Thomas Berwick

Considered the first settlers West of the of The Mississippi.

He was a pioneer, surveyor, and planter born in Pennsylvania (or Scotland or England) in 1740. He probably came to the Attakapas District of Louisiana in 1799 with Malagereno settlers led by Francisco ???. There, he married Eleanor Wales (Helen Wallace) of Dublin, Ireland. She was born in 1748 and died in 1815.

Thomas supervised construction of the Spanish settlement of New Iberia as well as being royal surveyor for Opelousas and the Attakapas District. He also invested in tanniers and shoe shops in the New Iberia area. He later ventured southward along the coastline where the town of Berwick and Berwick Bay were named for him. He died at Opelousas around January 1792.

Thomas and Eleanor had nine children: