The town of Gueydan is located in the coastal parish of Vermilion in southwest Louisiana. It has a population of about 1500 and is primarily engaged in the cattle , rice , amd oil industries. It's population is of French ancestry ... otherwise known as Cajuns!!!

History

In the early 1860's , Jean Pierre Gueydan , the founder of the town , lived in Abbeville , Louisiana , about 30 miles east of present day Gueydan. He often came to the future town site to hunt deer, ducks, geese,pheasant, cache-cache ( jacksnipes ) , papabottes, and other game. The area was in reality a hunter's paradise. Game and fish were boundless.

Forty thousand acres of land described by surveyors as "sea marsh , unfit for cultivation" was purchased by Jean Pierre and Francois Gueydan in 1884 for twelve and one-half cents per acre. By 1896 a small portion of their purchase became known as the "Gueydan Pasture". It was later chartered as a village when the population reached 250. Jean Pierre was the official founder of Gueydan as he had purchased his brother's landholdings. In 1902 , the settlement became the town of Gueydan.

Realizing the importance of a railroad to the rice farmers , Mr. Gueydan donated a section of land and extensive right-of-way to induce the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a branch line from Midland , Louisiana. Shortly thereafter , the first property lots were offered for sale. Settlers began to arrive from other parts of the state and the rest of the country.

The very first irrigation pump in the state of Louisiana was built nearby at Primeaux landing. This enabled water to be pumped to irrigate thousands of acres of rice helping to promote this area into the rice growing power it was soon to be.

The Town of Gueydan was booming. Schools , churches , and businesses were thriving. Rice related businesses were especially booming as increased acreage was placed under the till.

The founder of the town , Mr. Jean Pierre Gueydan , resided in a plantation about two miles south of the community.The name of his plantation was St. Bennette which eventually housed the town's first school which opened with 10 students in 1894.

As with any other small pioneering towns , Gueydan has suffered numerous near catastrophes. There were fires in 1901, 1903, 1910, and 1927 that caused extensive damage. But perhaps the worst tragedy was the Flood of 1940. This deluge which occured in August of 1940 inundated the entire town after near record rainfalls. Locals still vividly recall the disaster.

The reason for such extensive flooding is that the entire area is prairie land , with an average elevation of nine feet above the Gulf of Mexico. The range of elevation tends to be in the range of 5 to 12 feet.

The whole area was once low marshy land subject to overflow by the waters of the nearby Mermentau River when the stream occasionally left its banks. A modern system of canals for drainage purposes and irrigation was created as early as 1901.

Here is a biography of Jean Pierre Gueydan, the founder of Gueydan. Louisiana...

This site is being maintained by Tony Simon. Email can be sent to kjnbear@eatel.net.

Requests for information not yet on this site can be obtained by calling the Gueydan Town Hall at (318)536-9415 and speaking with Ethel Leger.

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