Rapides Parish Boundary Changes; Rapides, Louisiana
Date of item: 1804-1807
Submitter: LA GenWeb Archives Project
Source: This information is taken from County-Parish Boundaries
In Louisiana , Prepared by The Historical Records Survey Division
of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration;
1939.
Date: reformatted to text file, 7 Jun 2004, Jo Branch

**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************

Rapides Parish Boundary Changes

56.  Or. Terr. A., 1804-5, 1st session of Legislative Council,
Chap. IIV, pp. 144-208.  Approved April 10, 1805.
For dividing the territory of Orleans into Counties, and establishing
courts of inferior jurisdiction therein.
Sec. 1. . . . That the said territory shall be and the same is hereby
divided into twelve counties, to be called the Counties of Orleans,
German Coast, Acadia, La Fourche, Iberville, Pointe-Coupes, Atacapas, 
Oplousas, Natchitoches, Rapides, Ouachitta and Concordia, and that the
said several counties be, and the same are hereby bounded as described
as follows, to wit:  The County of Orleans shall comprehend all that
portion of the country lying on both sides of the River Mississippi
from the Balize to the beginning of the Parish of Saint Charles,
including the Parishes of Saint Bernard and Saint Louis; the County
of German Coast shall comprehend the Parishes of Saint Charles and
Saint John the Baptist, commonly called the first and second German
Coasts; the County of Acadia shall comprehend the Parishes of Saint
James, and the Ascension, commonly called the first and second Acadian
Coasts; the County of La Fourche shall comprehend the Parish of
Assumption; the County of Iberville shall comprehend the Parish
of Saint Gabriel, and so much of the Parish of Saint Bernard as lies
within the territory of Orleans; the County of Pointe-Coupee shall
comprehend the Parish of Saint Francis; the County of Concordia shall 
comprehend all that portion of country lying within the following 
boundaries, to wit:  Beginning at the mouth of Red River, and ascending
the same to Black River; then along Black River to the Tensa River, and
along the same to the Tensa Lake; then by a right line, easterly to the 
Mississippi, and down the same to the point of beginning; the County of 
Ouachita shall comprehend all that country commonly called and known
by the name of the Ouachita settlements; the County of Rapides shall 
comprehend the settlements of Rapides, Avoyelles, Catahoula, Bayou Boeuf, 
Bayou Robert, and all other settlements which now are or may be
made in the vicinity thereof, and which may in the opinion of the
superior court lie nearer or more conveniently to the court house or
seat of justice of the said County of Rapides than to the court house,
or seat of justice of any other county; the County of Natchitoches
shall comprehend the Parish of Saint Francis; the County of Opelousas
shall comprehend the Parish of Saint Landry, commonly called the parish
of Opelousas; and the County of Attacapas shall comprehend the Parish
of Saint Martin, commonly called the Parish of Attacapas.  The county
court of each county respectively shall fix and determine the seat of
justice thereof, in such a manner as may be most convenient for the 
inhabitants at large.

57.  Or. Terr. A., 1807, 2nd session of 1st Legislature, Chap. 1,
p. 2. Approved March 31, 1807.
Supplementary to an Act, entitled "An Act providing for the Superior
Court going Circuit." and for establishing Courts of Inferior
Jurisdiction.
Sec. 9. . . . That the said territory shall be and the same is hereby
divided into nineteen parishes as follows, to wit:
The City of New-Orleans with its precincts as they formerly stood,
shall form the first parish.
The Parish of Saint Bernard, commonly called the Terre aux Boeufs,
shall form the second;
The third parish called the Parish of Plaquemines, shall comprehend
all that part of the country on both sides of the Mississippi below
the Parish St. Bernard as far as the Balize;
The Parish of St. Charles shall form the fourth parish;
The Parish of St. John Baptist shall form the fifth;
The Parish of St. James shall form the sixth;
The Parish of the Ascension, shall form the seventh;
The settlement of La Fourche shall be divided into two parishes the
nearest of which to the river, shall form the eighth parish, under
the name of the parish of the Assumption, and shall include one half
of the population;
The ninth parish shall consist of the other settlements in the lower
part of La Fourche, and shall be called the Interior Parish;
The Parish of Iberville, including the settlements of Galvez-town,
shall form the tenth;
That part of the territory known by the name of Baton Rouge, from
that part which is opposite the Bayou of Manchac until the lowest
part of the mouth of the False River, shall form the eleventh;
Pointe Coupee shall comprehend the Parish of St. Francis, and shall
form the twelfth;
The County of Concordia, as now established, shall form the thirteenth;
The settlements of Ouachita, shall form the fourteenth;
The settlement of Rapides and its former dependencies, shall form
the fifteenth;
The Avoyelles shall form the sixteenth;
The Parish of Nachitoches shall comprehend the Parish of Saint Francis,
and shall form the seventeenth;
The Parish of Saint Landry in the Opelousas, shall form the eighteenth;
And the Parish of Attakapas, called the Parish of Saint Martin, shall
form the nineteenth;
Sec. 32. . . .That the division of the territory into counties shall
subsist for the purpose of making the election of the representatives
of the territory, and levying the territorial taxes.
Sec. 33. . . . That the act entitled "An act for dividing the territory
of Orleans into counties, and establishing courts of inferior
jurisdiction therein," be and the same in hereby repealed, except in
what is expressly preserved by this act.