Brooklyn Grey Kelley had reason enough to be curious about these questions: Why does Louisiana have parishes, not counties? And will that ever change?
The 9-year-old, fourth grader at Zachary Elementary School was herself named for a place — Brooklyn, a borough in New York — as is her mom, Sydnie Kelley, named for a city in Australia, and siblings Everest and Dallas. So place names mean something in her family.
“I was learning about it in school,” Brooklyn recollected about learning that only Louisiana has “parishes” instead of “counties.” Forty-eight other states have counties; Alaska alone uses “boroughs” instead of counties.
A host of books in the Louisiana Room of the Dupre Library at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette treat the subject of parishes. Most say that when the French (1699-1762) and then the Spanish (1763-1801) ruled Louisiana, they were predominantly Catholic countries. The “parish” was both the seat of religious control and because church and state were entwined, they came to be accepted in the place name as civil boundaries.
“The largest parish in the Roman Catholic Church was the territory in Louisiana,” it was explained in “Why Louisiana Has Parishes,” a 1947 publication, copyright by Andrew Nevard of Cajun Publishing Co. in New Orleans. The parish seat of religious control was St. Louis Cathedral. In the mid-1700s, the territory was split between the parish of Quebec and the parish of New Orleans. Later, the Diocese of New Orleans placed a church in Natchez, Mississippi; the Orleans Parish was limited to the Isle of New Orleans.
In 1803, the U.S. purchased Louisiana from the French. The following year, Louisiana was split into two political divisions — the Territory of Louisiana to the north, Territory of Orleans to the south. By year’s end, L.E. Chandler wrote in “A Study of Parish Government in Louisiana,” published by Southeastern Louisiana College in 1947, Louisiana’s legislative councils created 12 local subdivisions or “counties.”
On Jan. 26, 1806, 19 parishes were organized: Ascension, Assumption, Attakapas, Avoyelles, Baton Rouge, Concordia, Iberville, Interior, LaFourche, Natchitoches, Orleans, Ouachita, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, and St. Landry.
Although the parishes recognized the church’s ecclesiastical history — they followed religious parish lines — Louisiana Catholics embraced them as civil subdivisions. They levied taxes, held elections and were similar to districts drawn by the Spanish. Church parishes had priests, civil parishes had sheriffs, coroners, assessors and clerks of court. Chandler wrote that the parish names reflected Louisiana’s history, including names of explorers, some Native American origins, the Acadians and, importantly, the names of saints and church names.
Michael Martin, who teaches Louisiana history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said that affinity between church and citizenry was not always voluntary. He said both the French, then the Spanish, legally required newcomers to convert to Catholicism if they weren't already practicing members of the church. It was mandated in the French Code Noir of 1724.
The first three rules in the code expelled Jews from the colony, required enslavers to provide "religious instruction" to the enslaved and permitted "the exercise of the Roman Catholic creed only. Every other mode of worship is prohibited." The Spanish enforced the mandate more vigorously than the French.
“It would be correct to say that the majority of the population in Louisiana — really the vast majority of the population — professed fealty to the Catholic Church at the time of the 1803 sale of Louisiana to the United States,” Martin said. “And our parishes, as opposed to counties, result from that.”
Martin said the parish-county dispute involved more than familiarity with the ecclesiastical divisions. Claiborne and the French and Spanish Creoles of Louisiana did not get along well, especially early in his tenure as territorial governor, he said. “In other words, sure, there was a cultural thing happening here, but it may also have reflected a political division.”
Brooklyn said she has a favorite parish — East Baton Rouge, where she’s lived most of her life.
Martin said it and other parishes will probably remain parishes.
“I think Louisianans would be more likely to repeal the homestead exemption than switch to counties. In short, that's not happening,” he said.
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