Jennings, Louisiana - History

History

Jennings McComb, for whom the town was named, was a contractor of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He built the Jennings depot on a divide peculiar to southwest Louisiana.

The first settler was A. D. McFarlain, who came from St. Mary Parish, in 1881. McFarlain was the community’s first rice grower, merchant, postmaster, brick maker, and builder. McFarlain prospered with Jennings’ growth and later became one of the town’s most prominent businessmen and civic leaders. He opened a store in Jennings in 1881.

The Jennings area was settled by Anglo wheat farmers of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and other Midwestern states. The new settlers of southwest Louisiana were referred to as "Yankees" by the natives. The Cajuns gave appreciable aid to the settlers in homesteading and homemaking. The people grew rice, cotton, sweet potatoes and corn.

Sylvester L. Cary, who arrived on February 7, 1883 from Iowa and known as the town's "father", stated he was "seeking a home where there was neither winter or mortgages." So impressed was "Father" Cary by the attractiveness of the country around Jennings that he felt impelled to share his findings with others. The conviction resulted in his entering upon the second phase of his great adventure, that of bringing fellow Midwesterners to southwest Louisiana. He began to write letters to his friends in Iowa, extolling the advantages of the countryside surrounding Jennings. When he returned to Iowa to remove his family to their newly acquired home, he successfully persuaded several neighbors, preparing to migrate west, to take advantage of the opportunities he had discovered in Jennings and southwest Louisiana.

Much of southwest Louisiana was developed by the North American Land and Timber Co. Seaman A. Knapp, president of the Iowa State College of Agriculture, was engaged in 1885 to demonstrate the suitability of the region for rice production. Knapp attracted a number of Iowans to settle the area. The settlers were lured to this area by advertisements published in newspapers in the midwestern states.

By 1900, Jennings was incorporated as a municipality. In 1901, a fire destroyed a large portion of Jennings. However, that same year, Jennings was the location of the first oil well and oil field in the state of Louisiana. Oil brought a boom to the town but this was only a peak in its continuous growth. When oil production declined, the basic agricultural economy kept the town prosperous.