a VERMILION 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

Kaplan once part of big plantation

by Jim Bradshaw

Kaplan is located in the heart of Vermilion Parish at the intersection of Hwy. 14 and Hwy. 35. Much of the land in this area was once a part of a large plantation owned by Jim Todd of Shreveport. It was then mostly undeveloped prairie land, but included a plantation house and a store which housed the post office.

In 1901 Abrom Kaplan and a Mr. Litchenstein bought the Todd Plantation. Kaplan headed and organized the Irving Irrigation Company to irrigate the prairie and convinced the Southern Pacific to build a railroad through the town.

Kaplan then gave away land to entice people to move to the area, though there were few amenities. At first, until the railroad got there, Kaplan was little more than a tent city with few permanent structures to be found.

With the completion of the railroad, and the confidence it brought that the place would last, streets were laid out, stores and homes were built, and the town began to grow. The first two residences were begun by O. H. Deshotels Sr, who became the town's first mayor when it was incorporated in 1902.

Eugene Eleazar moved to Kaplan from Rayne in 1906 and became the guiding spirit in what has become an annual celebration of Bastille Day there. He had come from France and wanted to remember the birthday of French Independence as well as the American Independence Day. Early Bastille Day celebrations included chasing greased pigs, public talks and dancing in the streets. In 1911, he built a combination theater and dance hall at 217 Cushing Ave.

The first school was built in Kaplan in 1903, a two-story frame building with five rooms.

The first Catholic church in the vicinity of Kaplan was established 4 miles away, at Cossinade, in 1896, but it was moved to Kaplan in 1902. Father Maltrait from France served as pastor until June 6, 1921, when he retired to Ile-et-Vilain, France. Father Brise succeeded him. The first Kaplan church was destroyed by a storm in 1915 and the church had to be rebuilt. It was enlarged three times by Father Brise.

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).