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19-540: Richland Parish is a parish located in the North Louisiana Delta Country in the U.S. state of Louisiana , known for its fertile, flat farmland, cane brakes, and open spaces. The parish had a population of 20,043 at the 2020 United States census . The name Richland was chosen due to the rich production from farming. The parish seat and largest community is Rayville . The parish was officially created on September 29, 1868. Rayville, Louisiana ,

38-549: A constitutional convention was held to prepare for Louisiana's admission into the Union . This 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 parish , as did the 1845 constitution. Since then, the official term for Louisiana's primary civil divisions has been parishes . The 19 original parishes were joined by Catahoula Parish in 1808. In 1810 four additional parishes were created from

57-492: A council called a police jury . The remaining 26 have various other forms of government, including: council-president, council-manager , parish commission, and consolidated parish/city . Louisiana was formed from French and Spanish colonies, which were both officially Roman Catholic . Local colonial government was based upon parishes , as the local ecclesiastical division. Following the Louisiana Purchase ,

76-471: Is divided into 64 parishes ( French : paroisses , Spanish : parroquias ), making it the only state besides Alaska to call its subdivisions something other than "counties." Louisiana's usage of the term "parish" for a geographic region or local government dates back to the French colonial and Spanish colonial periods and is connected to ecclesiastical parishes . Thirty-eight parishes are governed by

95-677: The thirteen British Atlantic coast colonies , England , France , Saint-Domingue , Cayenne ( French Guiana ), and the Falkland Islands . In 1765 Joseph Broussard , also known as Beausoleil , led approximately 193 Acadians who had been involved in guerilla warfare against the British in Canada to settle in the Attakapas District. These early settlers were located between modern Breaux Bridge and Loreauville . This

114-767: The area was primarily home to the Atakapa tribe. The first Europeans arrived in the 1730s, and they were predominantly French or of French descent. In the 1760s and 1780s, following British victory over France in the Seven Years War, it took over French territory in North America east of the Mississippi River. They expelled most Acadians from their homes in Nova Scotia ; some were resettled among various French and (other) British domains:

133-731: The eastern areas of Richland. Other tributaries in the parish include Crew Lake , and the Lafourche Diversion Canal are located in the western portion of the parish. Boeuf River flows from the northern end to the southern end in the center of the parish. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 20,043 people, 7,459 households, and 4,972 families residing in the parish. 32°25′N 91°46′W  /  32.42°N 91.76°W  / 32.42; -91.76 List of parishes in Louisiana [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The U.S. state of Louisiana

152-406: The fifth Reconstruction parish, Cameron, was created, which was followed by the sixth, seventh, and eighth parishes (Red River, Vernon, and Webster, respectively) in 1871. The ninth parish to be formed under Radical Republican rule was Lincoln, named after the late president and formed in 1873. In 1877, the old parish of Carroll divided into East and West Carroll parishes, which are unofficially called

171-514: The first being Iberia and Richland parishes. Plans for creating a parish like Iberia from St. Martin and St. Mary parishes had dated from the 1840s. (A surveying error in Iberia's creation broke St. Martin Parish into two non-contiguous parts, making it and Norfolk County, Massachusetts as the only county-level units with their own exclaves .) Tangipahoa and Grant parishes followed in 1869. In 1870,

190-571: The formerly Spanish West Florida territory—these are part of what is now referred to as the Florida Parishes . By April 1812, Attakapas Parish became St. Martin Parish and St. Mary Parish. On April 30, the state was admitted to the Union with 25 parishes. By 1820, Washington Parish was added, and Feliciana Parish split into West and East in 1824. The next year, Jefferson Parish was carved from Orleans Parish. By 1830, Claiborne Parish

209-459: The most substantial being the division of Lake Pontchartrain among Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Orleans, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist, and St. Charles Parishes in 1979. Attakapas County, Orleans Territory Attakapas Parish

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228-612: The parish seat, was named for John Ray, a politician from Monroe with large land holdings in present-day Rayville. Richland Parish is home to the first public parish library in the State of Louisiana, the Rhymes Memorial Library. The library was built in 1925 by the Lambda Kappa Club of Rayville. R.R. Rhymes donated the original building in memory of his wife, Nonnie Roark Rhymes. Bayou Macon flows through

247-547: The tenth and eleventh Reconstruction parishes, as the project ended that year. No new parishes were formed until 1886, when Acadia Parish was formed from St. Landry. Again, no new parishes were formed, this time until 1908, when the western half of Catahoula parish became LaSalle parish. In 1910, the parish count rose to 61 with the creation of Evangeline Parish, and the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th parishes (Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis) were created from areas of Calcasieu Parish. There were several minor boundary changes afterward,

266-532: The territorial legislative council in April 1805 divided the Territory of Orleans (the predecessor of Louisiana state) into 12 counties . The borders of these counties were poorly defined, but largely coincided with the colonial ecclesiastical parishes. On March 31, 1807, the territorial legislature created 19 parishes without abolishing any of the old counties (which term continued to exist until 1845). In 1811,

285-477: The time that the former Attakapas Territory/District became Attakapas Parish, the Acadians living there had developed a prosperous agricultural economy based on cattle, enhanced by small-scale vegetable and corn farming. They relied on the labor of enslaved African Americans . The Attakapas District census of 1803 listed "2,270 whites, 210 free people of color, 1,266 slaves; in all 3,746 souls." The region became

304-566: Was created, and the old Warren Parish was mostly absorbed into Ouachita Parish, only to return as Carroll Parish a few years later. In 1838, Caddo Parish was created from Natchitoches, as were Madison and Caldwell parishes in the east. In 1839, Union Parish was formed from Ouachita, and Calcasieu was formed from St. Landry in 1840. Five parishes were created in 1843: Bossier, DeSoto, Franklin, Sabine, and Tensas. Morehouse Parish and Vermilion Parish were formed from Ouachita and Lafayette parishes, respectively, in 1844. The next year, Jackson Parish

323-757: Was formally created from the Attakapas and Opelousas districts in 1805 by Governor William C. C. Claiborne . It occupied the triangle between the Mermentau River on the west, the Atchafalaya River on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. In 1811, the parish was divided into St. Martin and St. Mary parishes. As population increased, the region was further subdivided in 1823, 1844, and 1868 to create Lafayette, Vermillion, and Iberia parishes, respectively. Prior to European colonization,

342-399: Was formed, the old county units were abandoned, and the units were officially referred to as "parishes". In 1848, Bienville Parish was formed from Claiborne Parish. In 1852, Winn Parish was formed, while parishes further south added and lost land. In 1853, Lafourche Interior Parish was renamed to Lafourche Parish. During Reconstruction , state government created a number of new parishes, with

361-573: Was two years after France had transferred most of its Louisiana colony to Spain (after losing the Seven Years' War ), although the French colonial governor Charles Philippe Aubry was still in charge of this territory. These settlers became the nexus for future waves of Acadian immigration, when their dispersed relatives could gather sufficient funds and permissions from the various national entities under whose control they found themselves. By

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