Joseph Alcide Barras was born in St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1875 to Alexandre and Madeline (Guilbeau) Barras, both of French descent.
He married Clemence Borel in 1900 with whom he had six children. In 1919, the Barras family moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, then renowned as "The Seafood Capital of the World". They, as well as many other southern Louisiana sharecroppers, traveled in factory-owned trucks in search of a better life. Their home was set up in one of the shotgun style houses set up in settlements established by the factories called "The Camps". The settlement the Barras family lived in was located near the southern shore of Biloxi's Back Bay.
"Alcide's" work in the seafood industry was as fisherman as well as working in the shell grinding area, where oyster shells were pulverized for use in building roads and manufacturing concrete. The dust generated in this process contributed to Alcide's diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis which resulted in his death on October 10, 1928, at the age of 53 years. Alcide's legacy of serving the seafood industry was carried on by several of his children who also worked in factories for years to come.
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