A Biography of Jean Pierre Gueydan
Born in 1827, at the village of St. Bonnet in the High Alps of France, Jean Pierre Gueydan came to America in 1845 to make his fortune. He soon became involved in the merchandising business and some years later , with his brother Francois , organized the firm of Gueydan & Bodet, who owned the Red Store ( Le Maison Rouge ) near the French Market in New Orleans. He attended primarily to out-of-town trade and travelled extensively throughout south Louisiana.
In 1852, he married Miss Pepilla Ducommun, who died in 1860 in Abbeville, Louisiana.
During the Civil War, after the capture of New Orleans, he transferred his business activities to the southern parishes of Louisiana, dealing primarily in cotton and cattle. His headquarters were located in Abbeville during this time.
In 1862, he married Miss Amelia Montagne of New Iberia, Louisiana.
During this period of time, he would often go hunting in west Vermilion Parish, in the area that would eventually bear his name.He resolved that he would one day own a large tract of land in this region.
After the Civil War, he returned to New Orleans and again Gueydan & Bodet were the owners of a wholesale business, but this time on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. Business went from bad to worse as this was during Reconstruction.
In 1874, the business moved to Corpus Christi, Texas under the name of Gueydan Bros. & Co. A year later, the store was definitely established at San Diego, Texas. A large sheep and goat ranch was also established under the supervision of Mr. Gueydan. Here they had to fight rustlers, Indians, bandits, and drought, but the business prospered. Mr. Gueydan invented a widely used safety sheep shears , and to this day is given credit for having introduced the cultivation of cotton into south Texas.
His heart, however, was in Louisiana. In 1884, his dream came true. He bought some 48000 acres of west Vermilion Parish land, paying a price of 12 and one-half cents an acre. A rumor swept Abbeville that J.P. Gueydan had lost his mind while in Texas, the proof being that he had paid such high prices for what was widely considered to be utterly worthless land.
He had a fence built enclosing a vast pasture 9 miles long and 6 miles wide. A house was built on a salt dome fronting the present-day cemetary located south of town. He charged a dollar a head per year grazing fees for cattle. He would allow the cattlemen no right to fence off any portion of the pasture.
But in one night, 7 miles of fence were torn down, and for a very good reason... the house kitchen had burned down and needed to be re-built.
Mr. Gueydan then decided that it was time to settle this fine pastureland, and to accomplish this, he looked to various areas, including the American Midwest.
In 1896, he founded the present day town of Gueydan. As an inducement to the Southern Pacific Railroad to construct the eleven mile branch from Midland to the new town-site, he deeded to the railroad a whole section of land, valuable rights-of-way through his lands, and trackage in his new town. At his own expense,he had built of wood the first schoolhouse and donated a whole block to the school.In building up the new rice industry of southwest Louisiana , he was a pioneer. The huge rice irrigation plant at Bayou Que De Tortue was the first and for many years the largest pumping plant in the rice belt.
In his old age, he became an American citizen.
On September 20,1900 he died in Marseilles, France while waiting to embark for America. He is buried in the Gueydan family burial site in his birthplace in St. Bonnet, France.