Abbeville, Louisiana
| Abbeville, Louisiana | |
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| Country | United States |
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| State | Louisiana |
| Parish | Vermilion |
| Elevation | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
| Coordinates | 29°58′21″N 92°07′45″W / 29.97250°N 92.12917°WCoordinates: 29°58′21″N 92°07′45″W / 29.97250°N 92.12917°W |
| Area | 5.7 sq mi (14.8 km2) |
| - land | 5.7 sq mi (15 km2) |
| - water | 0.0 sq mi (0 km2), 0% |
| Population | 12,257 (2010) |
| Density | 2,104.3/sq mi (812.5/km2) |
| Incorporated | 1850 |
| Mayor | Mark F. Piazza |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 70510, 70511 |
| Area code | 337 |
  Location of Abbeville in Louisiana
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 Location of Louisiana in the United States
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Abbeville is a city in and the parish seat of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States, 150 miles (240 km) west of New Orleans and 60 miles (97 km) southwest of Baton Rouge. The population was 12,257 at the 2010 census.
Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that would become Abbeville was purchased by founding father Père Antoine Désiré Mégret (Père is French for 'Father'), a Capuchin missionary on July 25, 1843 for $900. There are two theories how the town was named. The theory that is generally accepted is Mégret named the town after his home in France. The second theory which also cannot be discounted states that it is a combination of "Abbe" for Abbé Mégret and "ville" the French word for town – thus Abbé's town. Some support for the second theory is found because the town in France is pronounced "Abbville" by its denizens. However, in 1995, Fr. Jean Desobry discovered the diocesan archives of Amiens the proof of Mégret's birthplace. In the archive, the dossier of Fr. Antoine Jacques Désiré Mégret was found, and that he was born on May 23, 1797, at Abbeville and became founder of Abbeville in Louisiana. Dr Mary-Theresa MacCarthy wrote in her article Un Autre Abbeville in the 1996 edition of Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie (translation by Father Herbert),
On February 12, 1844, the pastor gave to his American town the name of the town of his birth. Residents find this name especially fitting because of the French word abbé which means father [or priest] added to the French word ville [which means town]. Their Abbeville is truly la ville de l'abbé [the priest's town].
Settlers were primarily descendants of the Acadians from Nova Scotia that moved to the area around 1766 to 1775. The town was incorporated in 1850. There were two people living on the land at the time, Joseph LeBlanc and his wife Isabelle Broussard, whose former home Father Megret converted into a chapel. The chapel burned in 1854, and in 1910 St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church, Rectory, and Cemetery were built and still stand today.
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