Nicolas Laberge was the fifth child born to Robert de la Berge and Françoise

Gosse.  He was also the first Laberge to venture into La Louisiane and
what would become The United States.

Illustration : « La descente des rapides », huile sur toile de Frances
Anne Hopkins (1838-1919), vers 1879. Source : BAC 1989-401-2X ;
C-2774 (Wikimedia Commons.)

In May of 1702 Nicolas Laberge signed a contract with Charles Juchereau

de Saint-Denis in Montreal to join a company of 26 men to go down the

Mississippi to the junction of the Ohio river and establish a tannery at
present day Cairo, Illinois.  After surviving an epedimic at the tannery,
he arrived at Fort Louis de la Louisiane in Mobile on 28 Jan 1705.  He is
listed in the 1711 census and his lot at the fort is shown on the plan.

Here are some pages from Jay Higgenbotham's book Fort Louis de la
Louisiane 1702 - 1711.

Another fascinating document is A Historical Reexamination Of Juchereau's
Illinois Tannery by John Fortier and Donald Chaput which describes Charles

Juchereau-de-St-Denis' effort to build the tannery.  It can be read on-line
at:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40190890?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
 

In 1720, Nicolas Chauvin dit La Fresnière was dispatched to establish a
trading post at Opelousas in present day Saint Landry Parish, 20 miles
north of Lafayette.  There is a Medardo Leberge who was born in 1725
but it is unclear if he was born at the fort in Mobile or in Opelousas.  It
is quite likely that he was the grandson of Nicolas Laberge considering that
there were no other Laberges, Leberges, or Labarges in the area at that
time.  Nicolas would have been 53 years old in 1725.  Medardo's son
was Denis Leberge who was listed in the 1810 census and was born in
Opelousas in 1754.

Opelousas is at the heart of Creole and Cajun culture and heritage in
Louisiana. 

For more information on the French Canadians in Louisiana and Texas in
the 1700's, please see the separate web page which I am working on at:

Charles Juchereau de Saint-Denis and the tannery on th Mississippi