Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, June 24, 1997

Perry provided one of the earliest river crossings

by Jim Bradshaw

The Perry's Bridge community sprang up sometime after 1817, when Robert Perry, who owned land in the area, was given a contract by the St. Martin Parish Police Jury to build a bridge across the river. (At that time what are now Lafayette and Vermilion parishes were still part of St. Martin.) The name of the place would become Perry some years later when a post office was established.

Perry had moved from Kentucky to Louisiana in 1806, when he was 19 years old. By 1827, he owned stores on each side of the river at Perry's Bridge, maintained a tannery there, and had other landholdings.

At the time the parish was formed, Father Antoine Megret had bought land at what would become Abbeville, and he had asked the legislature to establish the parish seat at the site of his little church there. He lost that round, but would continue to battle for the courthouse, and would ultimately win it away from Perry. (Indeed, a courthouse was never built at Perry, though a place was selected for one on the bank of the bayou just below the end of the bridge.)

For several years, the seat of justice changed first to Perry, then to Abbeville, then back again. Perry's Bridge won a first vote of the people but Abbeville won another one that was called a year later. This went on until 1852, when the legislature passed an act putting the seat of government at Abbeville once and for all.

Ambrose Toups was one of the first residents of Perry. His house was on the west side of Bridge Street and the first court ever held in Vermilion Parish was held in his house. The next court session was in Perry's store, and all the other terms of court at Perry's Bridge were held in the Perry Store.

In 1844, Perry laid out a little town and gave a lot on Main Street for a Protestant Church. Father Megret talked to Perry about moving his Catholic chapel there, too, but Perry was still miffed over Megret's attempt to get the parish seat. He offered the priest a piece of swampland, which Father Megret turned down. One result of that little tussle has been that there has never been a Catholic Church built at Perry.

In 1842, Perry's Bridge because part of a circuit served by the Methodist minister Phillip H. Diffenwierth. He had been sent by the Mississippi Conference to serve an area stretching across south Louisiana. He built the first church at the place.

Among the first settlers at Perry's Bridge were a Dr. Mudd; Dr. William Miss; Jacob Isaacs; Joseph Wise; John Stiffel, who kept a store on the south side of Main Street; and C. Asher. William Caldwell had a blacksmith shop there. William Kibbe, the first parish judge, lived on the opposite side of the bayou, but kept a store on the corner of Main and Bridge streets.

Some historians think that it was the bridge at Perry's Bridge, more particularly its maintenance, that may have been responsible for the creation of Vermilion Parish in the first place.

The first bridge was a crude affair to begin with, and cattle drives across it did little to improve it. With the beginning of the steamboat era in the middle 1820's the bridge had to be improved to allow steamboat traffic up and down the river. The repairs and renovations cost money and Perry was a regular supplicant at the Lafayette Police Jury asking for money to fix his bridge.

In 1826, only a few years after the bridge was built, the police jury granted $300 for repairs. It allocated another $600 in 1828 to make it amenable to steamboat traffic. A new bridge was built in 1837.

According to an official plat recorded in 1853 by A. D. Minor, U. S. Deputy Surveyor, Perry's Bridge then had three Stores, a bakery, a blacksmith shop, a school, the Methodist church, one doctor, one lawyer, and a cemetery.

By 1902, the Abbeville Meridional reported a steel bridge under construction, four stores, a barber shop, the Methodist church, two blacksmith shops, a post office, dance hall, two meat markets, and a population of more than 200 people.

There was a school at Perry as early as 1864, probably on the corner of Vine and Cypress streets. Perry High School was opened probably around 1902. It was closed in 1969 with students from Perry attending Abbeville High School and the Seventh Ward Elementary School at Mouton Cove.

Rice and corn mills, syrup mills, and cotton gins were all located in Perry at the turn of the century. There was also a lumber yard alongside the river at one time, with lumber coming up the river by paddle boats that also brought a variety of other merchandise to be unloaded and warehoused at Perry.

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).