Bancker: 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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BANCKER 

Bancker, located almost due south of Abbeville, where Hwy. 690 crosses 
the Vermilion River, was for many years a thriving community built 
around several large plantations. 

On the east side of the river were Live Oak Plantation, owned by Adrien 
Nunez, and Cade Plantation, the property of William Cade, who 
established the first post office at the place (in 1896) and named it 
for his son, Bancker. Hope Mill Plantation was on the west side of the 
river. It was owned by Solomon Wise and Henry Bartels. 

Hope Mill was a large plantation and had an open-kettle syrup mill, a 
sugar mill, a cotton gin, a saw mill, a grist mill, a moss gin, a 
cooper shop to build barrels and hogsheads for molasses and syrup, a 
blacksmith shop, a general store, and a private school. Until about 
1900, workers on the plantation would grind the cane, boil it into a 
syrup and pump it into a tank barge that would be pushed by steamboat 
to Rose Hill Plantation, where it was converted to sugar. 

The first school at Bancker was a private school on Hope Mill 
Plantation, where Alice Bartels, daughter of Henry Bartels, taught the 
children, some of whom came from the other side of the Vermilion River 
by pirogue or skiff. About 1890, Diedrich Ramke donated an acre of land 
for a public school to be built at Bancker. It lasted for about 20 
years, then was moved to William Cade's property, across from the 
present Bancker Cemetery. This school remained in operation until 1920, 
when it was consolidated with the Henry School. The Bancker students 
then had to ride to Henry in a mule-drawn vehicle called a "transfer." 

In the beginning, water was the chief means of transportation in 
Bancker and most of the houses there faced the river. There was no 
public road in the immediate vicinity. A few steamboats plied the 
Vermilion and small sail boats went up and down the river regularly. 
They were poled or towed by a skiff when there was no wind. 

The first church at Bancker was started on Hope Mill Plantation when 
Sunday School classes were held in Bancker's first school. About 1873, 
a Methodist Church was built nearby. 

The first Catholic Church in Bancker, Our Lady of Lourdes, was built in 
1895, and was served by priests from Abbeville until May 1897, when it 
was established as a parish and Father F. C. Blast was named its 
pastor. This church was on land donated by William Cade bordering the 
Vermilion River. It was moved to Henry in 1939, and was renamed the St. 
John Church. 

All that remains in Bancker to show that the church was once there are 
two large gate posts marking the entrance to the church yard, a 
cemetery, and a grotto. The grotto was originally built of concrete 
made to resemble natural stone and has recently been refurbished. It is 
a replica of the original grotto at Lourdes, France.