Editing Carencro, Louisiana (section)

==History==

===Early settlement===
Few European people settled in the Carencro area (around [[Lafayette, LA|Lafayette]]) until the coming of the [[Acadian]] refugees in the 18th century.  Some of the Acadians transported in 1765 to the Attakapas district were given lands along Bayou Carencro, although probably not in what is now the town of Carencro.  At that time, Jean and Marin Mouton, Charles Peck, Louis Pierre Arceneaux and others began to establish ''[[vacheries]]'' in the vicinity.  More cattlemen would follow after 1770, when Spanish Gov. [[Alejandro O'Reilly]] decreed that "a grant of 42 [[arpent]]s [{{convert|42|arpent|acre|disp=output only}}] in front by 42 in depth could be issued only to those who owned 100 head of tame cattle, some sheep and horses, and two slaves to oversee them."

In 1769, Juan Kelly and Eduardo Nugent toured the area for the government and reported to O'Reilly that "the inhabitants maintain everything imaginable in the way of livestock, such as cows, horses and sheep."  A [[Frenchman]] named Lyonnet, visiting in 1793, found thousands of cattle on the [[Attakapas]] and Opelousas prairies.

Jean and Marin Mouton were among the early settlers on Bayou Carencro. Other early settlers in the Carencro area were Charles Peck, Traveille Bernard, Rosamond Breaux, Ovignar Arceneaux, and the Babineaux family.  An 1803 census of the Carencro area listed family names including Arceneaux, Babineaux, Benoit, Bernard, Breaux, Carmouche, Caruthers, Comeaux, Cormier, Guilbeaux, Hébert, Holway, LeBlanc, Melançon, Mire, Mouton, Pierre, Prejean, Roger, St. Julien, Savoie, and Thibodeaux.

===First post office===
The first post office in Carencro was established on January 11, 1872, with Auguste Melchior as postmaster.  The telegraph line reached there in 1884.  The first telephones were installed by the Teche and Vermilion Telephone Line in 1894.  The company was headquartered in [[New Iberia, Louisiana|New Iberia]].

===Historic churches===
[[Image:StPetersChurchFront-Carencro.jpg|thumb|right|Downtown facing St. Peter's church.]]
According to Roger Baudier's history of the Catholic Church of Louisiana, the Carencro area was first served from [[Grand Coteau, Louisiana]], later from Vermilionville, and then from [[Breaux Bridge, Louisiana]].

The parish of St. Peter was established in 1874 and the archdiocese sent Father Andre Marie Guillot as its first pastor.  Before a church was built at Carencro, services were held in the Carmouche blacksmith shop. The church was initially called ''St. Pierre au Carencro'', named for Pierre Cormier, who donated land for the first church.  Father Guillot died of [[yellow fever]] while serving in Carencro. He was buried in the church cemetery.

According to Baudier, "(Father Guillot's) successor was Father J.F Suriray.  Trouble with the parishioners arose and Father Suriray was threatened by the people.  Some three years after his coming to Carencro, he was obliged to leave.  Some time after, the church was destroyed by fire and the parish remained without a pastor until 1883."

A plaque outside the later church notes the land was donated by the Jean Jacques Coussan family.  A new church was built in 1893, but was destroyed by a tornado before it was ever used. Another church was built, and it burned in 1904.  The current church was built in 1906 under the administration of Father F.J. Grimeaux, who served the parish for some 25 years. In addition, he organized the Carencro Brass Band and played clarinet with it.

A young carpenter named Hector Connolly worked for $2.50 a day to build the 110-foot steeple.

The Church of the Assumption was built in 1925 to serve a Black congregation.  The Holy Ghost Fathers accepted an invitation to direct the parish and sent Father Joseph Dolan as the first pastor.  Assumption Church continues to operate today with its original structure. This is the only white, wood-frame structure of its kind in the Diocese of Lafayette.

Our Lady of the Assumption Religious Complex consists of the church, rectory, school, Drexel Parish Hall (former Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament Convent), the church cemetery, and St. Katharine Drexel Shrine.  The complex was listed on the State and [[National Register of Historic Places]] in November 2001.

===Historic schools===
In 1870 Auguste Melchior, a Frenchman from [[New Orleans]], was appointed as director of the [[Lafayette Parish]] educational system. In 1874, what was probably the first school in Carencro, was opened on his farm in town. His wife, Viviana Carencro, taught at the village school.

In 1889, Carencro had two private schools.  Charles Heichelheim, a German, ran a school for boys, and Edmond Villére operated one for both boys and girls.  That year, the first public school was built in Carencro. A second story was added to it 10 years later.  The school became an approved high school about 1917.

About the turn of the century, Father J.B. Laforet sold three lots to Mother St. Patrick of the Sisters of Mount Carmel. They opened St. Ann's School of Carencro, in 1897.

Assumption School was built in 1932 and was staffed by the [[Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament]].  It brought together Black students from several smaller Catholic schools in the area. The school was operated with funding from [[Saint]] [[Katharine Drexel]] of New Orleans.

After the 1950s, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament taught at Carencro Catholic School, located at the west end of Church Street.  In the early 1980s, the students of Assumption School were combined with those of St. Pierre School to form Carencro Catholic.

===Economic prosperity===
''The Opelousas Courier'' reported on the young settlement at least twice during the year 1879.  The April 19 edition stated, ''"This little village is rapidly expanding. ... The grounds of the church have been planted in trees and enclosed with a fence of a new kind.  This enclosure is of iron wire and armed with steel barbs, forming a barrier inaccessible to animals." ''
[[Image:StPeters-Carencrotower.jpg|thumb|left|St. Peters Catholic church next to the town's water tower.]]
On September 6, the newspaper gave this account: ''"The little village of St. Pierre, at Carencro, born only a short time ago, tends to stretch itself in an astonishing fashion with numbers of buildings where all kinds of trades and professions are prospering there.   Many beautiful stores, well assorted with that which meets the needs of the inhabitants, are established there since a short time ago and we note, among others, the fine establishment of Mr. Ignace Bernard near the church." ''

By 1889, Carencro had two sugar factories, one operated by J.C. Couvillon, and another run by I. Singleton.  In 1894, Victor E. Dupuis, one of the larger cane growers of the area, formed the Carencro Sugar Company to build another sugar mill alongside Morgan's Railroad.  The sugar mills in the area closed about 1900.

There were several horse-powered cotton gins in Carencro before 1876. In that year, Avignac Arceneaux built the first steam-powered gin in the parish. Four more gins were built there in the late 1880s and in the 1890s.  In 1889, 1,800 bales of cotton were shipped from the Carencro Station.  Cotton gins continued to operate in Carencro until the middle 1970s, when the last two, Cotton Products Co. and Farmer's Gin Co., were closed.

====Merchants and plantation owners====
In 1891, historian William Henry Perrin suggested that ''"there is no prettier site for a town (than Carencro) nor one with more solid advantages than comprised in this place. "''<ref name="autogenerated1" />

Among leading merchants in the 1890s were the Brown Brothers, Jacob Mitchell, D. Daret, A.G. Guilbeau, G. Schmuler, C. Micou, and J.C. Martin.

People owning large plantations near the town were Mrs. Z. Broussard, Dr. R.J. Francez, Mrs. O.C. Mouton, Louis Roger, Mrs. F. Abadie, C.C. Brown, St. Clair Kilchrist, V.C. Dupuis. and L.J. Arceneaux. Entrepreneur Charles J. Richard opened the town's lumberyard along the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]].  Nearly 100 years later, the enterprise closed during a regional economic recession in 1985.

===Modern===
[[Image:Hector Connoly Road - Carencro, Louisiana (2018-01-03) (crop).jpg|thumb|300px|right|Roadside businesses along Hector Connoly Road at [[Interstate 49 in Louisiana|I-49]] Frontage Road.]]
Carencro's St. Peter's Catholic Church and cemetery form an artistic centerpiece of the town.  St. Peter's Catholic Church has an ornate cypress-carved entrance, altar and narthex, as well as intricate pew end caps. These unique end caps were designed by Catholic Frs. Wassler and Edwards (now both deceased). In one period, the pews were 'sold' to parishioners for their use at worship to raise money for the church.

Carencro notables such as former postmaster William J. Broussard and former lumberyard owner Oliver Richard are buried in this cemetery. Carencro's cemetery is above ground, unlike low-lying areas to the east in the [[Atchafalaya Basin]] and areas south of [[Baton Rouge]]. These eschew the ground-level graves of Lafayette (as well as points west and north) for [[mausoleums]] because of the high water table.

The City Hall and Fire Station complex, designed by local architect Lynn Guidry, is a modern counterpoint to the traditional Catholic church. It can be seen at the southern turn of Church Street east of U.S. 182.