Union Parish, Louisiana

Union Parish, Louisiana
250px Union Parish Courthouse in Farmerville
Location in the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Founded	March 13, 1839
Named for	Union of American states
Seat	Farmerville
Largest town	Farmerville
Area
• Total	905 sq mi (2,344 km2)
• Land	877 sq mi (2,271 km2)
• Water	28 sq mi (73 km2), 3.06%
Population
• (2010)	22,721
• Density	26/sq mi (10/km²)
Congressional district	4th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5

File:Lake D'Arbonne west of Farmerville IMG 3865.JPG

Lake D'Arbonne west of Farmerville.

File:Union General Hospital in Farmerville IMG 3864.JPG

Union General Hospital in Farmerville.

Union Parish (French: Paroisse de l'Union) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,721. The parish seat is Farmerville. The parish was created on March 13, 1839, from a section of Ouachita Parish. Its boundaries have changed four times since then (in 1845, 1846, 1867, and 1873, respectively).

Union Parish is part of the Monroe, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Union Parish/Union County monument

In 1931, a monument was erected at the Union Parish border with Union County, Arkansas, through the private efforts of former Arkansas Governor George Washington Donaghey (1856–1937). He was born in Union Parish and grew up in the border area before moving with his family as a teenager to Conway, Arkansas. As governor of Arkansas, Donaghey oversaw the construction of the state capitol building in Little Rock and implemented founding of the state health unit and its agricultural colleges.

Long having felt a kinship to both states, after his gubernatorial tenure Donaghey commissioned a park on the border land and a monument. The monument is known for its intricate carvings and Art Deco style. It includes references to different modes of transportation in 1831 and 1931 and mentions Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long, Jr., whose educational program Donaghey admired. The land was not registered with the state parks offices in either state, timber companies cut trees thereabouts, and the monument was forgotten. In 1975, State Representative Louise B. Johnson gained passage of a law to refurbish the monument. A completed restoration was unveiled in 2009.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 905 square miles (2,340 km²), of which 877 square miles (2,270 km²) is land and 28 square miles (73 km²) (3.1%) is water.

Geographically north central Louisiana and more closely resembles Lincoln Parish, to which Union is deeply tied culturally, politically, and educationally. The Piney Hills Country is very different from the flat, hardwood delta lands of northeastern Louisiana.

Major highways

• U.S. Highway 63
• U.S. Highway 167
• Louisiana Highway 2
• Louisiana Highway 15
• Louisiana Highway 33

Adjacent parishes and counties

• Union County, Arkansas (northwest)
• Ashley County, Arkansas (northeast)
• Morehouse Parish (east)
• Ouachita Parish (southeast)
• Lincoln Parish (southwest)
• Claiborne Parish (west)

Union Parish in Louisiana and Union County in Arkansas are two of twenty-two counties or parishes in the United States with the same name to border each other across state lines.

National protected areas

• D'Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge (part)
• Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1840	1,838		—
1850	8,203		346.3%
1860	10,389		26.6%
1870	11,685		12.5%
1880	13,526		15.8%
1890	17,304		27.9%
1900	18,520		7.0%
1910	20,451		10.4%
1920	19,621		−4.1%
1930	20,731		5.7%
1940	20,943		1.0%
1950	19,141		−8.6%
1960	17,624		−7.9%
1970	18,447		4.7%
1980	21,167		14.7%
1990	20,690		−2.3%
2000	22,803		10.2%
2010	22,721		−0.4%
Est. 2014	22,539		−0.8%
U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2013

As of the census of 2000, there were 22,803 people, 8,857 households, and 6,412 families residing in the parish. The population density was 26 people per square mile (10/km²). There were 10,873 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile (5/km²). The racial makeup of the parish was 69.79% White, 27.95% Black or African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.26% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 2.02% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 8,857 households out of which 31.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.30% were married couples living together, 13.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.60% were non-families. 24.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the parish the population was spread out with 25.70% under the age of 18, 9.10% from 18 to 24, 26.50% from 25 to 44, 23.80% from 45 to 64, and 14.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 94.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.90 males.

The median income for a household in the parish was $29,061, and median income of a family was $36,035. Males had a median income of $30,494 versus $21,070 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $14,819. About 14.30% of families and 18.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.60% of those under age 18 and 17.70% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

Located in far northern Louisiana next to the Arkansas state line, Union Parish is heavily Republican in most competitive elections, particularly at the presidential level. In 2012, Mitt Romney received 7,561 votes (70.2 percent) of the parish total to 3,075 (28.6 percent) for U.S. President Barack Obama.

Education

Residents are assigned to Union Parish Public Schools.

Communities

File:Map of Union Parish Louisiana With Municipal Labels.PNG

Map of Union Parish, Louisiana With Municipal Labels

Towns

• Bernice
• Farmerville (parish seat)
• Marion

Villages

• Conway
• Downsville
• Junction City
• Lillie
• Spearsville

Unincorporated communities

• Alabama Landing
• Point
• Shiloh

Notable residents

Two Louisiana governors came from the Shiloh Community in Union Parish:

• William Wright Heard, 1900–1904
• Ruffin Pleasant, 1916-1920

Two Arkansas governors were natives of Union Parish:

• George Washington Donaghey, governor of Arkansas from 1909 to 1913
• Tom Jefferson Terral, governor of Arkansas from 1925 to 1927

Other Union Parish residents have included:

• Lonnie O. Aulds (1925-1984), state representative from 1968 to 1972 from Shreveport, real estate developer, born in Union Parish

• George Washington Bolton (1841-1931), state representative from 1888 to 1896 from Alexandria; Speaker of the House from 1892 to 1896; businessman, banker, school board member, Southern Baptist layman in Alexandria, lived and educated in Union Parish in his father's private school prior to the American Civil War

• Grady A. Dugas - physician in Marion who invented a system of wheelchair locks

• Harvey Fields, state senator from 1916 to 1920, member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission from 1927 to 1936, briefly a law partner of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., in Shreveport His son, T. T. Fields, served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1952 to 1964 and 1968 to 1972.

• Jay McCallum - judge of the Louisiana 3rd Judicial District Court since 2003; state representative for Lincoln and Union parishes, 1992-2003; formerly practiced law in Farmerville

• B. R. Patton (1920-1999), state senator for Lincoln and Union parishes, 1956 to 1964; worked on the establishment of Lake D'Arbonne at Farmerville

• Fred Preaus (1912-1987), businessman from Farmerville, ran unsuccessfully in the 1956 Democratic gubernatorial primary election; lost to Earl Kemp Long

• Robert Roberts, Jr., Union Parish native born 1872, mayor of Farmerville c. 1900, mayor of Minden 1905-1906, state representative for Webster Parish 1908-1914, and state district judge 1920 to 1925

• James Peyton Smith (1925-2006), born in the Conway Community in Union Parish; state representative from Union and Morehouse parishes from 1964 to 1972; namesake of Louisiana Highway 33 bridge over Lake D'Arbonne in Farmerville

• Lee Emmett Thomas, was born in Marion in Union Parish and educated as a child in the Shiloh Community at the former Concord Institute. He was mayor of Shreveport (1922–1930) and Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representative (1912–1916). Thomas also served by appointment in both the Heard and Pleasant administrations.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Union Parish, Louisiana

Sources

Many facts concerning events in early Union Parish history come from the conveyance, probate, and lawsuit records on file in the Union Parish courthouse, as well as records of the United States Land Offices available in the National Archives. Other sources include:

1) Williams, E. Russ, Jr., Spanish Poste d’Ouachita: The Ouachita Valley in Colonial Louisiana 1783–1804, and Early American Statehood, 1804–1820, Williams Genealogical Publications, Monroe, LA, 1995.

2) Williams, E. Russ, Jr., Encyclopedia of Individuals and Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley of Louisiana From 1785 to 1850: Organized into Family Groups with Miscellaneous Materials on Historical Events, Places, and Other Important Topics, Part Oe A – K, Williams Genealogical and Historical Publications, Monroe, LA, 1996.

3) Williams, E. Russ, Jr., Encyclopedia of Individuals and Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley of Louisiana From 1785 to 1850: Organized into Family Groups with Miscellaneous Materials on Historical Events, Places, and Other Important Topics, Part Two L – O, Williams Genealogical and Historical Publications, Monroe, LA, 1997.

4) Williams, Max Harrison, Union Parish (Louisiana) Historical Records: Police Jury Minutes, 1839–1846, D’Arbonne Research and Publishing Co., Farmerville, LA, 1993.

5) Union Parish Civil Suit #124D, Lawrence Scarborough to Sarah Scarborough his wife, 15 October 1829. Lawrence gives to his wife his legal right of "pre-emption" to land on Bayou d'Loutre. Specifically, Lawrence gave to his wife

"...anticipated by law an improvement on public land situated on the loutre..."

This proves that Scarborough had settled and made improvements on a tract of land in Union Parish by 1829. However, the records of the United States Land Office indicate that the land and improvements given to Sarah Scarborough were actually on Bayou Corney, not Bayou d'Loutre. The Loutre was some eight miles (13 km) northeast of the 200 acres (0.81 km²) of land Sarah Scarborough purchased at the Ouachita Land Office in Monroe between 1840 and 1843.

Written by Timothy Dean Hudson, 2007.

6) Luke H. Smith, Union Parish Louisiana Police Jury Minutes, Second Book, 22 July 1844 - Land Grant on 21 November 1846 at the Land office of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. Conveyance abstracts of court records of Union Parish, Louisiana in a book entitled "Some Slaveholders and Their Slaves" 1839-1865 by Harry F. Dill and William Simpson, pgs 74, 83, 89, 100, and 107