Drawing of Jean Pierre's days in Texas by 
his great-granddaughter, Helene Carbonel 

"Jean-Pierre Gueydan Arrested and Held At Camp Moore!"
"Gueydan Escapes Imprisonment!"
"Farmland in The Holland Of America Sold As Low As Four Dollars An Acre!"

Yes, it's true.  All of these things happened.  Jean-Pierre Gueydan was arrested, twice.  Once by the Union Army and once by the Confederates.  He did manage to escape.  After the development of the town of Gueydan, Jean-Pierre's son Henri took over operations before eventually becoming Senator and settling permanently in Washington, DC.  Henri and his business associates developed a marketing plan and a brochure advertising Gueydan and it's surrounding area as the Holland of America. Only one known original brochure exists although not in its entirety.  

Here are a few other interesting facts.  Did you know that...

...while Gueydan was founded by a Frenchman over 100 years ago, it also owes its heritage to the mid-western Americans of various ethnic backgrounds and people from north and central Louisiana who came here in search of fertile farmland.

...Jean-Pierre Gueydan, our town founder, never became an American citizen.  When he died on November 20, 1900 in Marseilles, France, his body was buried in the Gueydan family plot in his hometown of St. Bonnet.  The body was later moved to another location, now unknown and unrecorded.

...Jean-Pierre Gueydan was indeed twice arrested during the Civil War.  The South first arrested Mr. Gueydan for "suspected treason" for refusing to enlist in the Southern Cause.  As a French citizen, he was not required to fight for the United States.  He escaped confinement at the Southern POW camp, Camp Moore, and was later arrested by the Union Army while on a cattle drive originating in Maurice, Louisiana and destined for New Orleans.  He and his brother, Francois, later sued the US Government under the French American Claims Commission Act and recovered a portion of the money lost at the hands of both parties during the American Civil War.

...Jean-Pierre and his brother, Francois, first tried sheep ranching and merchandising in Texas where he planned to build the family home he would call the Chateau de la Santa Rosalia.

...when Jean-Pierre finally developed his pasture lands in Gueydan, he divided them into sections that he called plantations.

...the town of Gueydan's original names were Gueydanburg and Lockwood before the name Gueydan was finally chosen in 1896.

...Gueydan's first post office was established as early as 1896 even though Gueydan wasn't incorporated as a village until three years later, in 1899.  Founding son, Eugene Gueydan, was named first postmaster on May 27, 1896.

...there are two Gueydan family members buried in the Gueydan Cemetery and three members buried in St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery near Magdalene Square in Abbeville.  Many others are buried in New Orleans Cemetery on Esplanade Street.

...Jean-Pierre Gueydan is credited with inventing a sheep sheering tool, machinery for making cactus edible for livestock and the development of a pumping plant, the first of its kind located here in Gueydan, used to improve the water system for irrigating crops.  He and his brother, Francois, are credited with introducing cotton farming to south Texas.

...the initials AVRICO are important to our town's development.  Have you ever noticed them on the cement railings of the bridges as you enter and leave Gueydan?  The letters AVRICO represent the Acadia-Vermilion Rice Irrigation Company.  The canal systems that surround the town were built by AVRICO as a means of helping to irrigate the surrounding farmland.  Artificial control, rather than nature's control, was the selling point that attracted farmers to this area of the United States during a national sales pitch in which Gueydan was referred to as the Holland of America.  The Bonin House, built in 1921 as an AVRICO home for Leo Bonin is a fine example of one of the town's oldest remaining residences.  It is located on Daspit Street.

...that the town of Gueydan had one of the first telephone dial up systems in the state.

...that the 1940 Flood caused a loss of property in excess of over one million dollars.

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