a JEFFERSON DAVIS 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, October 28, 1997

Original Jennings settler had Irish temper, wit and luck

by Jim Bradshaw

Andrew Doyle McFarlain, the original settler in what is now Jennings, was born in Virginia in 1853 and brought by his parents to St. Mary Parish. He moved out onto the prairies about 1880, by luck or by wit, homesteading the 160 acres that would eventually become the business district of Jennings.

According to an account by longtime Jennings newspaperman Franklin Hildebrand, McFarlain "was a free-swinging Irishman who could out-drink and out-fight about all he met."

When the railroad headed toward Jennings, McFarlain built a general store and the Calcasieu House, a tavern. As settlers began to fill the community, he built a hotel for them to stay in until their homesteads went up. Because he owned all of what became downtown Jennings, A. D. McFarlain had to be dealt with before practically any kind of business could be done in the early days of the community.

As his wealth grew, so did his enterprise. He constructed the first rice irrigation system in the area, with his canals running from the Mermentau River out into the prairies. He was a director of the first bank in town.

And he died broke.

Says Hildebrand, "Money came and went freely with him and Uncle Tom Mahaffey, who drank, gambled and feuded with him, says he would put up lots which would sell into the thousands of dollars today on one turn of the cards. He usually lost. Gambling was his big fault and all who knew him confirm that he died broke. His marker at Greenwood is one put up by the Woodmen of the World. ...He never understood the value of money."

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).