Editing Port Barre, Louisiana (section)

==History==
Port Barre takes its name from Alex Charles Barre (born 1746, died 1829); it was not incorporated under this name until 1898.

In 1733, the semi-nomadic [[Appalousa|Opelousas]] Indians petitioned the French colonial government to send traders to their district. In 1760, a couple of [[coureur des bois|coureurs des bois]] set up a trading post at a landing where the bayous meet.

In 1765, Jacques Courtableau, a wealthy landowner, gave land grants to 32 Acadian immigrants. That same year, he sold Charles Barre a large parcel of land, including the site of the first trading post. The post later became known as Barre's Landing, then Port Barre. It thrived as a port town before the days of the railroads.<ref>{{cite web|title=Port Barre|url=http://www.louisianatravel.com/cities/port-barre|publisher=Louisiana Office of Tourism|access-date=June 28, 2014}}</ref><ref name="town-history">{{cite web|title=Town History|url=http://townofportbarre.com/index.php/town-history|publisher=Town of Port Barre|access-date=June 28, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702204038/http://www.townofportbarre.com/index.php/town-history|archive-date=July 2, 2014}}</ref>

Guillaume Barre was born in 1642 in St. Valery, France. He emigrated, settling about 1665 in [[Martinique]] in the [[French West Indies]]. Guillaume Barre met Jean Roy (1625–1707) and Jean Hebert (1624); they traveled together to Louisiana. The Barres settled in [[Pointe Coupee]], Louisiana, where they met the Nezat family (Pierre Nezat coming from [[Saint Domingue]]), and the Provost family (Nicolas Provost coming from Paris via [[Fort de Chartres]], in the Illinois Country).

Alex Charles Barre is a descendant of Guillaume Barre. In 1765 he bought a large parcel of land, including the site of the first trading post, from Jacques Courtableau. Barre married Magdelaine Decuir in Pointe Coupee; they had 11 children together. Three of their children married three members of the Nezat family. Around this same time, three Nezats married three Roys, and the three families became closely entwined.

In 1820, Charles Alex Barre purchased additional acres along the bank of the bayou from Sieur Jacques Guillaume Courtableau. The Barre family operated a goods-handling business. The Barre, Nezat, and Roy families settled in this area and expanded. The settlement continued to grow through the 19th century. On July 13, 1898, the village of Port Barre was officially incorporated by Act of Proclamation of Louisiana Governor [[Jared Y. Sanders Sr.|Jared Y. Sanders, Sr.]]<ref name="town-history" />