Kaplan : 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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Kaplan

Kaplan is located in the heart of Vermilion Parish at the intersection 
of Hwy. 14 and Hwy. 35. Much of the land in this area was once a part 
of a large plantation owned by Jim Todd of Shreveport. It was then 
mostly undeveloped prairie land, but included a plantation house and a 
store which housed the post office. 

In 1901 Abrom Kaplan and a Mr. Litchenstein bought the Todd Plantation. 
Kaplan headed and organized the Irving Irrigation Company to irrigate 
the prairie and convinced the Southern Pacific to build a railroad 
through the town. 

Kaplan then gave away land to entice people to move to the area, though 
there were few amenities. At first, until the railroad got there, 
Kaplan was little more than a tent city with few permanent structures 
to be found. 

With the completion of the railroad, and the confidence it brought that 
the place would last, streets were laid out, stores and homes were 
built, and the town began to grow. The first two residences were begun 
by O. H. Deshotels Sr, who became the town's first mayor when it was 
incorporated in 1902. 

Eugene Eleazar moved to Kaplan from Rayne in 1906 and became the 
guiding spirit in what has become an annual celebration of Bastille Day 
there. He had come from France and wanted to remember the birthday of 
French Independence as well as the American Independence Day. Early 
Bastille Day celebrations included chasing greased pigs, public talks 
and dancing in the streets. In 1911, he built a combination theater and 
dance hall at 217 Cushing Ave. 

The first school was built in Kaplan in 1903, a two-story frame 
building with five rooms. 

The first Catholic church in the vicinity of Kaplan was established 4 
miles away, at Cossinade, in 1896, but it was moved to Kaplan in 1902. 
Father Maltrait from France served as pastor until June 6, 1921, when 
he retired to Ile-et-Vilain, France. Father Brise succeeded him. The 
first Kaplan church was destroyed by a storm in 1915 and the church had 
to be rebuilt. It was enlarged three times by Father Brise.