Vermilion Parish Historical Society to meet

Submitted by admin on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 15:47

The third quarter meeting of the Vermilion Historical Society will take place Tuesday, July 22, at 5:30 p.m. at the meeting rooms of the new Vermilion Parish Library on St. Victor Street in Abbeville.

After a short board meeting, a slide show presentation will be made showing some of the photographs and other items recently acquired by the Society.

After the recent death of board member Donna Garling, her children generously allowed the Society to copy the scrapbook of Donna and her mother, Paula Broussard Vaughn.

Both Paula’s father, Ovide A. Broussard, and her grandfather, Lastie Broussard, were men of great prominence in the history of Abbeville.

Paula graduated from Abbeville High School in 1922. When she was a senior, she took photographs at many locations in and around Abbeville, including Magdalen Square, the railroad depot, the bridge, Concord Street, and the schoolgrounds at the old high school on Jefferson Street (now the School Board office). She also took many photographs of family and friends. The pictures from this album add many different views of old Abbeville to those already in the archives of the Society.

Donna’s children also donated Paula’s 1922 high school yearbook, which was the first yearbook published at Abbeville High School. Pictures from both the yearbook and the scrapbook will be shown in the presentation.

The Society is trying to acquire a complete collection of yearbooks published by the schools of the parish. So far the AHS yearbooks from 1922, 1923, 1948, 1957, and 1971 through 1980 have been acquired. These yearbooks associate names with faces, so they are valuable in helping to identify people in old photographs.

The Society recently published “Abbeville—The Early Years,” by local historian Ken Dupuy. This beautiful and important history book will be available for purchase and for signature by the author at the meeting.

The event is free and is open to the public. Anyone who wishes to become a member of the society may do so at the meeting.