Bristol

The community of Bristol is located 6 miles southwest of Sunset and 2 miles northwest of Cankton. It is a rural community where the descendants of Joseph Sibille settled to continue the cotton ginning and farming businesses which he had begun. Bristol became the hub of a large farming area where farmers came for help both financially (no nearby banks) and for advice in the newest methods of farming.

Joseph Sibille had a high regard for education. He sent his sons to St. Charles College in Grand Coteau. They journeyed on horseback, often encountering Federal troops during the Civil War. Today, the cotton gin is no longer in operation, cotton having been replaced over the years by soy beans, sugar cane and corn. Education of the younger generations continued to be a priority with the result that there was an exodus to other occupations, leaving the farming to a few landowners.

Bristol is today a beautiful, well maintained community of close-knit relatives and friends. This bedroom community is attracting newcomers who seek a quiet lifestyle with larger cities only 30 minutes away. A great, great grandson of Joseph Sibille is a pilot and he has opened a grass airstrip capable of landing light aircraft. This facility is attracting pilots of small planes who use the strip for practice and its hangar for housing their planes.

In 1997 a visitor from Bristol, England, for which our Bristol was named, came to present an invitation to attend the 500th anniversary celebration of the sailing of John Cabot to the New World. He presented a paperweight made of blue Bristol glass as a commemorative piece.