Historical Background Associated with the Union Parish Censuses

On April 30, 1803 the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. These lands stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. The Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the size of the United States, and eventually yielded thirteen states, including the State of Louisiana.

The first United States Census to include portions of the new Louisiana Territory was the 1810 Census. To help maintain the existing Spanish – French governmental structure, the Americans allowed Louisiana to preserve their parish designations rather than impose the English county system. Thus, what later became Union Parish Louisiana was a part of Ouachita Parish from its formation in the 1780s. This means that the 1810, 1820, and 1830 censuses of Ouachita Parish included the area that is now known as Union Parish. The Louisiana Legislature formed Union Parish from the northwest corner of Ouachita on 13 March 1839, and so the first United States census that included Union Parish by name was the 1840 census.