Magalhães de Almeida, Brazil

History

Around 1855, there was a great flood on Parnaíba River, and Barnabé Pereira Mascarenhas went down the river with an igara looking for new lands to live in. He found a hill on the left side of the river and built his new home there.

Returning to his old settlement, people asked Barnabé where he had stablished himself, and he answered he made a "hole" (furo in Portuguese) nearby. The region, thus, was known as Furo.

In 1885, Antônio da Silva Lopes, Militão Pereira Mascarenhas and Florindo José da Silva tried to colonize the region, but failed. Furo only developed in 1918, when Benedito Romão de Sousa, Manoel Vasconcelos Leão, Vítor Gonçalves Costa and others moved to the region and built infrastructure, including a church. The region then was renamed Porto de Santo Antônio, as a homage to Anthony of Padua. The region was predominantly occupied by fishermen.

In April 1925, the region was elevated to the status of village by the Governor José Maria Magalhães de Almeida. In 1936, it became the district of Trincheiras, from São Bernardo. During the term of the Governor Sebastião Archer da Silva, it became a municipality through the Law nº 771, from 1 October 1952, that came into effect on 1 January 1953.

From 1996 on, with the election of João Cândido de Carvalho Neto as mayor, the municipality was predominantly governed by the Carvalho family.

From the History section of Magalhães de Almeida on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.