Donaldsonville, Louisiana
Encyclopedia
Donaldsonville is a city in and the parish seat of Ascension Parish
, Louisiana
, United States
, along the west bank of the Mississippi River
. The population was 7,605 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge
Metropolitan Statistical Area
.
Acadians began to settle in the area in 1765 and Spanish Isleños
also settled here. In 1772 when the territory was under Spanish rule, the militia constructed La Iglesia de la Ascensión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo de Lafourche de los Chetimaches (the Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church of Lafourche of the Chitimaches) to serve the area. The region returned later to French control and then was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 by the United States.
Donaldsonville is named after landowner William Donaldson. In 1806 Donaldson commissioned architect and planner Barthelemy Lafon
to plan a new town. This served briefly as the Louisiana capital (1830–1831) after New Orleans was deemed "too noisy".
Although Donaldsonville is a small town, it has many historic sites. Its museum, the River Road African American Museum
, has been included on the state's African American Heritage Trail. It also has parks, shopping centers, and Civil War grounds.
The official newspaper of the city is the Donaldsonville Chief
, which has been published since 1871.
Specific historical facts about Donaldsonville can be learned through the books of Sidney Marchand (historian, mayor, legislator, attorney). Mr. Marchand as a state Senator was a contemporary of Huey Long
. It was during the mayoral administrations of Sidney Marchand, Sr. and Sidney Marchand, Jr. that significant infrastructure was constructed in Donaldsonville (including about 12 miles of paving, and the still-extant sewerage system).
during the American Civil War
. The Union sent gunboats to the town and warned that if shots were fired, the U.S. Navy would strike the area for six miles to the south and nine miles to the north and destroy every building on every plantation
. Historian
John D. Winters
, in his The Civil War in Louisiana (1963), describes the horrific scene, accordingly:
"The irate naval commander, Admiral
Farragut, ordered the bombardment of Donaldsonville as soon as it could be evacuated. All of the citizens of Donaldsonville . . . 'left their homes and went to the bayou . . . a detachment of Yankees went to shore with fire torches in hand.' The hotels, warehouses, dwellings, and some of the most valuable buildings of the town were destroyed, Plantations . . . were bombarded and set afire. . . . A citizens' committee met and decided to ask Governor Moore
to keep the [Confederate] Rangers from firing on Federal boats. These attacks did no real good and brought only crude reprisals against the innocent and helped to keep the Negro
es stirred up." A citizen complained that the Rangers were useless and themselves lawless and hence unable or unwilling to protect Confederate property. The citizen added that the Confederate people "could not fare worse were we surrounded by a band of Lincoln
's mercenary hirelings. Our homes are entered and pillaged of everything that they see fit to appropriate to themselves."
At Donaldsonville, Fort Butler was protected on one side by the Mississippi River and on the other by Bayou Lafourche
. A brick-lined moat surrounded the fort, which contained a high and thick earth parapet. There was further security from a strong log. The fort was built to accommodate 600 men, but in 1863 there were only 180 Union forces present, mostly from the Twenty-eighth Maine
.
s still standing in the United States. The wooden building, now in use as an Ace Hardware
store, was built in 1872 by Congregation Bikur Cholim, which disbanded in the 1940s
.
, the city has a total area of 2.5 square miles (6.5 km²), all of it land.
Coming upriver on the Mississippi, Donaldsonville is the point of the first expanse of land beyond the narrow natural levee.
The town sits approximately 25 feet above sea level, with excellent drainage.
of 2000, there were 7,605 people, 2,656 households, and 1,946 families residing in the city. The population density
was 2,986.9 people per square mile (1,151.5/km²). There were 2,948 housing units at an average density of 1,157.8 per square mile (446.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 29.82% White, 69.13% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.12% Asian, 0.37% from other races
, and 0.45% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.10% of the population.
There were 2,656 households out of which 39.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.4% were married couples
living together, 30.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.7% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.35.
In the city the population was spread out with 32.1% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 81.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 74.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $24,084, and the median income for a family was $29,408. Males had a median income of $31,849 versus $17,528 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $12,009. About 32.8% of families and 34.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 49.0% of those under age 18 and 22.2% of those age 65 or over.
Ascension Parish, Louisiana
Ascension Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the fastest growing parish in the state. Its population is 107,215 which is 39.9% greater than the 2000 census...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, along the west bank of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The population was 7,605 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
Metropolitan Statistical Area
Baton Rouge metropolitan area
The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is a sprawling area consisting of nine parishes in Louisiana, anchored by the city of Baton Rouge...
.
History
Isleños
Isleño is the Spanish word meaning "islander." The Isleños are the descendants of Canary Island immigrants to Louisiana, Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Americas....
also settled here. In 1772 when the territory was under Spanish rule, the militia constructed La Iglesia de la Ascensión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo de Lafourche de los Chetimaches (the Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church of Lafourche of the Chitimaches) to serve the area. The region returned later to French control and then was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 by the United States.
Donaldsonville is named after landowner William Donaldson. In 1806 Donaldson commissioned architect and planner Barthelemy Lafon
Barthelemy Lafon
Barthelemy Lafon was a notable architect, engineer, city planner and surveyor in New Orleans, Louisiana. In later life, he turned away from architecture and engaged in piracy and smuggling....
to plan a new town. This served briefly as the Louisiana capital (1830–1831) after New Orleans was deemed "too noisy".
Although Donaldsonville is a small town, it has many historic sites. Its museum, the River Road African American Museum
River Road African American Museum
River Road African American Museum is a museum of culture and history in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, United States. Founded in 1994, it was among the first Louisiana museums to tell the story of Africans and African Americans, both slave and free. The museum notes their contributions to the River...
, has been included on the state's African American Heritage Trail. It also has parks, shopping centers, and Civil War grounds.
The official newspaper of the city is the Donaldsonville Chief
Donaldsonville Chief
The Donaldsonville Chief is a weekly newspaper published in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. It is owned by Gatehouse Media. The Donaldsonville Chief is a member of the Louisiana Press Association. News content for the publication is based in the City of Donaldsonville, but also includes the Ascension...
, which has been published since 1871.
Specific historical facts about Donaldsonville can be learned through the books of Sidney Marchand (historian, mayor, legislator, attorney). Mr. Marchand as a state Senator was a contemporary of Huey Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
. It was during the mayoral administrations of Sidney Marchand, Sr. and Sidney Marchand, Jr. that significant infrastructure was constructed in Donaldsonville (including about 12 miles of paving, and the still-extant sewerage system).
State Capitol
The state capitol of Louisiana was moved from New Orleans in 1829 then to Donaldsonville in 1830, but was moved back to New Orleans in 1831.Civil War
In the summer of 1862, Donaldsonville was bombarded by the Union ArmyUnion Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The Union sent gunboats to the town and warned that if shots were fired, the U.S. Navy would strike the area for six miles to the south and nine miles to the north and destroy every building on every plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
. Historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
John D. Winters
John D. Winters
John David Winters was a historian at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, best known for his definitive and award-winning study, The Civil War in Louisiana, still in print, published in 1963 and released in paperback in 1991.-Background:Winters was born to John David Winters, Sr...
, in his The Civil War in Louisiana (1963), describes the horrific scene, accordingly:
"The irate naval commander, Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Farragut, ordered the bombardment of Donaldsonville as soon as it could be evacuated. All of the citizens of Donaldsonville . . . 'left their homes and went to the bayou . . . a detachment of Yankees went to shore with fire torches in hand.' The hotels, warehouses, dwellings, and some of the most valuable buildings of the town were destroyed, Plantations . . . were bombarded and set afire. . . . A citizens' committee met and decided to ask Governor Moore
Thomas Overton Moore
Thomas Overton Moore was an attorney and politician who was the 16th Governor of Louisiana from 1860 until 1864 during the American Civil War.-Early years:...
to keep the [Confederate] Rangers from firing on Federal boats. These attacks did no real good and brought only crude reprisals against the innocent and helped to keep the Negro
Negro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
es stirred up." A citizen complained that the Rangers were useless and themselves lawless and hence unable or unwilling to protect Confederate property. The citizen added that the Confederate people "could not fare worse were we surrounded by a band of Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's mercenary hirelings. Our homes are entered and pillaged of everything that they see fit to appropriate to themselves."
At Donaldsonville, Fort Butler was protected on one side by the Mississippi River and on the other by Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche, originally called Chetimachas River, is a bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Écores, which led to a close association of the bayou with...
. A brick-lined moat surrounded the fort, which contained a high and thick earth parapet. There was further security from a strong log. The fort was built to accommodate 600 men, but in 1863 there were only 180 Union forces present, mostly from the Twenty-eighth Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
.
Synagogue
Donaldsonville is the home of one of the oldest synagogue buildingOldest synagogues in the United States
The designation of the oldest synagogue in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest congregation...
s still standing in the United States. The wooden building, now in use as an Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware Corporation is a hardware cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. ACE Hardware Corporation, with 4,444 stores, does over $3 billion in retail hardware sales annually down from its peak of $12.5 billion in 2007.-History:...
store, was built in 1872 by Congregation Bikur Cholim, which disbanded in the 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 2.5 square miles (6.5 km²), all of it land.
Coming upriver on the Mississippi, Donaldsonville is the point of the first expanse of land beyond the narrow natural levee.
The town sits approximately 25 feet above sea level, with excellent drainage.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 7,605 people, 2,656 households, and 1,946 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,986.9 people per square mile (1,151.5/km²). There were 2,948 housing units at an average density of 1,157.8 per square mile (446.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 29.82% White, 69.13% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.12% Asian, 0.37% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.45% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.10% of the population.
There were 2,656 households out of which 39.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.4% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 30.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.7% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.35.
In the city the population was spread out with 32.1% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 81.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 74.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $24,084, and the median income for a family was $29,408. Males had a median income of $31,849 versus $17,528 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $12,009. About 32.8% of families and 34.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 49.0% of those under age 18 and 22.2% of those age 65 or over.
Notable natives and residents
- Allen Thomas (US Ambassador to Venezuela), Prevost (second recorded Caesarian section) resided here
- Claiborne WilliamsClaiborne WilliamsClaiborne Williams was an American musician, bandleader, and music teacher.-Life and career:...
- bandleader - Duncan F. KennerDuncan F. KennerDuncan Farrar Kenner was a Louisiana politician, lawyer, and diplomat for the Confederate States of America.-Biography:...
- built Ashland, Confederate Ambassador to France and England, horse racer, founder of KennerKenner, LouisianaKenner is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 66,702 at the 2010 census.... - Edward Douglass White, Sr. - Governor of Louisiana (1834–1838), father of the US Chief Justice
- Francis T. NichollsFrancis T. NichollsFrancis Redding Tillou Nicholls was an American attorney, politician, judge, and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...
- governor of Louisiana (1877–1880, 1888–1892), Conf. General - Jarvis GreenJarvis GreenJarvis Green is an American football defensive end who is currently a free agent of the National Football League. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL Draft...
- defensive end, New England PatriotsNew England PatriotsThe New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National... - Henry JohnsonHenry Johnson (Louisiana)Henry Johnson was the fifth Governor of Louisiana, and served as a United States Representative and as a United States Senator....
- governor of Louisiana (1824–1828) - "King" Joe Oliver - jazz musician
- Vinnie TortorichVinnie TortorichVinnie Tortorich , is an author, radio host, fitness trainer, and model based in Beverly Hills, California.His career began in New Orleans, Louisiana after he graduated from Tulane University, where he studied on a football scholarship. He was a star athlete at Ascension Catholic High School in...
- author, radio host, athlete - Nicholas TristNicholas TristNicholas Philip Trist was an American diplomat.Trist was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. He attended West Point and studied law under Thomas Jefferson, whose granddaughter he married. He was also private secretary to Andrew Jackson.Through political connections, Trist was appointed U.S...
- negotiator of Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo - Pierre Caliste LandryPierre Caliste LandryPierre Caliste Landry was an American slave who later was an attorney, politician, and religious leader...
- first African-American mayor in the US (1868) - Plas JohnsonPlas JohnsonPlas John Johnson Jr. is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most familiar as the lead on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme"....
- saxophonist - Sarah Vance - judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
- Stephen HopkinsStephen HopkinsStephen Hopkins may refer to:* Stephen Hopkins , Mayflower passenger, first mayor of Plymouth, father of only baby born during the trip aboard the Mayflower...
- Brigadier General, War of 1812War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
/Battle of New OrleansBattle of New OrleansThe Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
, Louisiana House Speaker (1812)