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==History== For whom the town was named, Jennings McComb was an Irish contractor for the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]]. He built the Jennings depot on a divide peculiar to the southwest [[Louisiana]].<!-- which is? what kind of divide? --> This became the center of new development based on the railroad. The first settler was recorded as A. D. McFarlain, who came in 1881 from [[St. Mary Parish, Louisiana|St. Mary Parish]] and opened a store. McFarlain also became the first rice grower, postmaster, brickmaker, and builder in the community. Prospering with Jennings’ growth, McFarlain was considered one of the town's prominent businessmen and civic leaders. The Jennings area attracted numerous wheat farmers from [[Iowa]], [[Kansas]], [[Nebraska]], and other Midwestern states. The new settlers of southwest Louisiana were referred to as "[[Yankees]]" by the natives, who were of [[Acadian]] French and African-American descent. They had settled along the waterways in the parish, which they had relied on for transportation before the railroad. They fished in the bayous. The [[Cajuns]] gave appreciable aid to the settlers in homesteading and homemaking. The people grew rice, cotton, sweet potatoes, and corn.<ref name="library.mcneese.edu">{{Cite web |url=http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/FTBooks/jennings.htm |title=library.mcneese.edu "THE HISTORY OF JENNINGS, LOUISIANA" |access-date=September 26, 2007 |archive-date=July 24, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724172828/http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/FTBooks/jennings.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sylvester L. Cary reached this area on February 7, 1883, from Iowa. He became known as the town's "father," as he persuaded other Iowans to relocate there. He said he was "seeking a home where there was neither winter nor mortgages."<ref name="library.mcneese.edu"/> So impressed was Cary by the fertile country around the Jennings depot that he shared his findings with others. He attracted fellow Midwesterners to southwest Louisiana by writing to friends in Iowa, extolling the area. When he returned to Iowa to pack up his family for the move to Jennings, he persuaded several neighbors preparing to migrate west, to follow him to Jennings and southwest Louisiana.<ref name="library.mcneese.edu"/> Much of southwest Louisiana was developed by the North American Land and Timber Co., which owned large portions of land. Seaman A. Knapp, president of the [[Iowa State College of Agriculture]], was engaged in 1885 to demonstrate the region's suitability for rice production. Knapp attracted a number of Iowans to settle the area.<ref>[http://alft.net/familyhistory Letter of Nancy B. Vezinet, archivist for the State of Louisiana, 24 March 1982. She excerpted the relevant passages from ''Cities and Towns of Louisiana'' by Clare D'Artois Leeper. Cf. also A. A. Wentz, "The Vinton-Lake Charles Colony," ''Vinton (Ia.) Eagle,'' 14 April 1896.]</ref> The land company placed advertisements in newspapers published in the Midwestern states. On May 2, 1888, the settlement of Jennings was incorporated as a village. In 1901, a fire destroyed a large portion of the wooden structures in Jennings.<ref name="library.mcneese.edu"/> That same year, Jennings was the site of the first oil well to produce in Louisiana, revealing its first oil field. Oil brought a boom to the town for a period. When oil production declined, the basic agricultural economy of the parish supported the town.<ref name="library.mcneese.edu"/>
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