๐บ๐ธ Jennings is a city in, and the parish seat of, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, United States, near Lake Charles.
Jennings is the principal city of the Jennings Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Jefferson Davis Parish. It is also part of the larger Lake Charles-Jennings Combined Statistical Area. It is also part of the large, 22-parish Acadiana region of the state, with a large Francophone population, many descended from early Acadian settlers.
History For whom the town was named, Jennings McComb was an Irish contractor for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He built the Jennings depot on a divide peculiar to the south-west Louisiana. This became the centre of new development based on the railroad. The first settler was recorded as A. D. McFarlain, who came in 1881 from St. Mary Parish and opened a store. McFarlain also became the first rice grower, postmaster, brickmaker, and builder in the community. Prospering with Jenningsโ growth, McFarlain was considered one of the town's prominent businessmen and civic leaders.
The Jennings area attracted numerous wheat farmers from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and other Midwestern states. The new settlers of south-west Louisiana were referred to as "Yankees" by the natives, who were of Acadian French and African-American descent. They had settled along the waterways in the parish, which they had relied on for transportation before the railroad. They fished in the bayous. The Cajuns gave appreciable aid to the settlers in homesteading and homemaking. The people grew rice, cotton, sweet potatoes, and corn.
Sylvester L. Cary reached this area on February 7, 1883, from Iowa. He became known as the town's "father", as he persuaded other Iowans to relocate there. He said he was "seeking a home where there was neither winter nor mortgages". So impressed was Cary by the fertile country around the Jennings depot that he shared his findings with others. He attracted fellow Midwesterners to south-west Louisiana by writing to friends in Iowa, extolling the area. When he returned to Iowa to pack up his family for the move to Jennings, he persuaded several neighbors preparing to migrate west, to follow him to Jennings and south-west Louisiana.
Much of south-west Louisiana was developed by the North American Land and Timber Co., which owned large portions of land. Seaman A. Knapp, president of the Iowa State College of Agriculture, was engaged in 1885 to demonstrate the region's suitability for rice production. Knapp attracted a number of Iowans to settle the area. The land company placed advertisements in newspapers published in the Midwestern states.
On May 2, 1888, the settlement of Jennings was incorporated as a village. In 1901, a fire destroyed a large portion of the wooden structures in Jennings.
That same year, Jennings was the site of the first oil well to produce in Louisiana, revealing its first oil field. Oil brought a boom to the town for a period. When oil production declined, the basic agricultural economy of the parish supported the town.
Jennings has a population of over 10,383 people. Jennings also forms one of the centres of the wider Lake Charles-Jennings metropolitan area which has a population of over 231,201 people. Jennings is situated 59 km east of Lake Charles.
To set up a UBI Lab for Jennings see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Twin Towns - Sister Cities Jennings has links with:
๐ซ๐ท Bernay, France๐บ๐ธ Lake Charles 30.23
๐ช๐ฌ Al Khankah 30.217
๐บ๐ธ Panama City 30.185
๐ฒ๐ฝ San Cristรณbal de las Casas -92.643
๐บ๐ธ Alexandria -92.45
๐บ๐ธ Cedar Falls -92.448
๐บ๐ธ Little Rock -92.276
๐บ๐ธ North Little Rock -92.25
๐บ๐ธ Center City -92.817
๐บ๐ธ Stillwater -92.817
๐ฒ๐ฝ Villahermosa -92.938
๐บ๐ธ North Branch -92.967
๐บ๐ธ Hot Springs -93.054
๐บ๐ธ Saint-Paul -93.093
๐บ๐ธ Saint Paul -93.093
Locations Near: Jennings -92.65,30.2167
๐บ๐ธ Lake Charles -93.219,30.23 d: 54.7
๐บ๐ธ Lafayette -92.023,30.212 d: 60.2
๐บ๐ธ New Iberia -91.78,29.79 d: 96.3
๐บ๐ธ Alexandria -92.45,31.283 d: 120.1
๐บ๐ธ Port Arthur -93.925,29.896 d: 127.8
๐บ๐ธ Beaumont -94.121,30.084 d: 142.2
๐บ๐ธ Baton Rouge -91.187,30.443 d: 142.7
๐บ๐ธ Donaldsonville -90.983,30.1 d: 160.8
๐บ๐ธ Amite City -90.5,30.717 d: 213.4
Antipodal to: Jennings 87.35,-30.217
๐ฆ๐บ Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 17316.4
๐ฆ๐บ Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 17327.1
๐ฆ๐บ Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 17317.3
๐ฆ๐บ Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 17305
๐ฆ๐บ Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 17303.4
๐ฆ๐บ City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 17305
๐ฆ๐บ Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 17301.4
๐ฆ๐บ Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 17290.1