In the late 1800s, Mr. &
Mrs. W.L. Doss, Sr. began holding union Sunday School at their home.
Preaching occurred on Sunday afternoons in the shade of their store.
Later on, meetings were held at the schoolhouse, and then at a rice warehouse
when the crowd got too big.
The church was organized by
Rev. P.R. Knickerbocker in January 1898 with eight charter members.
Thirty-two members were added in the first year. Rev. S.L. Riggs
was appointed as the first minister in 1899. Jean Pierre Gueydan
donated property at 511 Daspit Street to the church in June 1900, and a
church was built later that year. A parsonage was built under the
leadership of Rev. H.L. Johns in 1904-05. The home, at 701 Levert
Street, cost about as much as the church ($1,200-1,500). Both debts
were paid in the next few years. Since it was the only Protestant
church in town in those early years, Presbyterian and Baptist congregations
also used the building for services.
In 1905, Rev. J.A. Carruth organized
a Methodist Episcopal church on Daspit and Eighth Sttreets. When
the congregation disbanded in 1927, the building was moved next to the
Gueydan church and used as an education building.
In the 1940s, land and a home
were purchased from Mrs. Agnes Abraham Bunker. A new parsonage and
new church facilities were completed in 1949. The home, a duplex,
was renovated and turned into a parsonage. The new Gothic-style sanctuary
and education buildings cost $70,000. The mortgage was burned in
February of 1954 while Rev. D.B. Boddie served as pastor. In succeeding
year, new pews, an organ, and faceted glass windows were added.
Three people have gone out of
Gueydan as ministers: W.J. Doss, Jr., E.V. Duplantis, and Charles Richard
Hoffpauir. |
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