an IBERIA 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)

Iberia Parish communities are part of Acadiana history

by Jim Bradshaw

This former railroad stop was named for the Beau Pre Plantation on Hwy. 182 between New Iberia and Jeanerette. The plantation house that once stood there was built in 1830 by John W. Jeanerette. It stood in a grove of pine, magnolia and oak trees, and was named for a beautiful prairie, beau pre, of Nova Scotia. The old plantation house burned in 1984, and the site was converted into a public cemetery. The world's heaviest iron cross has been erected there. The cross weighs more than 40,000 pounds, and was designed and cast at the Moresi Foundry in Jeanerette, one of the few places in the world capable of casting an object so large and heavy.

This was originally a shipping station for agricultural products in the area. There was a store here.

The Bob Acres community is centered near the curve an La. Hwy. 14 where it intersects Longside Road.

This settlement was named for the Boudreaux family, early settlers in the Teche country. Jean Boudreaux and his family probably arrived in Louisiana early in 1765 with Beausoleil Broussard. Through Jean's only son, Jean-Charles (m. Dorothée Comeau), Jean began an important Boudreaux line in the Attakapas region. First settling along the upper Vermilion near present-day Lafayette, the descendants of Jean-Charles by the 1860s had spread as small farmers southward into Côte Gelee near what is now Youngsville.

Another early Boudreaux settler in the Teche area was Augustin Remy, who came to Louisiana from Maryland as a 13-year-old orphan with one of the Breaux families.

During the early 19th century, the Boudreaux clan in the Teche country was reinforced by other Boudreaux families who had first settled on the Mississippi River in Ascension and St. James parishes.

Brannon is now virtually a part of New Iberia, centered at the intersection of La. Hwy. 14 and La. Hwy. 83.

This community was south of Jefferson Island on La. 14 near its intersection with Leleux Road. There was apparently a railroad stop here at one time.

Bryant is now essentially a suburb of New Iberia, centered around Old Sugar Mill Load and Daspit Road. It is named for the Bryant family, likely descendants of Christopher O'Brian Sr., a native of Ireland who came to Virginia as a boy. He married in Virginia, then moved to New Madrid, Missouri, then came the Teche country in December 1801.

After he settled on Bayou Teche, the name of the family was changed from "O'Brien" to Bryant. Christopher O'Brian Sr. died before 1812. He had at least two sons who appear to have been young men when the family moved to Louisiana. James Cathcart, who came through in 1819, called Christopher O'Brian Jr. "Christie Bryant." His brother is referred to elsewhere as "Luke Bryan" (without the "t").

Luke Bryan married Rebecca Berwick, daughter of Thomas Berwick Sr., who gave his name to Berwick Bay. On May 1, 1811, Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne appointed Luke as the first sheriff of the newly created St. Mary Parish.

Burke was between Lozes and Coteau, just about where U.S. Hwy. 90 and La. Hwy. 88 now intersect.

A school and Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church are at the center of this farming community today. It is located on Hwy. 88, between U.S. Hwy. 90 and La. Hwy. 182.

The Star Temple Church, at the intersection of Hwy. 675 and Hwy. 3013, stands near the center of this small community on Jefferson Island Road.

There was an early bridge across the Teche at this community on Hwy. 86 in north Iberia Parish.

The Rynella Volunteer Fire Station, on Avery Island Road, is actually in what once was Davids.

Half of the town of Delcambre is in Vermilion Parish, half of it in Iberia Parish. The first settlers in the Delcambre area, known then as the Marais Carlin or Grand Marais, were given Spanish land grants about 1790. They included Eugene Carlin, who was given land on the southeastern side of Lake Peigneur; Charles Prévoux, whose grant was on the north and east side of the lake; and Jean Petit, who received lands north and south of Bayou Tigre. The town received its name from Desire Delcambre, its founder.

What was the community of Dennison was at what is now the entrance to the Port of Iberia, where Port Road meets Lewis Road.

This community was on La. Hwy. 14 near its intersection with Old LA. Hwy. 25. It is probably named for the family of Joseph-Francois Derouen, progenitor of most of the Derouens living in Louisiana today. He and his wife moved to the Opelousas area, probably from Quebec, sometime before 1777. He apparently prospered there, because by 1777, he had acquired 90 cattle and 100 horses, assets of considerable value by the standards of that day. But, for reasons unknown, he decided about 1780 to move his family to the Petite Anse prairie south of present day New Iberia. That area was to become the main center of the Derouen families that descended from Joseph Francois, who died in 1819 at the age of 85.

Joseph-Francois' two sons, Joseph Jr. (m. 1798 Marie-Solange Prejean) and Jacques (m. 1802 Marie-Charlotte Leleau) each reared large families in the area. Both brothers used cattle brands that had been in the family since 1780. Joseph-Francois and Joseph Jr. claimed several large holdings along Bayou Teche below New Iberia. Jacques held land east of Bayou Petite Anse, just north of Avery Island.

Duboin was on the Weeks Island Road. The Peebles School is where the community was.

Among the first settlers at Fausse Pointe were Jean Berard and Claude Boutte, who were commissioned in 1773 to appraise the property there of Etienne de Vaugine, whose indigo plantation had been in operation there at least since 1764.

The indigo plantation was on the Teche at Fausse Pointe, which at that time was regarded as the area on both sides of the Teche as it made a bend from Morbihan to Loreauville. The main house at the plantation apparently was a raised cottage with galleries on two sides.

According to the inventory, there were two storage sheds made from pieux driven into the ground. The sheds were used for drying the indigo. A garden was enclosed by oak stakes. The land and improvements were valued at 200 piastres (a coin worth about one American dollar).

The complete inventory also listed farm animals, 33 slaves, silver, crystal, good furniture, 100 pounds of coffee, 100 pounds of sugar, and bolts of cloth.

Greig was a small community at the intersection of what is now Port Road and Weeks Island Road.

This was once a railroad stop near the intersection of La. Hwy. 182 and La. Hwy. 674.

This community was between Jefferson Island and Avery Island. There once was a railroad stop named Lee Station there. Lee Station Road runs off of Hwy. 14 between New Iberia and Delcambre.

This was once a railroad stop between Jeanerette and New Iberia. Old residents of the area say the stop was named for the Lifenite fertilizer shipping facility there. Nothing remains of the place except some old tanks across Hwy. 182 from the Loomis Equipment Co.

Nicholas Pelagie Loisel was born in 1781, the son of Jean-Louis Loisel and Catherine Toupart (widow of Pierre Borel). Nicholas married Celeste Elenore Provost on June 17, 1816. They had five children, all girls. This was a railroad stop between Jeanerette and New Iberia. The smokestack and ironwork of the old Loisel Sugar Mill can be seen alongside Hwy. 182 between New Iberia and Jeanerette.

Lozes is at the intersection of Hwy. 88 and Hwy. 99, near the merging of four parishes: Lafayette, Vermilion, St. Martin, and Iberia. Leon Lozes, a native of Manciet, France, founded Solitude Plantation after marrying Aurelia Theriot Landry. In 1869, Lozes founded the Aioli Dinner Society that is pictured on the front cover of "The Cajuns" by George Rodrigue. These monthly dinners continue today in New Iberia under the auspices of the Ancient Order of Creole Gourmets.

Lozes allowed the Franklin and Abbeville Railroad to construct a depot and switch on the plantation in 1909 and used the railroad to transport sugar cane. Also noticeable on the plantation was a turf race track where Lozes often ran his prized horse Napoleon during Sunday races.

A school was established at Lozes in the early 1900s but it was dismantled in the 1940s. A cotton gin was built there in the 1930s by H. L. Griffen. It continued to operate into the 1950s. Soileau Cannery and Cane Mill, established in the 1930s, became Bruce Foods in the 1960s and today employs as many as 200 people during peak canning periods.

The Lozes Lane Club owned by Simien LeBlanc came to prominence in the 1940s. It included a baseball field, dance hall, roller skating rink, and rooster pit.

The oldest standing building still in operation is the Chastant and Breaux store, opened in 1910. The store served as the Fifth Ward voting precinct until the 1970s.

The Ludger community centered near the intersection of Port Road and Larson Road.

The modern community of Lydia is named for the old Lydia Plantation, which was begun about the turn of the century by Hypolite Patout and named for a daughter who died young. The original settlement centered around what is now the Olivier Plantation Store on the Weeks Island Road (Hwy. 83).

In 1898, Jules Olivier went into partnership with Willie Patout to open the store, originally serving primarily as a plantation commissary. Olivier bought Patout out of the store in 1902. There was a race track across the road from the store.

The Franklin and Abbeville Railroad ran nearby, and a narrow gauge tram was used to haul sugar cane from Lydia Plantation to Patoutville.

Early family names in the area included Boutte, Broussard, Winters, Romero, Landry, Duplantis, Bonin, Labiche, Hebert, Dorsey, Boudreaux, Lancon, Charpentier, and others.

The current community of Lydia developed primarily in the 1970s, when the Diamond Crystal Salt Co. abandoned the company town there and gave workers the opportunity to buy their company-owned houses and move them.

The Marsh Island Refuge consists of some 82,000 acres between Vermilion Bay and the Gulf of Mexico off the Iberia Parish coast. It is accessible only by boat and the terrain is not inviting to visitors. There are no facilities there.

An estimated 100,000 blue and snow geese winter on the refuge each year, alongside an equal number of ducks. Countless shore birds and wading birds also use the refuge. Muskrat, mink, raccoon and otter have been seen there. Alligators abound.

The waters surrounding the island also serve as one of the major nursery grounds for shrimp, blue crab, and other marine life.

Avery Island, a salt dome in Iberia Parish was once called Marsh Island when it was owned by the Marsh Family. It should not be confused with this Marsh Island.

Marshfield was the name of a large plantation owned by Jonas Marsh in the early 1800s. The plantation, east of the Teche about three miles from New Iberia, became a railroad stop. There was a school there at one time.

Morbihan is south of Loreauville. This was originally a shipping station for agricultural products in the area. There was a store here. It was centered around the area where La. Hwy. 86 intersects Rue Degravelle today.

The Nicholas community was on Migues Road west of its intersection with Avery Island Road.

This little community once stood near the intersection of La. Hwy. 14 and La. Hwy. 676.

The Numa community was on Old La. Hwy. 25, midway through its curve as it leaves and then reconnects with La. Hwy. 14.

Olivier is on Hwy. 87 at Bayou Teche between New Iberia and Jeanerette. It was the plantation of Charles Borromee Olivier de Vezin, born in 1777 or 1778, the child of Hughes Charles Honore Olivier de Vezin and Marie Madelaine de Marigny de Mandeville, and grandson of Pierre Francois Marie Olivier de Vezin. Pierre was born at Nancy, France, settled at St. Maurice in Canada, and then came to New Orleans. His grandson, Charles married Celeste Mathilde de Blanc of St. Martinville in April 1798, and, following her death in 1811, remarried on March 15, 1812 to Anne Wilhemina Perrault. She was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Perrault and Marie-Madelaine LeCann. Charles Olivier died in 1862. Three of his sons, Alexandre, Eugene, and Robert owned the Olivier Plantation after his death.

Parcperdue is in the northeast corner of the parish on Bayou Parcperdue. It was originally the plantation of Pierre Petit of Bordeaux, France, who acquired some 3,800 arpents by a grant dated Jan. 21, 1787. David Weeks bought the plantation from Petit on April 24,1819. Weeks sold the plantation to James Mather of East Baton Rouge Parish on Oct. 5,1825. Mather sold the property to Frederick Daniel Conrad, David Weeks' brother-in-law. That sale was completed in 1832.

Patoutville is east of Jeanerette. It was a center of trade for people of the 11e Piquante and Cypremort prairies, and in 1888 had a public school and a church.

Poufette was at the intersection of Poufette Road (which runs off of La. Hwy. 14) and the railroad spur, near where the railroad crosses Bayou Petite Anse.

"This is the beautiful body of land lying south and west of the town of New Iberia. It is as fine prairie land as can be found anywhere. The following sketch of it was compiled by Mr. Denote some twenty-five years ago: 'This prairie has natural drains, which, by being opened a little, would relieve the whole country from surface water after rains. ...This fertile prairie must, at no distant date, be put in a high state of cultivation by small farmers. Though there are many thrifty little fields now under fence, we doubt if a tenth part of the prairie is cultivated. Small tracts from forty to two hundred acres can be bought for ten dollars per acre, and even less. Large planters can not come into this prairie and put up new and expensive machinery with any show of success. A small farmer can start with cheap improvements, make, ten, twenty, or fifty hogsheads of sugar with a certainty of success. His coal may be hauled from the banks of the Teche at his leisure at any season of the year in dry weather. A ton of coal, at a cost of six dollars and fifty cents on the bayou, will boil a hogshead of sugar. In addition to the sugar crop the small farmer could raise mulch (sic) cows for sale and make butter and cheese for the New Orleans market; and poultry, eggs, garden vegetables, fresh pork, broom corn, corn, hay, potatoes, melons, fruits, and other productions may all be sold for ready money or goods at New Iberia or New Orleans.'"

St. Marcellus Church on Avery Island Road is in the community of Rynella. There was once a railroad stop there.

The Santiague community once stood near the intersection of La. Hwy. 676 and Migues Road.

This was a settlement that formed in the vicinity of the Raphael Segura home at Spanish Lake. Lace Fortier reported in 1909 that it we! "a post hamlet and station in the northern part of Iberia Parish ... or the Southern Pacific Railroad about three miles northwest of New Iberia." According to Fortier, it had a sugar refinery, "rice industries,' and in 1900 a population of 42.

Raphael Segura was the son o Francisco Segura and Maria de Prods, who had come from Malaga Spain, with the original New Iberia settlers. Raphael was born March 4 1794, at Spanish Lake. He fought with the 14th Regiment of St. Martin Parish at the Battle of New Orleans and married Marie Carmelite Romero shortly after his return to the Iberia area. Marie Carmelite was the daughter of Joseph Romero of Malaga and Julie Gonsourand of Pointe Coupee Parish. Marie Carmelite died in an epidemic in 1845, along with Raphael's three brothers, two sisters, his mother, and a niece.

Raphael took a second wife on Aug. 29, 1846, marrying Marie Azelie Gathe, daughter of Francois Gathe and Magdeline Bourgeois of St. James Parish. Marie Azelie died July 13, 1851. Raphael married a third time on Jan. 26, 1852, to Elise Celima Bonin, daughter of Benjamin Bonin and Modeste Breaux.

Raphael Segura died Oct. - 9, 1891. His death certificate says that he was 97 years, 7 months, and 6 days old. According to his obituary, "for many decades he was the largest stock raiser and planter of this section."

This old community has been swallowed by New Iberia. It was near the intersection of Landry Drive and La. Hwy. 674.

Old maps place this long-vanished community south of the Acadiana Regional Airport, near the intersection of Leon Landry Road and La. Hwy. 3212.

The small community of Vida once sat around a sugar mill on the banks of Bayou Teche between New Iberia and Loreauville. On Nov. 21, 1923, at about 3 p.m., an explosion at the mill left 12 people dead, 16 hurt, five boilers blown up, and the recently renovated sugar mill in ruins. The Vida mill was rebuilt and resumed operations in the 1924 grinding season. It continued to operate until the late 1960s. The building was torn down and its machinery moved away in the early 1970s.

Walet is named for John D. Walet, who had a store, cotton gin,. and much property there. He was a member of the school board and influential member of the community. There is still a one-lane Walet Road running through sugar acreage owned by the family.

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).