Union Parish Louisiana |
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Union Parish Louisiana Ward Designations
Louisiana is the only state to use parishes instead of counties as the primary local government unit. Each parish is subdivided into wards, and if the population warrants, the wards are divided again into precincts. The governing body for each parish is called the police jury, and each ward elects a person to serve as their police juror. Since many records, including the 1870 – 1930 censuses, use ward numbers as their means to subdivide the parish, knowledge of the ward designations is important to an in-depth study of the genealogy of Union Parish families.
The Louisiana Legislature created the Parish of Union on 13 March 1839. On May 13th, each of the wards of the new parish held special elections to select their police jurors, and upon the order of Judge John Taylor, the seven original Union Parish Police Jurors held their first meeting on May 15 near the confluence of Bayous D'Arbonne and Corney. It is not clear how the original ward lines were selected, nor what group decided the original boundaries. It is clear from the jurors elected from each ward that the initial 1839 ward boundaries were quite different than those in use in 1870, the first census divided by ward number. The change occurred about 1860, and this 1862 document gives the new and old ward designations for various citizens.
Since few sources refer to the ward lines prior to 1870, it seems unnecessary from a genealogical standpoint to study the 1839–1860 ward boundaries. The material give here describes the ward designations for the 1860–mid-1900s time period. The wards have only slightly changed since 1930.
Note: In the mid-1880s, Union Parish tax records show radically different ward designations compared to what they were in the 1860–1880 period and the 1900–2000 period. I cannot explain this, as the ward lines used on those tax records do not match any other records. Either the police jury used a different set of ward lines for tax collection, or else they made numerous changes in the 1880s and changed back to the previous boundaries in the early 1900s.
| 1860 – 2000 Union Parish Louisiana Ward Designations | |
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| Ward | General Description |
| One | Central portion of modern Union Parish, including parish seat of Farmerville |
| Two | Northeastern corner of the parish, including Marion & Alabama Landing; before the creation of Ward 8, Ouachita City and Port Union also lay in Ward 2 |
| Three | Northwestern corner of modern Union Parish, including Spearsville, Cherry Ridge, Camp Creek, & before the creation of Ward 10, Junction City |
| Four | Western/southwestern portion of modern Union Parish, including Shiloh & Bernice |
| Five | Southern/southeastern portion of Union Parish, including Downsville, Point, & Walnut Grove |
| Six | North–central portion of Union Parish, including old Union Cross Roads (now Oakland), Truxno, & Conway |
| Seven | Originally included the large swath of land extending from the Ward's Chapel Road to the southeastern border of Union Parish between Bayous D'Loutre and D'Arbonne, including Colson's, Crossroads, Rocky Branch, and Port Union |
| Eight | Originally beginning southeast of Marion on Bayou D'Loutre, extending due east to the Ouachita River, south to the mouth of the Loutre, then up the Loutre to the beginning, including Ouachita City, Haile, Spencer, & Loch Lomond. |
| Nine | Between about 1880 and the mid-1900s, designated as the region immediatly southwest of Farmerville, specifically Township 20 North, Range 1 West, plus the adjoining region in T21N, R1W south of Bayou D'Arbonne and the Middle Prong of the D'Arbonne. In the mid-1900s, Ward 9 was moved to include the northwestern portion of the parish. |
| Ten | Designated as the extreme northwestern corner of parish, including Junction City and old Randolph from the latter 1800s until the mid-1900s. Abolished in the mid-1900s and region put into the new Ward 9. |
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