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FILE: AA-E
LOCATION AND HISTORY OF
CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT #1, LAFAYETTE PARISH
In the year 1811 the Louisiana Legislature created a new parish named St. Martin Parish. Included in this new division was the present territory of Lafayette Parish. It was not until 1823, however, that a legislative act provided for the separation from St. Martin Parish of another new parish which was named Lafayette, in honor of the famous French general, Lafayette, who revisited the United States at about this time. At that time the new parish extended southward and westward to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1844, however, the southwest portion was cut off to form the present Parish of Vermilion, thus leaving Lafayette Parish as we know it today.
Lafayette Parish is one of the smallest parishes in Lafayette, with an area of 181,120 acres. It is bounded on the north by St. Landry Parish, on the east by St. Martin and Iberia Parishes, on the south by Vermilion Parish and on the west by Acadia Parish. It is located on the gulf coastal plain in the southwestern portion of the state in the center of oil producing area of the state and an extremely rich agricultural section.
The basic population of Lafayette Parish is of French origin. In 1763 the population of the area consisted of a few trappers, traders and ranchmen, probably of French-Canadian origin. Soon after that time the exiled Acadians from Nova Scotia began to reach Louisiana. With the organization of the territorial and state governments of 1803 and 1812, the English-speaking persons began to migrate to Lafayette Parish in ever increasing numbers. Though the population is still basically French, the recent growth of the City of Lafayette as a distribution and oil center has brought into the parish large numbers of residents of Anglo-Saxon and other racial origins. It is estimated that there is a population in excess of half a million persons within a fifty-mile radius of the City of Lafayette, the parish seat. All factors point to a continuation of the rapid increase in population.
Statement approved 1975
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