yato (.Offices of
Weeks & Weeks
127 Jtf./Haiti New Iberia,La.
Harold Ayres, Pres., Old Spanish Trail,
The Gunter Hotel,
SS3c San Antonio, Texas.
Dear Sir:
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Yours of January 14th, addressed to the Public Library, New Iberia, La., has been referred to me for reply. You ask for information as to when New Iberia was founded and under what circumstances.
*s you a redoubtless aware, Louisiana has been under three flags, Spanish, French and English.
The first settlements in this section were made by the Spanish. In Fortier's History of Louisiana, page 60, he says:
"In 1779, under Galvez, the Governor of Louisiana, New Iberia's settlement was formed by 499 men under the command of Bouligny. These were recruits from Canary Islands, possibly from Malagar. These received grants of land. Lome heads of families received in rations, cattle, pecuinary and other aid between three and four thousand dollars."
However, I think that Fortier is wrong in his statement that 499 men were sent here to form the first settlement. These men were probably distributed between several settlements, because we have a number of Spanish names here, such as, Segura, Viator, Lopez, Miguez, Romero, etc., but had there been 499 families in the settlement, there would have been a larger number of Spanish names and there would probably have been a much larger settlement devebped.
The name, Iberia, comes from the Iberian Peninsula, which hss as you know, is a part of Spain and probably some of the early settlers came from that part pf Spain.
In Martin's History of Louisiana, on page 29 (published by James Gresham in 1882) is the following:
"The Spaniards made an abortive attempt to establish a town called New Iberia, about sixteen miles below St. Martinvilie ."Just above New Iberia, that is about a mile from the main port of the town is a Lake
January 26, 1952.