Editing Carencro, Louisiana (section)

===Early settlement===
Few European people settled in the Carencro area (around [[Lafayette, LA|Lafayette]]) until the coming of the [[Acadian]] refugees in the 18th century.  Some of the Acadians transported in 1765 to the Attakapas district were given lands along Bayou Carencro, although probably not in what is now the town of Carencro.  At that time, Jean and Marin Mouton, Charles Peck, Louis Pierre Arceneaux and others began to establish ''[[vacheries]]'' in the vicinity.  More cattlemen would follow after 1770, when Spanish Gov. [[Alejandro O'Reilly]] decreed that "a grant of 42 [[arpent]]s [{{convert|42|arpent|acre|disp=output only}}] in front by 42 in depth could be issued only to those who owned 100 head of tame cattle, some sheep and horses, and two slaves to oversee them."

In 1769, Juan Kelly and Eduardo Nugent toured the area for the government and reported to O'Reilly that "the inhabitants maintain everything imaginable in the way of livestock, such as cows, horses and sheep."  A [[Frenchman]] named Lyonnet, visiting in 1793, found thousands of cattle on the [[Attakapas]] and Opelousas prairies.

Jean and Marin Mouton were among the early settlers on Bayou Carencro. Other early settlers in the Carencro area were Charles Peck, Traveille Bernard, Rosamond Breaux, Ovignar Arceneaux, and the Babineaux family.  An 1803 census of the Carencro area listed family names including Arceneaux, Babineaux, Benoit, Bernard, Breaux, Carmouche, Caruthers, Comeaux, Cormier, Guilbeaux, Hébert, Holway, LeBlanc, Melançon, Mire, Mouton, Pierre, Prejean, Roger, St. Julien, Savoie, and Thibodeaux.