Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, January 27, 1998

Youngsville was designed by J.J. Roy family

by Jim Bradshaw

The town of Youngsville had its beginnings in 1831 when J.J. Roy, P. Landry, A.L. Dyer, Dr. Roy O. Young and others settled there.

In 1839, the town was laid out by either J.J. Roy or his son, Désiré Roy, and was named Royville. That name soon became confused with other Louisiana town of Rayville in Richland Parish. To end the confusion, the Post Office Department requested a name change.

Youngsville was first incorporated under the name Royville in 1883, when A.L. Dyer became its first mayor. The town had a church, three stores, a blacksmith and carriage shop, a doctor's office, and several homes. No town officers were elected under this incorporated, however, and the Royville charter was abandoned. It was not until Jan. 22, 1908, that the community was incorporated as the Village of Youngsville.

For many years, a prime landmark in the area was the Cade residence, about a mile from town. According to a contemporary description, it was "as fine as the first class planters' houses on Bayou Teche." From its upper gallery could be seen Miller's Island, Ile Piquante, Côte Gelée hills, the Teche woods above St. Martinville, and the church steeple at Royville.

Other large planters in the area were P.B. Roy, E. Primeaux, Mrs. D. Roy, Martin Verret, Rose LeBlanc, Edward Faber, B.F. Flanders, Mrs. Oliver Blanchet, O. Theriot, Alex Langlinais, and Charles Darby.

On July 29, 1859, Désiré Roy donated 9 arpents of land for a Catholic Church. The first pastor of St. Anne's Church was Father E. Hillaire, who was appointed that year. He served until 1862.

The Plain Hill Baptist Church began to serve a black congregation at Youngsville in 1873. The St. James Methodist Church, also serving a black congregation, was built in 1883.

Apparently, there were only private schools in the community until 1895, when public school classes were begun in a one-room red schoolhouse. That school was replaced in the early 1900s by a two story frame building. The school became a junior high school about 1920 and became the Smith-Hughes Agricultural High School in 1922. A new building was opened as the Youngsville High School in 1929.

Cotton and sugar cane were the predominant crops in the area, and cotton gins and sugar mills were among the early businesses there.

According to a 1953 study by students at the then-Southwestern Louisiana Institute, "In 1864, Désiré Roy took a stride forward in developing the cotton production in this area by establishing the first cotton gin on the Youngsville-Capitan Highway, just outside the corporate limits. ... In 1903, when P.A. Dupleix obtained ownership of the gin, it was moved to Iberia Street, inside the corporate limits.... This same gin was moved in 1947 to Vermilion Parish in the 'Sharon' Community, about six miles southwest of Youngsville."

A post office was established in Youngsville on Oct. 22, 1872. Albert L. Dyer was the first postmaster.

William Henry Perrin's 1891 study of southwest Louisiana says that Royville "is happily situated, in that a large number of prosperous planters resort there for business, religious worship, and other purposes. It is located but two or three miles from the Vermilion (Parish) line, and nearer still to Iberia and St. Martin parishes, and draws a great portion of its business from those places. It enjoys the advantage of having two shipping points, Bayou Vermilion and the Southern Pacific at Broussard, being four miles from each place. It has a very pretty Catholic church, at which worship (sic) a congregation more numerous than at any other church in this part of the State. There are several excellent stores, two drug stores, a large hotel and hall, private and public schools, three wheelwright and blacksmith shops, etc. There are three large cotton gins near the town."

In 1907, Alexandre Mouton in partnership with Dr. Roy Young, Overton Cade, and others, organized the Youngsville, Louisiana Syrup Mill. The mill was reorganized in 1910 as the Youngsville Sugar Factory. In 1934, Dr. Young built a second cotton gin in the Youngsville corporate limits on the Milton-Youngsville Highway.

In 1915, Dr. Young established the first community telephone service, taken over in 1948 by Southern Bell. Young and others began a water and power company at Youngsville in 1917. The electric service was absorbed by Gulf States Utilities in 1947, and the Village of Youngsville took over the water system a year later.