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Evangeline Parish, Louisiana
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==History== The parish was created out of lands formerly belonging to [[St. Landry Parish, Louisiana|St. Landry Parish]] in 1910.<ref>{{cite web|title=Evangeline Parish|url=http://ccet.louisiana.edu/tourism/parishes/Acadiana_Parishes/evangeline.html|publisher=Center for Cultural and Eco-Tourism|access-date=September 4, 2014}}</ref> The majority of the area was originally settled by French Canadian colonists and former colonial marines (''coureurs de bois'') from such outposts as [[Fort Toulouse]] and [[Fort Kaskaskia]] and later included 19th-century French-speaking soldiers and immigrant families. The early generations were born in colonial French colonies, which included the enormous Louisiana territory ('Upper and Lower' Louisiana) known as [[Louisiana (New France)|"la Nouvelle France"]], and later were born under [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish rule]]. Many people of Evangeline are primarily of French, English, and Spanish descent from Louisiana's colonial period. Examples of the French family names are Fontenot, Brignac, Ardoin, Bordelon, Vidrine, Courville, Gaspard, LaFleur, Chataignier, Dupre, Berza, Manuel, Ratelle, Fuselier, Landreneau, Andrepont, Guillory, Soileau, LeBas, and Gobert, among others. People of Spanish [[Canary Islands]] heritage ([[Isleños]]) can be observed to have settled in the Parish as well, bringing names like Aguillard, Casaneuva, De Soto, Ortego, Rozas, and Segura. Many [[English Americans]] as colonists came from the Eastern United States to settle in the newly purchased [[Louisiana Territory]] often married into Acadian families. Some prominent English surnames include Chapman, Kershaw, Young, Reed, Langley, Tate and Buller. A few [[Acadians]] such as François Pitre and his wife settled the area between Evangeline and St. Landry parishes, preferring the rich pre-American and pre–[[American Civil War|Civil War]] era [[Cajuns|Cajun]] [[planter class|planter]]'s lifestyle over that of the humble and isolated existence of their [[Acadiana]] cousins. The parish was named ''Evangeline'' in honor of [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s narrative poem, ''[[Evangeline]]''. It was from this poem that founding father Paulin Fontenot was to propose the namesake of "Evangeline" for this parish, allegedly foreseeing an emerging American tourism centered upon the Acadian saga. (See ''Ville Platte Gazette'', Sept. 2010) In 19th-century American literature, she would gain popularity through Hollywood's interest, and thus began the embryonic 'Acadian-based' tourism which sprang up in St. Martinville. Evangeline Parish is mentioned in the [[Randy Newman]] song "[[Louisiana 1927]]", in which he described the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927|Great Mississippi Flood]] which covered it with six feet of water. Ville Platte, Louisiana, the [[county seat|seat]] of Evangeline Parish, was itself so named by one of Napoleon Bonaparte's former soldiers, Adjutant Major Marcellin Garand (1781–1852), of Savoy, France. (See ''Napoleon's Soldiers In America'', by Simone de la Souchere-Delery, 1999).
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