Delcambre : Vermilion Parish Towns & Cities, Louisiana Submitted by Kathy LaCombe-Tell Source: Jim Bradshaw; Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, 6/24/1997 Submitted August 2004 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Delcambre The town of Delcambre is on La. Hwy. 14 at the border of Vermilion and Iberia parishes. Part of the town is in one parish, part of the town is in the other. Since the 1930s, the town has capitalized on a link to Vermilion Bay and the Gulf of Mexico to become a busy port for shrimpers and other fishermen. The first settlers in the Delcambre area, known earlier as the Marais Carlin (Carlin Pond) or Grand Marais (Big Pond), were given Spanish land grants about 1790. They included Eugene Carlin, who was given land on the southeastern side of Lake Peigneur; Charles Prevoux, whose grant was on the north and east side of the lake; and Jean Petit, who received lands north and south of Bayou Tigre. Other early Spanish families who settled on farmlands here included Nunez, Geoffroy, Miguez, Rodriguez, Goutierrez, and others. The town received its name from Desire Delcambre, its founder. He was the descendant of brothers Charles and Louis Delcambre, who had settled between today's Delcambre and New Iberia. Louis Delcambre's son, Pouffette Delcambre, moved a little further west and settled in what is now sometimes called Pouffette Station (between Lee Station Road and Bob Acres.) Desire Delcambre was Pouffette's son. In 1870, Alexander Geoffroy opened a general store on what later became Main Street. The store was bought in 1875 by Desire Delcambre and Theolin Landry. Delcambre bought out Landry's interest in the store in 1880. The first post office on record was established at Grand Marais on May 17, 1877. The first postmaster was Theoline Landry. It was discontinued on Oct. 23,1877, then re-established on July 6, 1880, when Desire Delcambre was named postmaster. On April 16, 1886, the name was changed to Peigneur and Nicholas Broussard was named postmaster. This one was discontinued on March 21, 1890, and later re-established under the name Gregg. On Sept. 1, 1892, Gregg was changed to Delcambre, and Desire Delcambre became the postmaster again. Father August Vandebilt established Our Lady of the Lake, the first Catholic church at Delcambre in 1897, and a new church was built there in 1936. In the 1880s, Delcambre's only school was at the end of what is Main Street, on the property of Alfred Delcambre. The school was a one-room elementary school. On Oct. 23, 1906, the Delcambre College Company Limited was organized by Ambroise M. Delcambre, and on Dec. 21 the company bought four parcels of land. The Delcambre Commercial College opened with 42 students, some of them living in a dormitory used to house out-of-town students. But the school did not last. On Oct. 1, 1908, the board of directors voted to sell the college to the Delcambre Special School District of Vermilion Parish for $6,500. It was to be used as a school for the district, which was partly in Vermilion Parish and partly in Iberia Parish. After 1909, classes and teachers were added as needed, and by 1924, the first year of high school was offered, with a curriculum of six courses. The first class, nine girls and five boys, graduated from Delcambre High School in 1932, the year a new building was completed, and the year that the Delcambre Special School District became a part of the Iberia Parish system. The town of Delcambre was incorporated as a village on Nov. 27, 1907. The first mayor was Pierre Palate. Councilmen were Desire Delcambre, Homer Landry, and A. Telemark Delcambre. Salt was discovered at Jefferson Island in 1894. In the 1930s, the Jefferson Salt Mining Co., located a mile and a half away, became Delcambre's largest employer. Today's multi-million dollar shrimping industry there started in the 1930s, when Bayou Carlin was only a narrow canal with a few small boats, one oyster canning factory and a fuel dock.