GERAC, P., FR., then Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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P. GERAC, LAFAYETTE.--P. Gerac, of the firm of Gerac Bros., general merchants,
is a native of France, born 1837.  He is the son of P. and Mary (Bellau)
Gerac.   His father was a planter in France.

Our subject was reared and educated in France.  At the age of sixteen, he
removed to New Orleans, in company with his brother, and was there engaged in
business until 1855 when he moved to Lafayette parish.  Here he began
merchandising partnership with his brother, in which he has continued ever
since.  On the breakout of the Civil war he enlisted in the Twenty-second
Louisiana Infantry and served eight months.  He married in Mexico, 1868,
Frances Chavez, a native of that country.  Outside of his mercantile business
Mr. Gerac does a large business on his plantation.  He owns a large amount of
land in Lafayette parish, and also gives a part of his attention to the
operation of an extensive gin.  He is the father of eight children, five sons
and three daughters, and is giving them the benefit of a good education.  He
and family are members of the Catholic church.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp.
227-228.  Edited by William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf
Publishing Company.