Grant Parish, Louisiana

Grant Parish, Louisiana
The Grant Parish Courthouse in Colfax
Location in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Founded	1869
Named for	U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant
Seat	Colfax
Largest city	Colfax
Area
• Total	665 sq mi (1,721 km2)
• Land	656 sq mi (1,671 km2)
• Water	19 sq mi (50 km2), 2.93%
Population
• (2010)	22,309
• Density	33.5/sq mi (13/km²)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5

The Grant Parish Library is located near the courthouse.

The Grant Parish Sheriff's Office is located behind the courthouse.

Colfax Reunion Nursing and Rehabilitation Home at 366 Webb Smith Drive in Colfax serves all of Grant Parish.

Grant Parish (French: Paroisse de Grant) is a parish located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Colfax (pronounced CAHL-facks). It is part of the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area and Red River Valley. From 1940-1960, the parish had a dramatic population loss, as many African Americans left in the Great Migration to seek better opportunities elsewhere. Such migration continued until about 1970. The parish was also one of the eleven Reconstruction parishes created, created from Winn and Rapides parishes.

The 2000 population was 18,698. Since then, the parish has had the highest growth rate in central Louisiana, as the economy has shifted. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,309, an increase of 8.6 percent from the 2000 Census.^[1]

History

Grant Parish was originally a part of the more populous Rapides Parish to the south. Prior to the American Civil War, the center of activity focused upon "Calhoun's Landing," named for the cotton and sugar planter Meredith Calhoun, a native of South Carolina. Calhoun also published the former National Democrat newspaper in what became Colfax, the seat of government of the new parish.^[2]

Grant was one of several new parishes created by the Reconstruction legislature in an attempt to build the Republican Party. Founded in 1869, it had a slight majority of freedmen. It was named for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.^[3] The parish seat of Colfax was named for Grant's first vice president, Schuyler M. Colfax (pronounced COAL-facks) of Indiana. However, the town of Colfax is pronounced CAHL-facks. The parish encompassed both cotton plantations and pinewoods. It was one of several areas along the Red River that had considerable violence during Reconstruction, as whites tried to maintain social control.

The gubernatorial election of 1872 was disputed, leading to both parties' certifying their slates of local officers. The election was finally settled in favor of the Republican candidates, but the decision was disputed in certain areas. As social tensions rose, Republican officials took their places at the courthouse in Colfax. They were defended by freedmen and state militia (mostly made up of freedmen), who feared a Democratic Party takeover of the parish. Amid widespread rumors, whites organized a militia and advanced on the courthouse on Easter Sunday, 1873. In the ensuing violence, three whites and 120-150 blacks were killed, including 50 that night who were held as prisoners. Leading 20th-century historians renamed the Colfax Riot, the original state designation, as the Colfax Massacre. The total number of freedmen deaths were never established because some of the bodies were thrown into the river and woods.

The white militia was led by Christopher Columbus Nash, a Confederate officer who had been a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio. It consisted of veterans from Grant and neighboring parishes. The following year, Nash gathered many of the white militia members as the basis of the first chapter of the White League. Other chapters quickly grew up across the state. The White League's organized violence in support of the Democratic Party included widespread intimidation of black voters. The League was integral to white Democrats' regaining power in the state by 1876. Soon after, they effectively disfranchised most blacks, a situation that persisted until after the Civil Rights-era legislation of the mid-1960s.

Population and politics

Grant Parish had the highest growth rate in central Louisiana in the five-year period between 2001 and 2006, according to projections of the United States Census Bureau. The parish has had a 4.3 percent growth rate compared to 1.7 percent for its larger neighbor, Rapides Parish. Some neighboring parishes, including Winn, have experienced population decreases.^[4]

Grant Parish is heavily Republican in contested elections. Mitt Romney polled 7,082 votes (81.7 percent) in his 2012 race against the Democrat U.S. President Barack H. Obama, who trailed with 1,422 votes (16.4 percent).^[5] In 2008, U.S. Senator John S. McCain of Arizona swept the parish too, with 6,907 votes (80.7 percent) to Obama's 1,474 (17.2 percent).^[6]

In 1996, the Republican Robert J. Dole narrowly won in Grant Parish over U.S. President Bill Clinton, 3,117 votes (42.8 percent) to 2,980 (40.9 percent). Ross Perot, founder of his Reform Party, polled another 1,055 (14.5 percent).^[7] In 1992, George Herbert Walker Bush carried Grant Parish in his unsuccessful bid for relection. He polled 3,214 votes (40.8 percent) to Bill Clinton's 3,122 (39.6 percent) and Perot's 1,174 (14.9 percent).^[8]

The last Democrat to win in Grant Parish at the presidential level was former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia in his 1976 defeat of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., with Robert Dole as the Republican vice-presidential choice.^[9]

Geography

The parish has a total area of 665 square miles (1,720 km²), of which 645 square miles (1,670 km²) is land and 19 square miles (49 km²) (2.93%) is water.

Major highways

• U.S. Highway 71
• U.S. Highway 165
• U.S. Highway 167
• Louisiana Highway 8
• Louisiana Highway 34
• Louisiana Highway 122
• Louisiana Highway 123
• Louisiana Highway 471
• Louisiana Highway 500

Adjacent parishes

• Winn Parish (north)
• La Salle Parish (east)
• Rapides Parish (south)
• Natchitoches Parish (west)

		Winn Parish
	Natchitoches Parish		La Salle Parish
	Grant Parish, Louisiana
		Rapides Parish

National protected area

• Kisatchie National Forest (part)

Demographics

As of the census^[12] of 2000, there were 18,698 people, 7,073 households, and 5,276 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile (11/km²). There were 8,531 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile (5/km²). The racial makeup of the parish was 85.43% White, 11.88% Black or African American, 0.89% Native American, 0.14% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.36% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 1.14% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The decreases in population from 1910–1920, and from 1940–1960, were chiefly caused by different phases of the Great Migration, as African Americans left segregation and oppression of the South to seek better opportunities in the North, during the first phase, and in the West, especially California's defense industry, in the second phase. Tens of thousands of migrants left Louisiana during times of agricultural difficulties and the collapse of agricultural labor after mechanization.^[13]

In 2000, there were 7,073 households out of which 36.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.20% were married couples living together, 12.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.40% were non-families. 22.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the parish the population was spread out with 28.30% under the age of 18, 7.90% from 18 to 24, 28.10% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, and 12.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 96.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.00 males.

The median income for a household in the parish was $29,622, and the median income for a family was $34,878. Males had a median income of $31,235 versus $20,470 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $14,410. About 16.90% of families and 21.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.30% of those under age 18 and 16.20% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

The Federal Bureau of Prisons U.S. Penitentiary, Pollock is located in an unincorporated area in the parish, near Pollock.^[14][15]

Cities and towns

Map of Grant Parish, Louisiana With Municipal Labels

• Colfax
• Creola
• Dry Prong
• Georgetown
• Montgomery
• Pollock

Education

Public schools in Grant Parish are operated by the Grant Parish School Board.

Notable people

• W. K. Brown, state representative from Grant Parish from 1960 to 1972
• Billy Ray Chandler, state representative from Grant Parish, 2006-2012
• Preston Allen "Pap" Dean, Jr., cartoonist and Colfax native
• Jesse C. Deen, former state representative from primarily Bossier Parish; reared in the Hargis Community near Montgomery
• P. Elmo Futrell, Jr., mayor of Pineville, 1962–1966, was originally from Grant Parish.
• Stephen Lee "Steve" Gunn, former mayor of Montgomery; represented Grant Parish in the legislature as an Independent from 1992–1996
• Leonard R. "Pop" Hataway, sheriff of Grant Parish, 1976 to 2008; member of the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Paroles; member of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame^[16]
• Ed Head (1918–1980), Major League Baseball player who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers
• Caledonia Palestine Tyson Long (1860–1913), the mother of Governors Huey Pierce Long, Jr., and Earl Kemp Long, was born in Grant Parish.^[17]
• Wyatt Luther Nugent (1891-1936) - Sheriff of Grant Parish killed in the line of duty, along with a deputy, Delmer Lee Brunson^[18]
• W.L. Rambo, member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature from Georgetown.
• Joe D. Smith, Jr., the publisher of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk from 1962 until his retirement in 1996, was a native of Grant Parish.
• Richard S. Thompson (1916-1997), state representative from Grant Parish from 1972 to 1984
• Russ Springer, Major League baseball player

National Guard

A Company 199TH FSB (Forward Support Battalion) resides in Colfax, Louisiana. This unit deployed twice to Iraq as part of the 256TH IBCT in 2004-5 and 2010.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Grant Parish, Louisiana

References

v t e Municipalities and communities of Grant Parish, Louisiana, United States Parish seat: Colfax Towns Colfax Montgomery Pollock Villages Creola Dry Prong Georgetown CDPs Prospect Rock Hill Other unincorporated communities Bentley Hargis Packton Rochelle Selma Verda Zion

v t e  State of Louisiana Baton Rouge (capital) Topics Index History Music Louisianans Constitution Governors Lieutenant Governors Secretaries of State Attorneys General Legislature Supreme Court Congressional districts Symbols Visitor attractions Society Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics Regions Acadiana Ark-La-Tex Central Louisiana Florida Parishes Greater New Orleans Northwest Louisiana North Louisiana Southwest Louisiana Cities Alexandria Baton Rouge Bossier City Hammond Houma Kenner Lafayette Lake Charles Monroe New Iberia New Orleans Opelousas Ponchatoula Ruston Shreveport Slidell Sulphur CDPs Chalmette Harvey LaPlace Marrero Metairie Moss Bluff Terrytown Metros Alexandria Baton Rouge Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Lafayette Lake Charles Monroe New Orleans Shreveport‑Bossier City Parishes Acadia Allen Ascension Assumption Avoyelles Beauregard Bienville Bossier Caddo Calcasieu Caldwell Cameron Catahoula Claiborne Concordia DeSoto East Baton Rouge East Carroll East Feliciana Evangeline Franklin Grant Iberia Iberville Jackson Jefferson Jefferson Davis La Salle Lafayette Lafourche Lincoln Livingston Madison Morehouse Natchitoches Orleans Ouachita Plaquemines Pointe Coupee Rapides Red River Richland Sabine St. Bernard St. Charles St. Helena St. James St. John the Baptist St. Landry St. Martin St. Mary St. Tammany Tangipahoa Tensas Terrebonne Union Vermilion Vernon Washington Webster West Baton Rouge West Carroll West Feliciana Winn

Coordinates: 31°35′N 92°34′W / 31.59°N 92.56°W / 31.59; -92.56