What is the history of Broussard, Louisiana?
The town of Broussard is situated in the center of an area identified as Cote Gelee by the Acadians who began settling around nearby St. Martinville in the 1760’s. Although French trappers and Indians lived in and around the Cote Gelee prior to this time, it was not until the exiled Acadians arrived that permanent settlement began. Some of the early families included the Broussards, Comeauxs, Landrys, Breauxs, Girouards, Menards, and LeBlancs. By the end of the century the landscape was dotted with small Acadian farms. As the nineteenth century progressed, these farms became increasingly interspersed with ever-expanding sugar plantations as south Louisiana experienced the economic growth of large-scale agricultural production. The prosperity generated by “King Sugar” was, of course, interrupted by the Civil War, and the Cote Gelee area suffered economically along with the rest of the state. It is in the years immediately following the war that the town of Broussard has its origins. A r
