1839 Creation of Union Parish Louisiana by the Louisiana Legislature Submitted by: T. D. Hudson Date of Submission: 11/2002 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================== ================================================================================== 1839 Creation of Union Parish Louisiana by the Louisiana Legislature Source: Official Journal of the 1839 Louisiana Legislature: Act Twelve of the 14th Legislature (1839) of Louisiana ================================================================================== ================================================================================== EXPLANATION: As shown by the following act, the 1839 Louisiana Legislature officially created Union Parish Louisiana from Ouachita Parish on 13 March 1839. Section 3 of this act specifically appointed the following early settlers as a pool to help determine the police jury districts: W. Underwood [Wiley Underwood] Peter J. Harvey John Taylor Mathew Wood Stephen Calvin [sic - Colvin] Philip Feazle Daniel Payne William W. Farmer After the legislature passed this act on March 13 and prior to May 15 when the first official record of Union Parish was made, the Louisiana governor appointed John Taylor as parish judge. He had formerly served as the sheriff of Butler County Alabama; Taylor married Jane Wood, the adopted daughter of Matthew Wood and blood niece of Daniel Payne (Wood married his sister Hannah and adopted her children). William W. Farmer is the earliest justice of the peace on record for Union Parish. Farmer later served as Louisiana's Lieutenant Governor and died in office in 1854 from yellow fever. His father, War of 1812 veteran Mills Farmer, was one of the earliest settlers of the region now known as Union Parish. Mills Farmer settled in Ouachita Parish by 1814, when he joined a local company of men and went south and served around Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The Union Parish police jury named the parish seat "Farmerville" after Mills Farmer. Matthew Wood lived in Georgia and south Louisiana during the early 1800s, but returned to Twiggs County Georgia in the 1810s. He was one of the early settlers of Fort Dale in Butler County Alabama, where he operated a tavern in the 1820s. He moved north into Lowndes County in the early 1830s. Wood left Alabama and moved to "Washataw" Parish Louisiana (now Union) in 1835 or 1836. He returned to Lowndes during the winter of 1836/1837, sold his Lowndes County plantation, and then returned to north Louisiana with a large group of settlers from the surrounding Alabama counties. This appears to have been the first large-scale migration into what is now Union Parish Louisiana. Those who came to Louisiana with Matthew Wood on his return trip in January 1837 included his brother-in-law Daniel Payne, his son-in-law John Taylor, David Ward, William Ham, James H. Seale, etc. This group sold their property in Alabama in the early part of January 1837, with Wood's on January 14th being the last. They made the trip to north Louisiana from Lowndes County Alabama in less than one month, for many of this group were in Monroe, Louisiana on 14 February 1837 purchasing government land at the Ouachita Land Office. ================================================================================== ================================================================================== Transcription from the Official Journal of the 1839 Louisiana Legislature ================================================================================== ================================================================================== ACTS Passed At the First Session of the 14th Legislature of THE STATE OF LOUISIANA Begun and Held IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS January 7, 1839 Published by Authority New Orleans J. C. de St. Romes, State Printer 1839 ************************* Page 22 No. 12 - AN ACT to form a new parish, to be called the parish of Union Section 1 - Limits of the parish. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That all the Territory in the parish of Ouachita within the following boundaries, to wit: commencing on the dividing line between the parishes of Claiborne and Ouachita, at the point where the Line between townships 17 and 18, crossing thence on said township line east, until it strikes the Bayou Chudrie, thence down the Chudrie to where it empties into the bayou Darbonne, from thence in a direct line to Parker's landing on the Ouachita river, from thence up the river to the Arkansas line, from thence a west course down the state line, until it strikes the dividing line between Ouachita and Claiborne, and thence south on said line to the place of beginning, do from and constitute a new parish, to be called the parish of Union. Sect. 2. - Appointment of parish officers authoris'd. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the Governor immediately after the passage of this act, to nominate, and by and with theadvice and consent of the Senate, to appoint for the said parish, a Parish Judge, Sheriff, and all other officers that may be necessary therefor, whose powers and duties shall be the same as those of other judges, sheriffs, and like officers throughout the state. Sect. 3. - Parish judge to convene the justices of the peace, and other persons named. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the parish judge of said parish of Union, immediately after he receives his commission, to convene the several justices of the peace within the limits of said parish, together with the following private individuals, to wit: W. Underwood, Peter J. Harvey, John Taylor, Mathew Wood, Stephen Calvin [sic - Colvin], Philip Feazle, and Daniel Payne, and William W. Farmer, to meet at a convenient time and place, a majority of whom shall form a quorum, for the purpose of laying off not less than five, nor more than twelve police jury districts in said parish: PROVIDED HOWEVER, that when said districts are once established, and the police jury organized, they shall have power to change the same, or establish new ones, as may be deemed expedient. Sect. 4. - Election of members of Police Jury. Be it further enacted, etc., That the parish judge of the parish of Union, as soon as the police jury districts shall have been formed, as required by the foregoing section of this act, and after giving regular notice of time and place, shall cause an election to be held before a justice of the peace in each police district, for the election of a member of the police jury, provided any legal voter shall be eligible. Sect. 5. - Police Jury to establish the seat of Justice and provide for public buildings. Be it further enacted, etc., That the parish judge shall convene the members of the police jury immediately after their election, at a convenient place, for the purpose of locating a permanent seat of justice for said parish, and causing to be erected thereat, the necessary public buildings. Sect. 6. - Parish Judge to keep his office at seat of Justice. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the parish judge of the parish of Union, to keep his office at the seat of justice of said parish. Sect. 7. - Annexed to the Seventh Judicial District. - District Court where holden. - Clerk. Be it further enacted, etc., That the parish of Union shall form a part of the seventh Judicial District of the State, and the District Court for said parish shall be held at the seat of justice thereof, on the third Monday of March and September, and it shall be the duty of the District Judge of said District, to appoint a clerk of the District Court of said parish, who shall also be clerk of the parish court. Sect. 8. - Transfer of suits pending. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the clerks of the District, Parish, and Probate Courts of the Parish of Ouachita, to transmit to the clerks of the District, Parish, and Probate Courts of the parish of Union, all petitions, answers, documents, and papers appertaining to suits, wherein the defendant or defendants reside within the parish of Union. Sect. 9. - Judge of the parish of Ouachita to make copies of certain Acts to be transcribed in a well bound book and paraphed; to be transmitted to the parish Judge of Union. How paid. Be it further enacted, etc., That as soon as may be, after the passage of this Act, it shall be the duty of the parish judge of the parish of Ouachita, to make a true copy from the record of all acts, deeds, and title papers of record in his office, relative to or affecting landed property or slaves situated within the limits of the parish of Union, which the said parish judge shall cause to be transcribed in a well bound book or books, paraphed ne varietur at the top and the foot of each page, accompanied by a certificate at the end of each book, with the seal of said parish judge affixed to each which shall be made, and with the original acts and title deeds, be transmitted to the parish judge of the parish of Union, at the expense of the last mentioned parish. Sect. 10. - Elections for state and federal officers, how conducted. Be it further enacted, etc., That the parish of Union shall remaind united with the parish of Ouachita in elections for all state and federal officers, and commissioners of election shall, immediately after the polls are closed and the votes counted out, transmit a certified statement of the vote of the parish of Union, to the parish judge of Ouachita, who shall receive and count the same, as part of the vote of the last parish. Sect. 11. - Taxes of 1838 how collected, and by whom. And to be paid over. Be it further enacted, etc., That the sheriff of the parish of Union shall collect the taxes against the citizens residing within the limits of the new Parish for the year (1838) that shall remain unpaid when the sheriff of Union shall receive his commission; and to enable him to do so, the sheriff of Ouachita shall furnish him with a certified list of the names of such persons in the new parish as may have been assessed, together with the amount of tax against them, which taxes, as fast as collected, shall e paid over by the sheriff of the parish of Union to the state and parish treasurers respectively. Sect. 12. - Sheriff's official bond. Be it further enacted, etc., That the sheriff of the parish of Union shall give bond in the penal sum of five thousand dollars, with similar securities and under the same conditions, as are required of other sheriffs, for the faithful performances of the duties of their office, and for the collecting and accounting for all taxes and fines, and all other sums, which it may be his duty to collect. Sect. 13. - School fund. Be it further enacted, etc., That the school fund of said parish of Union, shall be provided for in teh same manner as for the other parishes of the state. Sect. 14. - Rules practice Ouachita extended to Union, in relation to judicial sales. And be it further enacted, etc., That the existing laws and rules of practice for the several courts held in the parish of Ouachita, relative to public notices and advertisements, and in relation to all judicial sales made in the parish of Ouachita, shall be and exist in full force in the parish of Union. Approved, March 13, 1839. ############################################################# File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/union/history/creation.txt