Editing Edgard, Louisiana (section)

== History ==
One of the parish's first communities and a social haunt of the [[privateer]] [[Jean Lafitte]], Edgard has been the [[County seat|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 [[Levee breach|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 [[Sugarcane|sugar]] [[Plantations in the American South|plantations]] that operated in the century between 1794 and 1894. By 1899, more than fifty family-owned sugar houses ([[sugar mill]]s) 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 (music)|calliope]], the instrument could be heard as far away as [[Wallace, Louisiana|Wallace]]. Modern vessels still pass by on the river.