heard of its rapid growth, but "was not prepared for the wonderful development that he had seen."

He said: "Now it is an incorporated town whose limits cover a mile and a half square, with commodious business houses fronting on each side of the Louisiana Western Railroad and neat residences spreading in every direction, facing well-graded streets and forming the pleasant home of about 600 as hospitable, energetic, and thrifty inhabitants as occupy any country."

While there, he met people from Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Mississippi.

Some six months later, Rayne had its own newspaper, the first to be published in the Acadia Parish area. The Rayne Signal began publication on March 13, 1886. The proprietors were C. W. Felter and George Addison, grandson of the George Addison who was the first printer and publisher in St. Landry Parish. W. W. Duson bought the newspaper on Sept. 1, 1886. A second paper, the Acadia Sentinel, began publication on Sept. 14,1886, with George K. Bradford as editor and publisher.

The first rice mill in Acadia Parish was built in Rayne in 1887. It was first called the Rayne Rice Mill and Manufacturing Co. The building was described as "a very substantial one in the Crowley Signal of Aug. 25, 1888. "The machinery is all first class and is driven by an engine of one hundred horse power," the newspaper said. "The capacity of the mill is calculated to be one hundred barrels per day of clean rice." A.S. Chappuis was the first president of the mill.

In 1890, Emile Daboval bought an interest in the mill and the name was changed to Acadia Rice Milling Co. Daboval had been in the rice milling business in New Orleans.

Rayne got a second railroad line in 1907, when the Opelousas, Gulf & Northeastern Railroad came through. The coming of the railroad spurred a burst of growth and civic pride. That year, Rayne listed its assets in the Christmas edition of the Crowley newspaper. They included: two railroads, a cotton oil mill, four cotton gins, two rice mills, two machine shops, one grist mill, two lumber yards, a brick plant, two churches, three schools, two banks, a waterworks and light plant, a military company, and a fire company.

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