Norman Rozeff, Historic river flooding in the valley, 2009 May. In 1900 Henry N. Pharr for a number of years was a director of the State National Bank of New Iberia, Louisiana, and was a former president of the Louisiana - Rio Grande Sugar Company and the Louisiana - Rio Grande Canal Company, which at one time owned 8000 acres and which, in 1910, built the town of Pharr on this land.