When was richland parish established

Richland Parish is home to the first parishwide public library in the State of Louisiana. The library was built in The Lambda Kappa Club of Rayville established the library. Rhymes donated the original building in memory of his wife, Nonnie Roark Rhymes. The parish has a total area of square miles 1, km 2 , of which, square miles 1, km 2 of it is land and 6 square miles 16 km 2 of it 1.

As of the census [2] of , there were 20, people, 7, households, and 5, families residing in the parish. The racial makeup of the parish was There were 7, households out of which The average household size was 2. In the parish the population was spread out with The median age was 36 years. For every females there were For every females age 18 and over, there were About Delhi Rayville. Familypedia Explore. Create or edit article. Improve article; tree, bdm, etc Form:Person Semi-manual method Advanced form rarely used.

Surnames People by decade Birth decade Death decade. Forums, blogs. For the Southern States of : Arkansas , Louisiana , Mississippi Alabama , Tennessee , Kentucky You never know who you might meet and what family data they may share with you -- it could start a whole new branch of the family! We also use the mailing lists to announce our website updates.

Visit us on FaceBook. Birth Records. Military Records. Parish Records. Family Bibles and Records. History Topics. Settlers were of all types, and bitterness was rife between Democrats and Republicans. On August 11, , while there was talk of creating a new parish, outrages which each party blamed upon the other occurred in Rayville. Fifteen whites were said to have kidnapped, and mutilated the ears of a deaf and dumb negro.

Rumors of white men living with negro women and similar violations of the unwritten code permeated that section of what was then Morehouse Parish. Franklin and Union parishes, particularly those portions now included in Richland, were reputedly very lawless. Editor Lewis Zim of the Winnsboro paper, the Franklin Sun, complained that the district judge refused to go to the parish court without a guard.

President Johnson was asked to send United States soldiers to the region, a garrison at that time being stationed in Monroe.

This account was not wholly believed, and the soldiers were not sent. Influences were even then at work for the creation of a new parish. Senator Ray, in the fall of , had introduced a bill in the legislature to form the parish and call it Richland. This project was attacked by Democratic newspapers of the district, but naturally, their objections were futile.

A Republican paper, the Monroe Intelligencer, asserted that citizens of the proposed parish had signed a petition for its creation, suggesting Rayville as parish-seat. The idea was not new, even with Democratic opposition. Shortly after the war, a Morehouse Parish legislator had entered a bill for a similar purpose.

At that time, with John Ray as one of the prime movers and largest property holders, it can scarcely be doubted that Richland was created almost purely for political purposes. The Republicans, in spite of being all-powerful, left no stone unturned which might add to their influence. In November, the new parish chose its first officers. Olivier was selected as representative; W.

McIntosh, parish judge; A. Liddell, sheriff; J. Pitts, clerk; W. Mangham, recorder; Newton Harris, assessor. This was the Richland Beacon, established at Rayville about , and still in the hands of the Mangham family. Wiley P. Mangham and T. Mangham were both to be associated with this paper and with the Delhi Chronicle which had a few years of existence in the next decade.

Because of the fertility of its soil, Richland developed in economic wealth and resources along with, or perhaps in spite of its political growth. In the s, Judge Henry Bry, early settler and prominent jurist of Ouachita Parish had prophesied that the swamps and marshes of Richland, once they were properly drained, would be the most fruitful soil of all northeast Louisiana, a prophesy which has indeed come true.

The parish did not become a region of great plantations. Much of the property of Stephen Girard in the section was left, after his death, which occurred before the Civil War , to the cities of New Orleans and Philadelphia, which prevented to a certain extent, the expansion of the fertile region. During the post-war years, the destruction of the railroad had been a handicap.

The rebuilding of the line was started at the Monroe end, and with floods inundating the lower sections, many times very little of the track in Richland except in the highlands at Bayou Macon remained above water. The railroad company, like its property, had gone bankrupt.

Stubbs, George A. Waddill, and William F. Gordon, and the process of reconstruction finally began. From the latter point to Vicksburg, travel was effected by stagecoach, which required fourteen hours.

The railroad gave the parish an outlet for its cotton and other products, and a steady growth began which has increased throughout the years.

Situated in about the center of Richland. Parish some 35 miles east of Monroe, La. Served by two railway systems, the Illinois Central running east, and west, and the Missouri-Pacific north and south, as well as motor buses connecting it with all points in every direction, the little community, with a population of 2, census , is the shipping point for the thousands of bales of cotton ginned in the section. Business houses of every type have been established to serve the citizens within an area of some twenty miles, and while the discovery of the Richland gas field was of great benefit to individuals on whose property wells were drilled, it did not change the town from an agricultural center to that of a manufacturing one.

This was probably due in part to its proximity to Monroe, La. While the town enjoys the benefits of natural gas as cheap fuel, it is used for domestic purposes almost entirely. There is much more to the thriving little town than is seen from the main highway which skirts its edge.

While no particular type of architecture characterizes the homes or Rayville, the well-kept lawns and flower gardens are evidence of an intense civic pride for which its citizens are noted. Rayville was selected as parish seat when Richland was created by an act of the Louisiana legislature in the year and was incorporated as a town in It received its name from John Ray, an early settler and large property owner in the vicinity, who was instrumental in having the site chosen as the seat of government rather than the village of Girard, which was located on much higher ground and therefore seemed a more desirable place to build a courthouse.

A frame building was constructed for the purpose at the time and served until the present courthouse was built in the year The town suffered from several disastrous fires in its early days, and floods have caused considerable property damage, but the indomitable courage of the people surmounted these difficulties, and floods at least, have been controlled by the splendid levee systems that have been constructed in Louisiana.

The progressive spirit of the citizens of Rayville is shown in the public utilities and civic improvements that are constantly being added to. The electric light plant and waterworks system are municipally owned, and the town has more miles of concrete sidewalk than any other place of its size in the entire state.

Great care was taken when these walks were laid to save the trees which lend Rayville its chief charm. A splendid fire-proof high school with a modern and well-equipped gymnasium and a grammar school with a commodious auditorium adjoining, provide excellent educational facilities, and on the western outskirts of the town are the fairgrounds, with a municipal swimming pool and dance hall.

Rayville enjoys the distinction of being the home of the first Folk School held in America. The idea originated with Miss Mary Mims, noted Louisiana community worker, who had studied their successful operation in Denmark. Shortly after the organization of a club known as the Richland Parish Guidance Association, which was the outgrowth of classes held throughout the parish by Dr. Kreager, at that time connected with the extension department of Louisiana State University.

Miss Mims visited the community, and members of the club, many of them among the most influential men and women of the parish, asked for suggestions for a worthwhile project that would be parish-wide in scope.

The answer was a Folk School. The efforts of the citizens of Rayville in making the first Folk School a success were productive of so much good, that the idea has spread, and schools of this type are now held yearly in many parishes of Louisiana. Many things were taught the people who came from far and near to be instructed as well as entertained.

Noted speakers gave lectures on agriculture, home planning, dairying, and the like, and exhibits of hats, baskets, table mats, etc. Another worthwhile exhibit was a group of early American ladder-back chairs of solid maple, which grows in small quantities in the wooded areas of the parish. These chairs, made by Mr. Sharbono, were done entirely by hand with the use of a pocket and draw knife.

Citizens of Rayville point with pride to their comprehensive and growing library. The library at that time was six months old. During the flood of , the librarian, who was a grandmother, donned hip boots and waded to the library every day, using a boat where the water was too deep to walk in.

The building where the books were kept was also used as a drugstore and a shelter for Negro refugees, it being the only public building that was kept open during those troublous times. In , a small brick library building was erected on the school grounds at Rayville by Mr.

Rhymes as a memorial to his wife, Mrs. Nonnie Roark Rhymes. In , after the passage of a law providing for parish libraries with one central location, Richland was the first parish in Louisiana to take advantage of it. The atmosphere of the place is reminiscent of what one usually finds in a small college town. Delhi, LA. As early as , James Gwinn had built a house a few miles west of the present site of Delhi, while W.