Abbeville, Louisiana, Featured on Jeopardy!

It's not the first time a Louisiana answer has been featured on Jeopardy, but it's always cool to see it when it happens.

Being from Abbeville, a small town by most standards, it was pretty cool to see it featured on national television.

Granted, Abbeville, Louisiana has made it on national television in the past for several different things. The Annual Giant Omelet Festival? It was featured on national television. The remake of the major motion picture "The Blob"? There were features about it on national television. Hurricane Rita? National television.

Of course, not everything concerning Abbeville, Louisiana that made it to national television was positive: the name Gilbert Gauthe may ring bells (and bring chills and disgust) to many locals.

This time, though, it was all positive: Jeopardy presented an answer yesterday that began with "Abbeville..."

To many people, it's easy to know the question to any answer that talks about parishes instead of counties is "What is Louisiana?". But let's dive a little deeper into that "nickname".

Why is Abbeville called "Priest's Town?" was the question from a coworker today, as he has never heard the story of Abbeville. I was happy to point him to the City of Abbeville's website to learn him up.

Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding father Père Antoine Désiré Mégret, a Capuchin missionary, on July 25, 1843 for $900. Father Megret named the town after his home in France, Abbéville. There were two people living on the land at that time, Joseph LeBlanc and his wife Isabelle Broussard, whose former home Father Megret converted into the first Church. - City of Abbeville

The land that started Abbeville was purchased from the LeBlancs and the Broussards by a priest and the rest, as they say, is history.

Fr. Antoine Jacques Désiré Mégret was born on May 23, 1797 at Abbeville dans la Somme, France, and was to become the founder of Abbeville in Louisiana. On February 12, 1844, the pastor gave to his Louisiana town the name of the place where he was born. The residents that settled the town were descendants of the Acadians from Nova Scotia that had moved to the area around 1766 to 1775. It was incorporated in 1850. - City of Abbeville

The original church that Father Megret built in Abbeville, St. Ann, suffered a fire in 1854 and was destroyed. A larger church was built in its place and christened St. Mary Magdalen, and it still stands today (though some posts mention a fire in 1907).

The video linked above features a great behind-the-scenes look at the current St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville, including an exclusive tour of the bell tower.

Again, it was pretty cool to see my hometown featured on an episode of Jeopardy!, but this is hardly the first time Louisiana has been featured on the game show - read on to see the times Lafayette has been featured!