In Spring 1765, during the Spanish Rule of Louisiana, approximately 200 Acadian refugees representing 60 families settled on the Teche Ridge in three encampments along the Fausse Pointe, including present-day Loreauville. These homeless exiles were the first Acadian group of significant size to settle in Louisiana, and Father Jean-Francois, the Catholic priest who came to minister to them, recorded that they considered this area their "New Acadia."