Orleans Territory

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Orleans Territory was a historic, organized territory of the United States formed out of the first subdivision of the Louisiana Purchase. All of the Louisiana Purchase south of the 33rd parallel became the Territory of Orleans, and the remainder became the District of Louisiana. (The District of Louisiana was later renamed the Territory of Louisiana, and still later, when the Territory of Orleans became the U.S. state of Louisiana, the Territory of Louisiana was renamed the Missouri Territory.) Orleans Territory was created on October 1, 1804 by the Organic Act of March 26, 1804, and became Louisiana, the 18th state on April 30, 1812.

On April 10, 1805, the Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties (starting from the southeast corner moving west and north): Orleans County, LaFourche County, German Coast, Acadia County, Iberville County, Attakapas County, Pointe Coupée County, Opelousas County, Rapides County, Concordia County, Natchitoches County and Ouachita County. The Florida Parishes on the east bank of the Mississippi were not included in Orleans Territory at this time, as they were in the Spanish territory of West Florida until they were annexed in 1810. The western boundary with Spanish Texas was not fully defined until the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819. A strip of land known as the Sabine Free State just east of the Sabine River served as a neutral ground buffer area from about 1807 until 1819.

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William C. C. Claiborne was appointed the first and only governor of the Orleans Territory. He later became the first governor of the state of Louisiana.

There were two Territorial secretaries, James Brown (1804–1807) and Thomas Bolling Robertson (1807–1811). Daniel Clark became the first Territorial Delegate to the U.S. Congress, in December 1806.

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