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Joseph
Broussard,
pioneer rice
grower and
miller, son of
Eloi and Mary
Azema (Hebert)
Broussard, was
born on
December 18,
1866, in the
home of his
maternal
grandparents
on Hillebrandt
Bayou in the
site that is
now Beaumont,
Texas. Mary
Hebert's
father had
moved to Texas
from Louisiana
in 1842. After
Eloi
Broussard's
early death,
Mary married
Lovan
Hamshire, and
the young
Broussard was
reared on the
family ranch
near the site
of present
Hamshire,
Texas. After
three years'
schooling in
Galveston,
Broussard
worked cattle
and delivered
mail on
horseback in
the lower
Taylor's Bayou
area of
Jefferson
County. When a
post office
was
established in
1885, he
became its
first
postmaster and
named it La
Belle for his
fiancée, Mary
Belle
Bordages. They
were married
in 1889 and
moved to
Beaumont,
where
Broussard
bought
one-third
interest in a
gristmill. In
1892 he
converted the
gristmill to a
rice mill,
which, as
Beaumont Rice
Mills, became
the first
commercially
successful
rice mill in
Texas. The
mill continued
in operation
in the late
1980s under
the founder's
grandson.
Less
than 1,500
acres was
planted with
rice in Texas
in 1892. To
foster rice
production, in
1898 Broussard
cofounded the
Beaumont
Irrigation
Company, whose
initial canal
led to the
formation of
the Lower
Neches Valley
Authority.qv
The system is
now capable of
irrigating
50,000 acres
of rice while
supplying the
area's
industrial
requirements
for water. At
the time of
Broussard's
death, acres
planted with
rice in Texas
annually
reached well
over 400,000,
and production
had spread to
twenty-three
counties.
Through family
landholdings
and the
advancement of
credit to
farmers, the
mill, under
Broussard's
management,
farmed some
10,000 acres
of rice in
peak years. On
this acreage
rice growing
was rotated
with cattle
raising, a
lifelong
interest of
Broussard.
From
1907 to 1918
Broussard was
president of
the Rice
Millers' and
Dealers'
Association,
forerunner of
the present
Rice Millers'
Association of
America. In
1909, when the
industry faced
a financial
crisis,
Broussard was
a member of a
two-man team
that
successfully
marketed
American rice
in Europe. In
1950 the
International
Rice Festival
at Crowley,
Louisiana, was
dedicated to
him. As an
exemplary
Catholic,
Broussard was
knighted in
1938 by Pope
Pius XI.
On
October 6,
1956, he died.
He was
survived by
his wife and
nine children.
Two new
varieties of
rice,
developed at
the China,
Texas,
Rice-Pasture
Experiment
Station and
planted
worldwide,
were named
Bella Patna
and LaBelle in
honor of the
rice pioneer's
widow and in
recognition of
his continuous
support of the
station's
research
programs.
See
also
rice culture.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Genevieve
Broussard
Dutton,
"Pioneer Rice
Industrialist
and Man of
Faith: Joseph
Eloi Broussard
(1866-1956),"
Texas Gulf
Coast
Historical and
Biographical
Record
15 (1979). Rice
Mill: 50 Years
(1892-1942)
(Beaumont,
Texas:
Beaumont Rice
Mill, 1942).
John H. Walker
and Gwendolyn
Wingate,
Beaumont,
a Pictorial
History
(Virginia
Beach,
Virginia,
1981).
Gerry
Doyle
-
Handbook of
Texas Online,
s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbrbh.html (accessed
March 3,
2008).
(NOTE: "s.v."
stands for sub
verbo, "under
the word.")
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