Histories

Biographies

• Adams, Jesse L.
• Atkins, P. M.
• Bell, Chancey C.
• Blanks, Robert B.
• Boatner, Charles J.
• Breard, J. M.
• Bright, William A.
• Cloverdale, Milton
• Dawkins, Oliver C.
• Filhiol, H. H.
• Filhiol, Hypolite

• Filhiol, R. M.
• Fuller, Ned M.
• Garrett, David I.
• Garrett, Edward
• Garrett, John
• Garrett, Thomas
• Garrett, Franklin
• Golson, John R.
• Goodwin, C. M.
• Grady, M. M.
• Graves, James Q.

• Hanna, Joe
• Horuff, Albert
• Hudson, Frederick G., Jr.
• Johnston, Joseph E., Jr.
• McHenry, Carl H.
• Millsaps, Fred F.
• Millsaps, Uriah
• Morton, Oliver B.
• Peters, Johann E.
• Renwick, Wiley P.
• Roddy, Frank J.

• Sparks, Robert C.
• Speed, Hillyer R.
• Stubbs, Frank P.
• Thoman, Albert A.
• Thompson, M. C.
• Trousdale, James H.
• Vaughan, J. Byron
• Volliman, F.
• Webb, Tandy T.
• Whited, S. J. Bowman
• Wright, George W.

1909 Ouachita Parish

Ouachita Parish, established in 1807, is one of the 19 parishes into which Orleans parish was divided in that year. It was named for the Ouachita Indians, who held this part of the country when it was discovered and explored by the French. Its history is most interesting, as it was owned and ruled by savage, king and emperor, within a brief period. The parish of today comprises but a small portion of the original "District of Ouachita" during the French and Spanish regime, and of the "County of Ouachita" which, when set apart by the territorial council of Louisiana in 1805, comprehended "all that country commonly known and called by the name of Ouachita settlements," and which embraced within its original boundaries the parishes of Morehouse and Union and a part of Carroll. Ouachita is situated in the northern part of the state in the Ouachita valley and has an area of 646 square miles. As now constituted it is bounded on the north by Union and Morehouse parishes; on the east by Morehouse and Richland parishes, from which it is separated by Bayou Lafourche; on the south by Caldwell parish, and on the west by Jackson and Lincoln parishes.

The Ouachita river was explored by the French at an early day, and Penicaut, in his memoirs of Louisiana, states that "On the 19th of April (1719), the ships Marechal de Villars, Count de Toulouse, and the Phillip arrived. * * * Among the passengers were M. de Montplaisier, who came with 30 persons to establish a tobacco factory, and an Irish gentleman, who brought with him 60 men, to establish concessions on the Ouachita river, eight leagues above its mouth, in ascending from the Red river." These men were probably the first white men to settle in the region. The French established a post of which Stoddard writes, in his Historical Sketches of Louisiana, "The fort and settlement on the Washita are situated in north latitude, 32° 30', nearly.

The first settlement here was made by the French, which was destroyed by the Natchez Indians in 1729, and neither revived till the country passed into the hands of Spain. It now extends about 30 leagues above Fort Miro, and comprehends between five and six hundred souls." The old fort, called Fort Miro, was built where the city of Monroe now stands. After the Natchez were overcome, settlers began to come into the Ouachita valley. English, Scotch, and Scotch-Irish immigrants came from Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, some from Tennessee and Kentucky, and a large number came from the Mississippi territory. The settlement had attained a population of about 1,000 when erected as a parish. Some of the early settlers were Judge Henry Bry, Thomas Lewis, who became judge in 1810, Thomas Morgan, who held the same office in 1813, Thomas Barlow, Lloyd Posey, John Dewitt, John Faulk, Charles Bettin, Alexander Lazare, Hypolite Pargoud and A. D. Richardson.

After the organization of the parish, Monroe was made the parish seat. The first courthouse was a rude structure, but was replaced by a better building, and in 1883 the 4th and present modern courthouse was built.

Ouachita parish is drained by the Ouachita river and Bayou Lafourche and their many tributaries, all of which are used in the extensive lumbering industry of the parish. Ouachita belongs to the "good upland" parishes and is an exceedingly rich farming region. About one-half of the parish consists of alluvial river bottoms, the remainder is undulating uplands, quite hilly in some places, interspersed with creek bottoms. Water is good and abundant, as there are springs and wells all through the upland section. Cotton is the great staple crop, for in the bottom lands of the Ouachita the greatest cotton producing soil in the world is found. The parish also produces corn, oats, hay, sugar-cane, sorghum and tobacco. Dairying, poultry raising and truck farming are all paying industries around Monroe and West Monroe, as the eastern and northern markets supply a growing demand for early vegetables and fruits. Originally the parish was heavily timbered with oak, gum, cottonwood, willow, cypress, beech, poplar, and hickory, hence for years lumbering has been one of the leading industries and a source of great wealth to the parish. As the forests have been cleared away stock raising has increased. It is a natural cattle country, as stock can range without much care nearly the entire year, and sheep, cattle, hogs and horses are raised in great numbers.

There are cotton compresses, cottonseed oil mills, numerous sawmills, canning factories and other industries in the parish, all attracted by the abundance of raw materials, cheap fuel, good water, and convenient transportation facilities furnished by the Ouachita river, the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific R. R., which traverses the central part of the parish east and west; the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. R., which enters the northeastern boundary near Wham, runs southwest to Monroe and thence directly south; a branch of the New Orleans & Northwestern R. R., which runs from Collinston in Morehouse parish to Monroe, and by the Little Rock & Monroe R. R., which runs northwest from Monroe.

The largest and most important city is Monroe, the parish seat, located at the intersection of all the railroads. It is the chief market and distributing point of the rich Ouachita valley, and the largest town in all northern Louisiana. Other important towns and villages in the parish are Bosco, Calhoun, Cheniere, Fouche, Swartz, West Monroe, Indian Village, Lapine, Logtown, Luna, Mill Haven, Okaloosa and Sterlington.

The following statistics are taken from the U. S. census for 1900: number of arms, 1,720; acreage, 181,920; acres under cultivation, 78,150; value of land and improvements exclusive of buildings, $1,323,510; value of farm buildings, $482,150; value of live stock, $426,366; value of all products not fed to live stock, $1,178,149; number of manufacturing establishments, 90; capital invested, $1,569,560; wages paid, $270.429; cost of materials used, $715,756; total value of products, $1, 239,012. The population of the parish in 1900 was 7,847 whites, 13,098 colored, a total of 20,947, an increase of 2,962 during the preceding decade. The estimated population for 1908 was over 22,000.

Extracted 03 Nov 2019 by Norma Hass, from Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, published in 1909, volume 2, pages 278-280.

Sheriffs of Ouachita Parish

William Thomas Theobalds: 1888-1892
Isiah Garrett: 1892-1896
David Johnston: 1896-1908
John "Jack" Parker: 1908-1915
Thomas Arthur Grant: 1916-1924
Milton Coverdale: 1924-1948
Bailey Grant: 1948-1980
Laymon Godwin: 1980-1996
Charles L. Cook: 1996-2000
Richard L. Fewell: 2000-2008
Royce Toney: 2008(Will take office January 2008)
Jay Russell: 2012 - present

Courtesy of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office, Calvin Miyahira

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