ANDREW : Vermilion Parish Towns & Cities, Louisiana
Submitted by Kathy LaCombe-Tell
Source: Jim Bradshaw; Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, 6/24/1997
Submitted August 2004

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Andrew

The community of Andrew is located south of Indian Bayou on Hwy. 700 
near what is now called Main Canal. It is believed to have been named 
for Andrew Gamble, one of two brothers who settled in the area in the 
late 1800s. 

Andrew Gamble, who was know as "Gam" by the French-speaking people of 
the area, owned a stable from which he sold and rented mules and 
horses. His brother Oscar Gamble, established a mercantile store at the 
place. 

Andrew grew just after the turn of the century because of its location 
as a central pumping station for the irrigation system for the rice 
fields in the area. Before the 1900s, the farmers in the area were 
already planting so-called "Providence Rice" watered by rainfall. But 
the Hunter Canal was dug around 1900 and Andrew grew because of it. 

The Hunter Canal Co. put about 20 company houses there for its 
employees. There was a large barn that housed the mules, horses, 
harnesses and feed, and later the trucks, bulldozers and backhoes that 
kept the canals flowing. At its peak the company employed about 100 
people, operating a large pumping plant on the Vermilion River at 
Milton. That plant pumped water from the river through a 400-mile 
system of canals that irrigated most of the rice grown in the area. 

The first canals were built with large mule teams pulling a heavy iron 
scoop, called a "slip." Dredges and draglines were used later. There 
was a large flume at Andrew to control the flow of water to the north 
and to the west. The farmers paid one-fifth of their crop for water 
rent. The canal was closed in 1981. 

A one-room school was built at Andrew around 1908, and a second room 
was added some years later. That school was closed in 1923, when a 
school was built at Indian Bayou.