e-ReferenceDesk's College and 50 State Learning Resource Guide

Find Online Colleges

Find Campus Colleges

Louisiana State...

Louisiana

Louisiana Parishes

Click Image to Enlarge

Louisiana Parishes

Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes in the same way that 48 of the other states of the United States are divided into counties (Alaska is divided into boroughs and census areas).
On March 31, 1807, the territorial legislature divided the state into 19 parishes, without getting rid of the old counties (which continued to exist until 1845).In 1811, a constitutional convention organized the state into seven judicial districts, each consisting of groups of parishes. In 1816, the first official map of the state used the term, as did the 1845 constitution. Since then, the official term has been parishes.

Lafayette Consolidated Government, Louisiana

Lafayette Consolidated Government History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Lafayette
Year Organized: 1823
Square Miles: 270

Court House:

PO Box 4017C
Parish Courthouse
Lafayette, LA 70502-4017

Etymology - Origin of Parish Name

The parish was named in honor of Marquis de la Fayette. The Parish seat is Lafayette.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lafayette Parish was created on January 17, 1823, from St. Martin Parish and the parish was named in honor of Marquis de la Fayette. The Parish seat is Lafayette.

Early historians report that a few trappers, traders and ranchers were present in the region prior to the Spanish occupation of 1766. The first settlement in south-central Louisiana, known as Petit Manchac, was established by the English who used it during the Revolutionary War as an outpost. It constituted a small trading post on the banks of the Vermilion River where the Old Spanish Trail crossed the bayou (about where today's Pinhook Bridge is located). The village also came to be known as Pin Hook, a name about which many stories of origin exist.

The historical event which had the greatest cultural impact on Lafayette was the migration of the Acadians from French Canada after "Le Grand Derangement" in 1755. Most of the exiled Acadians followed the path which led to New Orleans. There they received a hostile greeting from the French aristocracy so they headed west into unsettled territory. They settled along the bayous of south central and south western Louisiana where they could live according to their own beliefs and customs. With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Louisiana then became possession of the United States.

In 1821, Jean Mouton (an Acadian) donated land for the construction of a Catholic church. On May 15, 1822 Bishop Duborg created the church parish of St. John the Evangelist of Vermilion which encompassed the area from Mouton's plantation south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Sabine River.

St John's Cathedral 1880
The settlement grew around the church. Mouton made a second land donation to the new community, this time for a courthouse. The town of Vermilionville became the new parish's seat. The settlement grew and the town of Vermilionville was renamed Lafayette in 1844 in honor of the French Marquis de Lafayette.

Neighboring Parishes:

North: St. Landry Parish
East: St. Martin Parish
Southeast: Iberia Parish
Southwest: Vermilion Parish
Northwest: Acadia Parish

Cities and Towns:

- Broussard	city	Incorporated Area
- Carencro	city	Incorporated Area
- Duson	town	Incorporated Area
- Lafayette (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Scott	city	Incorporated Area
- Youngsville	town	Incorporated Area

Parish Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."