Joseph Eloi Broussard

Joseph Eloi Broussard (1866-1956) was a pioneer rice grower and miller in Texas. He was born and grew up near Beaumont, Texas. In 1892 he converted a grist mill into the Beaumont Rice Mill, the first commercial rice mill in the state of Texas. He also established the Lower Neches Valley Authority to create an irrigation system to support rice agriculture.

As a result of his work, the cultivation of rice expanded from 1500 acres in 1892 to 400,000 acres in 23 counties by the time of Broussard's death. His own family landholdings resulted in rice being cultivated on some 10,000 acres in the local area.

As the mill processed rice, it helped rice become an important commodity crop of the early residents of Beaumont. Broussard also raised cattle on his property, and harvesting lumber was important in the region.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Joseph Eloi Broussard was born on December 16, 1866 to Eloi and Mary Azema (Hébert) Broussard. His maternal grandparents, who were of French Creole descent, had migrated to Texas from Louisiana. His father died when he was young, and his mother remarried to Lovan Hamshire. They lived on his ranch near present-day Hamshire, Texas. Young Joseph studied for three years at an academy in Galveston, then began working with cattle and as a postal rider in Jefferson County, Texas.

Career

In 1885 Broussard was named as the first postmaster of a local post office and named it La Belle for his fiancée, Mary Belle Bordages. They married in 1889. A few years later he bought a one-third interest in a gristmill in Beaumont. In 1892 he converted it to a rice mill, the first in the state. By the 1980s, his grandson was running the mill.

Broussard was instrumental in establishing and expanding the rice industry as a commodity crop in Texas. He founded an irrigation authority to support rice culture, expanding local production to have 10,000 acres in rice. By the time of his death in 1956, rice was being cultivated on 400,000 acres in 23 counties in Texas.

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