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Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Bossier Parish Courthouse IMG 2378
Renovated Bossier Parish Courthouse in Benton
Map of Louisiana highlighting Bossier Parish
Location in the state of Louisiana
Map of the U.S
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Founded 1843
Named for US Representative Pierre Bossier
Seat Benton
Largest city Bossier City
Area
 - Total
 - Land
 - Water

867 sq mi (2,245 km²)
839 sq mi (2,174 km²)
28 sq mi (72 km²), 3.19%
Population
 - (2020)
 - Density

128,746
117/sq mi (45/km²)
Time zone Central: UTC-6/-5

Bossier Parish ( /ˈbʒər/ BOH-zhər; French: Paroisse de Bossier) is a parish located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 census, the population was 116,979,[1] and 128,746 in 2020.[2]

The parish seat is Benton.[3] The principal city is Bossier City, which is located east of the Red River and across from the larger city of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The parish was formed in 1843 from the western portion of Claiborne Parish.[4][5] Bossier Parish is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan statistical area, the largest metropolitan area in North Louisiana.

Lake Bistineau and Lake Bistineau State Park are included in parts of Bossier and neighboring Webster and Bienville parishes. Loggy Bayou flows south from Lake Bistineau in southern Bossier Parish, traverses western Bienville Parish, and in Red River Parish joins the Red River.

History[]

Arnold-Tidwell House, Bossier Parish, LA IMG 6496

Arnold-Tidwell House near the Cypress Lake recreational area is one of three antebellum homes still standing in Bossier Parish.[6]

Willis Knighton Hospital, Bossier City, LA IMG 3724

Willis Knighton Hospital in Bossier City serves much of northern Bossier Parish.

Cypress Lake, Bossier Parish, LA IMG 6497

Swimmers at Cypress Lake on a cloudy summer day

Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, an ethnic French, 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.

Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War. In July 1861, at the start of the war, the Bossier Parish Police Jury appropriated $35,000 for the benefit of Confederate volunteers and their family members left behind, an amount then considered generous.[7]

After the war, whites used violence and intimidation to maintain dominance over the newly emancipated freedmen. From the end of Reconstruction into the 20th century, violence increased as conservative white Democrats struggled to maintain power over the state. In this period, Bossier Parish had 26 lynchings of African Americans by whites, part of racial terrorism. This was the fifth-highest total of any parish in Louisiana, tied with the total in Iberia Parish in the South of the state. Overall, parishes in northwest Louisiana had the highest rates of lynchings.

Geography[]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 867 square miles (2,250 km2), of which 840 square miles (2,200 km2) is land and 27 square miles (70 km2) (3.1%) is water.[8] Four miles east of Bossier City is Barksdale Air Force Base.

Major highways[]

  • I-20 Interstate 20
    • I-220 Interstate 220
  • I-69 (Future) Future Interstate 69
  • US 71 U.S. Highway 71
  • US 79 U.S. Highway 79
  • US 80 U.S. Highway 80
  • Louisiana 2 Louisiana Highway 2
  • Louisiana 3 Louisiana Highway 3

Adjacent counties and parishes[]

National protected area[]

  • Red River National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Communities[]

Cities[]

  • Bossier City (largest municipality)
  • Shreveport (partial)

Towns[]

  • Benton (parish seat)
  • Haughton
  • Plain Dealing (smallest municipality)

Unincorporated areas[]

Census-designated places[]

  • Eastwood
  • Red Chute

Unincorporated communities[]

  • Fillmore[9]
  • Midway
  • Princeton, birthplace of George Dement
  • Taylortown

Demographics[]

Historical populations
Census Pop.
1850 6,962
1860 11,348 63.0%
1870 12,675 11.7%
1880 16,042 26.6%
1890 20,330 26.7%
1900 24,153 18.8%
1910 21,738 −10.0%
1920 22,266 2.4%
1930 28,388 27.5%
1940 33,162 16.8%
1950 40,139 21.0%
1960 57,622 43.6%
1970 64,519 12.0%
1980 80,721 25.1%
1990 86,088 6.6%
2000 98,310 14.2%
2010 116,979 19.0%
U.S. Decennial Census[10]
1790-1960[11] 1900-1990[12]
1990-2000[13] 2010-2020[1]

2010 census[]

According to the 2010 U.S. census, there were 116,979 people, 62,000 households, and 37,500 families residing in the parish. The population density was 142 people per square mile (45/km2). There were 49,000 housing units at an average density of 48 per squaremile (19/km2). The racial makeup of the parish was 70.66% White, 18.52% Black or African American, 0.82% Native American, 2.18% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 1.00% from other races, and 1.65% from two or more races; 8.15% of the population were Hispanic or Latin American of any race.

There were 46,020 households, out of which 36.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.60% were married couples living together, 14.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.30% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.09.

In the parish the population was spread out, with 28.00% under the age of 18, 9.70% from 18 to 24, 30.50% from 25 to 44, 21.30% from 45 to 64, and 10.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 96.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.80 males.

The median income for a household in the parish was $39,203, and the median income for a family was $45,542. Males had a median income of $32,305 versus $23,287 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $18,119. About 10.60% of families and 13.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.00% of those under age 18 and 12.50% of those age 65 or over.

2019 ACS[]

According to the 2019 American Community Survey, the racial and ethnic makeup of the parish was 65.9% non-Hispanic white, 23.2% African American, 0.7% Native American, 2.2% Asian, 0.9% some other race, 1.7% two or more races, and 6.9% Hispanic or Latin American of any race.[14]

There were 49,736 households spread out among 58,309 housing units. The median gross rent was $983, and the parish had a home-ownership rate of 63.4%. Among the population, the median household income was $49,962 and 18.8% of the population lived at or below the poverty line.

2020 census[]

Bossier Parish racial composition[15]
Race Number Percentage
White (non-Hispanic) 78,982 61.35%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 29,868 23.2%
Native American 573 0.45%
Asian 2,341 1.82%
Pacific Islander 113 0.09%
Other/Mixed 6,632 5.15%
Hispanic or Latino 10,237 7.95%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 128,746 people, 49,735 households, and 33,963 families residing in the parish.

Law, government and politics[]

Bossier Parish is governed by a 12-member elected body, the Bossier Parish Police Jury (equivalent to county commission in other states). Members are elected from single-member districts. Eddy Shell, a prominent Bossier City educator, was repeatedly re-elected, serving on the police jury from 1992 until his death in 2008.

The current members of the police jury are:

  • District 1 - Bob Brotherton
  • District 2 - Glenn Benton
  • District 3 - Philip Rogers
  • District 4 - John Ed Jordan
  • District 5 - Juliana Parks
  • District 6 - Chris Marsiglia
  • District 7 - Jimmy Cochran
  • District 8 - Douglas E. Rimmer
  • District 9 - Charles Gray
  • District 10 - Jerome Darby
  • District 11 - Tom Salzer
  • District 12 - Paul M. "Mac" Plummer[16]

Since the late 20th century, the white majority of the parish has shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party, as have most conservative whites in Louisiana and other Southern states. Before this, the state was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party, in the period after the turn of the century when most blacks were disenfranchised in Louisiana.

Bossier Parish has since reliably supported Republican candidates in most contested US presidential elections. Since 1952, George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama who ran in 1968 on the American Independent Party ticket, is the only non-Republican to have carried Bossier Parish.

In 2008, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona won in Bossier Parish with 32,713 votes (71.4 percent) over the Democrat Barack H. Obama of Illinois, who polled 12,703 votes (27.8 percent). In 2012, Mitt Romney polled 34,988 votes (72 percent) in Bossier Parish, or 2,275 more ballots than McCain drew in 2008. President Obama trailed in Bossier Parish with 12,956 votes (26.7 percent), or 253 more votes than he had received in 2008.

In 2011, Bossier Parish elected a Republican, Julian C. Whittington, as sheriff to succeed the long-term Larry Deen. He was a Democrat and later changed his registration to the Republican Party.

United States presidential election results for Bossier Parish, Louisiana[17]
Year Republican Democratic Third party
No.  % No.  % No.  %
2020 38,074 69.66% 15,662 28.66% 919 1.68%
2016 35,474 71.16% 12,641 25.36% 1,733 3.48%
2012 34,988 72.05% 12,956 26.68% 618 1.27%
2008 32,713 71.37% 12,703 27.71% 419 0.91%
2004 30,040 70.34% 12,317 28.84% 348 0.81%
2000 23,224 64.66% 11,933 33.23% 758 2.11%
1996 16,852 47.63% 15,504 43.82% 3,026 8.55%
1992 15,628 47.64% 11,313 34.49% 5,860 17.87%
1988 20,807 69.16% 9,035 30.03% 243 0.81%
1984 22,638 76.01% 7,006 23.52% 138 0.46%
1980 16,515 62.70% 9,377 35.60% 447 1.70%
1976 12,132 59.22% 8,062 39.35% 293 1.43%
1972 12,856 78.63% 2,914 17.82% 580 3.55%
1968 3,745 23.74% 2,782 17.63% 9,249 58.63%
1964 9,822 83.53% 1,937 16.47% 0 0.00%
1960 3,429 39.32% 2,198 25.21% 3,093 35.47%
1956 3,107 48.97% 1,954 30.80% 1,284 20.24%
1952 3,677 57.81% 2,683 42.19% 0 0.00%
1948 338 8.72% 1,147 29.59% 2,391 61.69%
1944 622 20.37% 2,430 79.59% 1 0.03%
1940 275 8.23% 3,045 91.17% 20 0.60%
1936 193 8.89% 1,975 91.01% 2 0.09%
1932 56 2.49% 2,191 97.51% 0 0.00%
1928 225 15.93% 1,187 84.07% 0 0.00%
1924 48 5.84% 751 91.36% 23 2.80%
1920 44 5.68% 731 94.32% 0 0.00%
1916 9 1.32% 675 98.68% 0 0.00%
1912 6 1.23% 427 87.68% 54 11.09%



National Guard[]

The 165th CSS (Combat Service Support) Battalion is headquartered in Bossier City. This unit was deployed to Iraq in 2008. Also located in Bossier City is the 156TH Army Band which deployed as part of the 256th Infantry Brigade in 2010 to Iraq.

Education[]

Bossier Parish School Board operates public schools in the parish.

It is in the service area of Bossier Parish Community College.[18]

Notable people[]

  • William Benton Boggs (1854-1922), first mayor of Plain Dealing (1890) and member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1892 to 1900 for Bossier Parish[19] and the Louisiana State Senate for Bossier and Webster parishes from 1908 to 1916[20]
  • Dewey E. Burchett Jr., state district court judge for Bossier and Webster parishes, 1988-2008[21]
  • Roy A. Burrell, state representative from District 2 (Caddo and Bossier parishes) since 2004[22]
  • Harvey Locke Carey, lawyer and politician; lived off Wafer Road in Bossier Parish in the 1960s[23]
  • Robert Houston Curry (1842-1892), state representative for Bossier Parish from 1888 to 1892; wounded Confederate Army soldier[24]
  • Jesse C. Deen, late principal in the Rocky Mount community, served on the Bossier Parish Police Jury and then in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 1988. His older son, Larry Callaway Deen, is a former Bossier Parish sheriff.
  • E. S. Dortch, planter and politician and last surviving (1943) Bossier Parish veteran of the Confederate States Army[25]
  • Jack Favor, a rodeo star, was falsely imprisoned in 1967 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary for the murders of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Richey, who operated a bait and tackle business near Haughton. Convicted on false testimony, he claimed collusion against him among Bossier Parish officials, including Judge O. E. Price, Sheriff Willie Waggonner, and chief deputy and Waggonner's successor as sheriff, Vol Dooley. Favor was acquittal in a second trial in the parish courthouse in Benton in 1974; thereafter, he returned to Fort Worth and then Arlington, Texas, where he sold used cars and counseled wayward youth of the dangers of lawless behavior.[26][27]
  • Ryan Gatti, state senator for District 36 since 2016; Bossier City lawyer[28]
  • Ray Germany, Louisiana Tech Bulldogs basketball All-American in 1959 and 1960; resident of Haughton[29]
  • Hoffman L. Fuller, politician, four-term mayor of Bossier City, 1937-1953
  • Mike Johnson, Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; constitutional attorney in Benton[30]
  • J. A. W. Lowry (died 1899), district attorney and state senator[31]
  • Jerry Miculek, American professional speed and competition shooter known for his 20 world records; resides in Princeton
  • George Nattin, mayor of Bossier City, 1961-1973
  • William Washington Vance, state senator from 1886 to 1892[32]

See also[]

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Bossier Parish, Louisiana
  • Bossier Press-Tribune
  • Michael Craig, state 26th Judicial District Court judge since 2009

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Bossier Parish, Louisiana". quickfacts.census.gov. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/22015.html. 
  2. ^ "QuickFacts: Bossier Parish, Louisiana". https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bossierparishlouisiana/POP010220. 
  3. ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx. 
  4. ^ Stinson, Louise. "Bossier City History". City of Bossier City. http://www.bossiercity.org/Bossier-City-History/. 
  5. ^ Anonymous. "About Bossier Parish". Bossier Parish. http://www.bossierparishla.gov/About.aspx. 
  6. ^ Arnold-Tidwell House, Historical marker, Bossier Parish, Louisiana
  7. ^ John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963, ISBN 0-8071-0834-0, p. 38
  8. ^ "2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/docs/gazetteer/counties_list_22.txt. 
  9. ^ "Kay McMahan, "Bossier Parish, LA, Towns"". usgwarchives.net. http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/bossier/history/towns.txt. 
  10. ^ "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html. 
  11. ^ "Historical Census Browser". University of Virginia Library. http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu. 
  12. ^ "Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990". United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/population/cencounts/la190090.txt. 
  13. ^ "Census 2000 PHC-T-4. Ranking Tables for Counties: 1990 and 2000". United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/briefs/phc-t4/tables/tab02.pdf. 
  14. ^ "Geography Profile: Bossier Parish, Louisiana". https://data.census.gov/cedsci/profile?g=0500000US22015. 
  15. ^ "Explore Census Data". https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=0500000US22015&tid=DECENNIALPL2020.P2. 
  16. ^ "Archived copy". http://policejury.mybossier.com/pj/jurors_details.asp?ID%3D12. 
  17. ^ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS. 
  18. ^ "Our Colleges". Louisiana's Technical and Community Colleges. https://www.lctcs.edu/our-colleges. Retrieved 2021-06-03. 
  19. ^ "Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2012". legis.state.la.us. http://www.legis.state.la.us/members/h1812-2012.pdf. 
  20. ^ "My Hometown: Plain Dealing, Louisiana". oocities.org. http://www.oocities.org/triedandtrue.geo/PDHistory.html. 
  21. ^ "Dewey E. Burchett, Jr.". The Shreveport Times. November 22, 2009. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=dewey-e-burchett&pid=136246364#sthash.bT5PepbS.dpuf. 
  22. ^ "Roy Burrell". house.louisiana.gov. http://house.louisiana.gov/h_reps/members.asp?ID=2. 
  23. ^ "Notes for Harvey Locke Carey". familytreemaker.genealogy.com. http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/a/r/Richard-D-Carey/GENE1-0006.html. 
  24. ^ "Curry, Robert H.". The Political Graveyard. http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/curry.html#086.05.27. 
  25. ^ "Col. E. S. Dortch Dies at Atlanta: Bossier Veteran Who Fought Under Stonewall Jackson Succumbs". The Shreveport Times through findagrave.com. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Dortch&GSfn=E&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=10721958&df=all&. 
  26. ^ "Not Guilty". cowboysforchrist.net. http://www.cowboysforchrist.net/thechristianranchmansep_oct2012.pdf. 
  27. ^ "List of Louisiana Wrongful Convictions Overturned since 1966, November 23, 2003". Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. http://truthinjustice.org/LA-list.htm. 
  28. ^ "About Ryan". rayangatti.com. http://www.ryangatti.com/about/. 
  29. ^ "Slaughter, Germany to be honored: Tech duo will be enshrined into the Ark-La-Tex Museum of Champions". Ruston Daily Leader. July 2, 2016. http://www.rustonleader.com/node/70457. 
  30. ^ "Mike Johnson State Representative". mikejohnsonlouisiana.com. http://www.mikejohnsonlouisiana.com/#!donate/c2425. 
  31. ^ ""John A. W. Lowry of Bossier Parish, Louisiana" in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana". Chicago and Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Publishing Company. 1890. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54178807. 
  32. ^ "William Washington Vance". findagrave.com based on Baton Rouge newspaper clipping. February 17, 1900. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Vance&GSfn=William&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=20&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=124391631&df=all&. 

External links[]

Template:Louisiana parishes

Coordinates: 32°41′N 93°36′W / 32.68, -93.60


This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Bossier Parish, Louisiana. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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