Guillet, George Theophile, St.Landry Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ******************************************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ******************************************************************************** George Theophile Guillet, vice-president and general manager of the Eunice Hardware Company, one of the largest fm-ms dealing in hardware and implements in western Louisiana, received a distinctive honor, tokening his success and leadership as a hardware merchant, when he was elected president of the Louisiana Hardware Dealers Association in 1924. Mr. Guillet was born in St. Landry Parish, at Chataigner, March 1, 1877, son of Alphonse and Bertha (Brulatour) Guillet. His father, who was born at Nantes, France, in 1842, had the great honor of attending school at the same time with Clemenceau, who for more than fifteen years has been distinguished as a soldier and statesman of France, and was the most powerful man in France during the period of the World war. Alphonse Guillet, coming to the United States in 1863, located at New Orleans, and in 1868 moved to Chataigner in St. Landry Parish. In that village he has been continuously in the mercantile business for fifty-six years, and also served as postmaster there. The wife of this veteran merchant was born in New Orleans but was educated abroad in Paris. She died in 1910. George T. Guillet was educated in public schools and in Acadia College at Crowley, and at the age of nineteen, in 1896, became a clerk with E. C. Rogers & Son, merchants at Arnaudville. In 1898 he moved to Eunice, where he has been a well known business man and citizen for over a quarter of a century. He began his career there as clerk with Frankel & Mayer, and in 1907 organized the Eunice Hardware & Implement Company, Ltd., a ten thousand dollar corporation, but with only fifteen hundred dollars in cash. They started a small store, and the prosperity and growth of the business have reflected the great energy and talent of Mr. Guillet as a merchant. In 1911 a branch hardware and implement store was established at Elton under the same name and has since been conducted by the company. They also own and operate the Guillory Hardware Company at Mamou. In 1920 the company did a business totaling $470,000.00, and in that year the capital was increased to $200,000.00. The company carries a complete stock of hardware implements and they were the first automobile dealers at Eunice. Mr. Guillet is a member of the St. Landry Parish School Board from the Sixth Ward. He organized and was the first president of the Chamber of Commerce at Eunice, and he also organized and was elected president of the Eunice Rotary Club. He is a director of the Southern Banking Company at Eunice. Good roads, good schools, town up-building, cooperation between merchants and farmers and the elimination of factionalism are all strong points in Mr. Guillet's program of civic interest and activities. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce when the first gravel road bond issue was put through. He took an active part in war work, and is a past grand knight of Eunice Council No, 1745, Knights of Columbus, and holds the fourth degree in the Knights of Columbus. He was one of the promoters of the Eunice Chautauqua. Mr. Guillet married in June, 1896, at Chataigner, Miss Anita Vidrine, who was born at Ville Platte where her father, Fabius Vidrine, was a merchant, being also in business at Chataigner. Mrs. Guillet is active in church, social and civic affairs. They have six living children, Lucille being the wife of Magnus McGee of Eunice. The unmarried children are: Lillian, Rosetta, Wade, Effie and Harold. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 32, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.