Place:Edgard, St. John the Baptist, Louisiana, United States

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NameEdgard
Alt namesSaint Johnsource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS22005861
Saint John Settlementsource: USGS, GNIS Digital Gazetteer (1994) GNIS22005861
TypeCensus-designated place
Coordinates30.034°N 90.554°W
Located inSt. John the Baptist, Louisiana, United States
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Edgard is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the parish seat of, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,637 at the 2000 census and 1,948 in 2020.[1] It is part of the New OrleansMetairieKenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. Edgard is part of the German Coast of Louisiana.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

One of the parish's first communities and a social haunt of the privateer Jean Lafitte, Edgard has been the parish seat since 1848. Originally named St. John the Baptist for the Catholic church at its heart, Edgard was renamed in 1850 for its postmaster, Edgar Perret. Edgard's first St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (1772) was destroyed by the Poché Crévasse in 1821. Another church was soon erected. In 1918 fire gutted the building. Parishioners gave generously to replace the church and, by the time the new church opened its doors, all debts had been paid.

The economic history of Edgard included a sawmill operated by Severin Tassin, a brick factory begun in 1878, and numerous sugar plantations that operated in the century between 1794 and 1894. By 1899, more than fifty family-owned sugar houses (sugar mills) were still operating.

The majority of the town's folk worked in the sugar houses, in the fields, or in support of the sugar industry. Many families leased land from the Caires and Graugnards on Columbia Plantation, cultivating their own produce to sell. In 1899, the Mississippi River presented excitement when in the late winter, ice could be seen floating downstream. The ice flows jammed the river, interrupting ship traffic for several days.

In early Edgard, a favorite event of many townspeople was the arrival of the showboat, which would dock at Caire's Landing. They never knew when the next boat would arrive. When it did and sounded its calliope, the instrument could be heard as far away as Wallace. Modern vessels still pass by on the river.

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