Editing Carencro, Louisiana (section)

===Economic prosperity===
''The Opelousas Courier'' reported on the young settlement at least twice during the year 1879.  The April 19 edition stated, ''"This little village is rapidly expanding. ... The grounds of the church have been planted in trees and enclosed with a fence of a new kind.  This enclosure is of iron wire and armed with steel barbs, forming a barrier inaccessible to animals." ''
[[Image:StPeters-Carencrotower.jpg|thumb|left|St. Peters Catholic church next to the town's water tower.]]
On September 6, the newspaper gave this account: ''"The little village of St. Pierre, at Carencro, born only a short time ago, tends to stretch itself in an astonishing fashion with numbers of buildings where all kinds of trades and professions are prospering there.   Many beautiful stores, well assorted with that which meets the needs of the inhabitants, are established there since a short time ago and we note, among others, the fine establishment of Mr. Ignace Bernard near the church." ''

By 1889, Carencro had two sugar factories, one operated by J.C. Couvillon, and another run by I. Singleton.  In 1894, Victor E. Dupuis, one of the larger cane growers of the area, formed the Carencro Sugar Company to build another sugar mill alongside Morgan's Railroad.  The sugar mills in the area closed about 1900.

There were several horse-powered cotton gins in Carencro before 1876. In that year, Avignac Arceneaux built the first steam-powered gin in the parish. Four more gins were built there in the late 1880s and in the 1890s.  In 1889, 1,800 bales of cotton were shipped from the Carencro Station.  Cotton gins continued to operate in Carencro until the middle 1970s, when the last two, Cotton Products Co. and Farmer's Gin Co., were closed.

====Merchants and plantation owners====
In 1891, historian William Henry Perrin suggested that ''"there is no prettier site for a town (than Carencro) nor one with more solid advantages than comprised in this place. "''<ref name="autogenerated1" />

Among leading merchants in the 1890s were the Brown Brothers, Jacob Mitchell, D. Daret, A.G. Guilbeau, G. Schmuler, C. Micou, and J.C. Martin.

People owning large plantations near the town were Mrs. Z. Broussard, Dr. R.J. Francez, Mrs. O.C. Mouton, Louis Roger, Mrs. F. Abadie, C.C. Brown, St. Clair Kilchrist, V.C. Dupuis. and L.J. Arceneaux. Entrepreneur Charles J. Richard opened the town's lumberyard along the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]].  Nearly 100 years later, the enterprise closed during a regional economic recession in 1985.