Union Parish, Louisiana

Not to be confused with Union, Louisiana in St. James Parish.

Union Parish (French: Paroisse de l'Union) is a parish located in the north central section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,107.^[1] The parish seat is Farmerville.^[2] The parish was created on March 13, 1839, from a section of Ouachita Parish. Its boundaries have changed four times since then (in 1845, 1846, 1867, and 1873, respectively).^[3]

Union Parish, Louisiana
Parish
Parish of Union
Union Parish Courthouse in Farmerville
Location within the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location within the U.S.
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Region	North Louisiana
Founded	March 13, 1839
Named after	Union of American states
Parish seat (and largest town)	Farmerville
Area
• Total	2,340 km2 (905 sq mi)
• Land	2,270 km2 (877 sq mi)
• Water	70 km2 (28 sq mi)
• percentage	7.9 km2 (3.06 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	21,107
• Density	9.0/km2 (23/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	318
Congressional district	4th

Lake D'Arbonne west of Farmerville.

Union General Hospital in Farmerville.

Union Parish is part of the Monroe, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 905 square miles (2,340 km²), of which 877 square miles (2,270 km²) is land and 28 square miles (73 km²) (3.1%) is water.^[4]

Geographically north central Louisiana, Union Parish more closely resembles Lincoln Parish, to which Union is deeply tied culturally, politically, and educationally.^{[citation needed]} Union Parish, along with Lincoln Parish to the southwest and Union County, Arkansas to the north, form the eastern boundary of the Ark-La-Tex region.

Major highways

• U.S. Highway 63
• U.S. Highway 167
• Louisiana Highway 2
• Louisiana Highway 15
• Louisiana Highway 33

Adjacent parishes and counties

• Union County, Arkansas (northwest)
• Ashley County, Arkansas (northeast)
• Morehouse Parish (east)
• Ouachita Parish (southeast)
• Lincoln Parish (southwest)
• Claiborne Parish (west)

National protected areas

• D'Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge (part)
• Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Communities

Towns

• Bernice
• Farmerville (parish seat and largest municipality)
• Marion

Villages

• Conway
• Downsville
• Junction City
• Lillie
• Spearsville

Unincorporated communities

• Alabama Landing
• Oakland
• Ouachita City
• Point
• Shiloh
• Truxno^[5]

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1840	1,838		—
1850	8,203		346.3%
1860	10,389		26.6%
1870	11,685		12.5%
1880	13,526		15.8%
1890	17,304		27.9%
1900	18,520		7.0%
1910	20,451		10.4%
1920	19,621		−4.1%
1930	20,731		5.7%
1940	20,943		1.0%
1950	19,141		−8.6%
1960	17,624		−7.9%
1970	18,447		4.7%
1980	21,167		14.7%
1990	20,690		−2.3%
2000	22,803		10.2%
2010	22,721		−0.4%
2020	21,107		−7.1%
U.S. Decennial Census[6] 1790-1960[7] 1900-1990[8] 1990-2000[9] 2010[10]

Union Parish racial composition as of 2020^[11]

Race	Number	Percentage
White (non-Hispanic)	14,289	67.7%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	4,980	23.59%
Native American	59	0.28%
Asian	38	0.18%
Pacific Islander	6	0.03%
Other/Mixed	600	2.84%
Hispanic or Latino	1,135	5.38%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 21,107 people, 7,582 households, and 4,899 families residing in the parish.

Politics

Located in far northern Louisiana next to the Arkansas state line, Union Parish is heavily Republican in most competitive elections, particularly at the presidential level, last voting for a Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 when Adlai Stevenson received 52% of the vote. In the most recent election in 2020, incumbent President Donald Trump received 8,407 votes (75.1 percent) of the parish total to 2,654 (23.7 percent) for former Vice President Joe Biden.^[12]

United States presidential election results for Union Parish, Louisiana^[13]

Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party(ies)
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2024	8,176	78.05%	2,206	21.06%	93	0.89%
2020	8,407	75.06%	2,654	23.69%	140	1.25%
2016	7,972	73.18%	2,691	24.70%	231	2.12%
2012	7,561	70.23%	3,075	28.56%	130	1.21%
2008	7,619	70.10%	3,103	28.55%	146	1.34%
2004	7,457	69.57%	3,089	28.82%	172	1.60%
2000	5,772	61.78%	3,205	34.30%	366	3.92%
1996	4,418	46.30%	4,260	44.64%	865	9.06%
1992	4,434	44.04%	4,005	39.78%	1,630	16.19%
1988	5,900	62.97%	3,210	34.26%	259	2.76%
1984	6,585	67.73%	2,916	29.99%	222	2.28%
1980	5,130	55.77%	3,841	41.76%	227	2.47%
1976	4,139	52.36%	3,600	45.54%	166	2.10%
1972	4,322	70.20%	1,465	23.79%	370	6.01%
1968	1,113	16.50%	1,336	19.80%	4,297	63.70%
1964	4,534	79.70%	1,155	20.30%	0	0.00%
1960	2,017	49.64%	1,034	25.45%	1,012	24.91%
1956	1,384	40.49%	878	25.69%	1,156	33.82%
1952	1,894	47.96%	2,055	52.04%	0	0.00%
1948	259	9.07%	724	25.35%	1,873	65.58%
1944	803	31.27%	1,765	68.73%	0	0.00%
1940	371	11.55%	2,842	88.45%	0	0.00%
1936	272	13.27%	1,778	86.73%	0	0.00%
1932	58	2.48%	2,285	97.52%	0	0.00%
1928	422	27.97%	1,085	71.90%	2	0.13%
1924	7	0.79%	875	99.09%	1	0.11%
1920	98	7.43%	1,221	92.57%	0	0.00%
1916	22	1.95%	1,106	97.96%	1	0.09%
1912	11	1.39%	696	87.66%	87	10.96%

School

Residents are assigned to Union Parish Public Schools.

Law enforcement

Union Parish Sheriff's Office
Abbreviation	UPSO
Motto	Service Before Self
Agency overview
Formed	1839
Jurisdictional structure
General nature	Civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	Farmerville, Louisiana
Agency executive	Dusty Gates, Sheriff
Website
http://www.unionsheriff.com/

The Union Parish Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency of Union Parish, Louisiana. It is headquartered in Farmerville. The current^{[as of?]} Sheriff of Union Parish is Dusty Gates, who was first sworn as the sheriff following long time Sheriff Bob Buckley's death in September 2013.^[14]

Border monument

In 1931, a monument was erected at the Union Parish border with Union County, Arkansas. In 1975, State Representative Louise B. Johnson passed a law to refurbish the monument. The completed restoration was unveiled in 2009.^[15]

Notable people

Two Louisiana governors came from the Shiloh Community in Union Parish:

• William Wright Heard, 1900–1904
• Ruffin Pleasant, 1916-1920

Two Arkansas governors were natives of Union Parish:

• George Washington Donaghey, Governor of Arkansas from 1909 to 1913
• Tom Jefferson Terral, Governor of Arkansas from 1925 to 1927

Other Union Parish residents have included:

• Lonnie O. Aulds, state representative from 1968 to 1972^[16]
• George Washington Bolton (1841-1931), state representative from 1888 to 1896 from Alexandria^[17]
• Jay McCallum - Chief Judge of the Louisiana 3rd Judicial District Court^[18]
• Lee Emmett Thomas, Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representative^[19]

See also

• United States portal

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Union Parish, Louisiana
• Big Creek (Union Parish, LA)

Sources

Many facts concerning events in early Union Parish history come from the conveyance, probate, and lawsuit records on file in the Union Parish courthouse, as well as records of the United States Land Offices available in the National Archives. Other sources include:

1) Williams, E. Russ, Jr., Spanish Poste d’Ouachita: The Ouachita Valley in Colonial Louisiana 1783–1804, and Early American Statehood, 1804–1820, Williams Genealogical Publications, Monroe, LA, 1995.

2) Williams, E. Russ, Jr., Encyclopedia of Individuals and Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley of Louisiana From 1785 to 1850: Organized into Family Groups with Miscellaneous Materials on Historical Events, Places, and Other Important Topics, Part Oe A – K, Williams Genealogical and Historical Publications, Monroe, LA, 1996.

3) Williams, E. Russ, Jr., Encyclopedia of Individuals and Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley of Louisiana From 1785 to 1850: Organized into Family Groups with Miscellaneous Materials on Historical Events, Places, and Other Important Topics, Part Two L – O, Williams Genealogical and Historical Publications, Monroe, LA, 1997.

4) Williams, Max Harrison, Union Parish (Louisiana) Historical Records: Police Jury Minutes, 1839–1846, D’Arbonne Research and Publishing Co., Farmerville, LA, 1993.