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Click Inset to go to the Iberville Parish Map

Iberville Parish
While Iberville Parish offers all of the business amenities and services which appeal to commercial establishments, it also affords its residents a high quality of life with good schools, low crime rates and abundant recreational opportunities.

Voting Districts

Congress- ional	Supreme Court	Court of Appeals Circuit ~District	Public Service	BESE	Senate	House	Judicial
6	5	1 ~ 1	2, 3	3, 8	17	18, 58, 60	18

Communities of Iberville Parish

There are 5 incorporated communities in Iberville Parish.

Grosse Tete

Maringouin

PLAQUEMINE

Rosedale

White Castle

Unincorporated areas of interest in the parish include Allemania, Augusta, Bayou Goula, Bayou Paul, Bayou Sorrel, Bruly Lacroix, Bruns, Carville, Catherine, Choctaw, Crescent, Goldridge, Grand River, Indian Village, Laurel Ridge, Lone Star,McWilliams, Musson, Myrtle Grove, Pecan Spur, Pigeon, St. Gabriel, Samstown, Soniat, Sunshine Post Offie, Texas Spur and Willow Glen.

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Forests, Parks and Preserves

Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge

Waterways

Atchafalaya River
Bayou Manchac
Bayou Maringuoin
Bayou Sorrel
Mississippi River

Historical Markers

Bayou Goula
Calumet Plantation
Indian Camp Plantation
St. Gabriel

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History
1699	Bayougoula Indians inhabited what is now Iberville Parish when the first European explorers passed through this frontier area on the Mississippi River. In 1699, the French Canadian LeMoyne brothers, Pierre, Sieur dËIberville, and Jean Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville met these Indians on their first trip up the Mississippi River and were surprised to find evidence that LaSalle and Tonti had been there over a decade before. The explorers named the area District of Iberville.
1700	Father Paul DuRu, a Jesuit missionary, established the first church in Louisiana in 1700 near the Bayougoula village and labored to convert the Indians. When the Europeans began to settle in the area, the Chitimachas were the most prominent Indians in the parish. They held a large part of the parish on the west bank of the Mississippi and had villages at Plaquemine, Indian Village, Belle River, and the largest at Donaldsonville.
1766	In 1762, France lost all her holdings in the New World including Louisiana, which was given to Spain to keep it from falling into British hands. Spain did not formally take possession of the colony until 1766, at which time they began to dispatch colonists, mainly Canary Islanders, throughout the lower Mississippi Valley. They also welcomed the exiled Acadians by providing them with land, farming implements, guns, livestock, food, and some other necessities. By 1767, several Acadian settlements had been established along the coast south of St. Gabriel.
1769	A 1769 census of the district showed 376 occupants. The early settlements of the Duvernay Concession at Bayou Goula in the 1720s and the Acadians at St. Gabriel on the east bank of the Mississippi River in 1767, established Iberville Parish as one of the oldest parishes in Louisiana. St. Gabriel d'Iberville was the largest colony in the district and one of the first three Acadian settlements in Louisiana. The Plaquemine area, however was not established until much later. At the time of the arrival of the Acadians at St. Gabriel, the only inhabitants of the west bank were the Indians, who called the bayou along which they lived "Piakimines." As the settlements in the Attakapas and Opelousas regions grew in importance, attention began to shift from the eastern half of Iberville Parish to that part west of the Mississippi. Travellers in Louisiana began to notice in the late 1700s and early 1800s that Bayou Plaquemine afforded a possible route to the fertile districts in lower Louisiana.
1805	When the Territory of Orleans is divided into counties the present-day Iberville Parish is part of Pointe Coupee County and Iberville County
1807	William C. C. Claiborne was inaugurated as the first governor of the Territory of Orleans, and in 1805, the Legislative Council divided the territory into twelve counties. In 1807, the second session of the Legislative Council formed nineteen parishes, including Iberville, but did not abolish the original twelve counties. Point Pleasant became the seat of government in 1807 and remained such until 1835 when it was moved to Plaquemine. The county system eventually died out, leaving only the parishes. Several acts of the Louisiana Legislature have been passed redefining the boundaries between Iberville and its neighboring parishes.
1827	In 1827, the settlements on Bayou Grosse Tete and Bayou Maringouin are taken from West Baton Rouge Parish and placed in Iberville because the Iberville Parish Courthouse was more easily accessible to the residents. The next year, a provision was made allowing the settlements to be returned to West Baton Rouge if that parish would build a road leading from the settlements to the West Baton Rouge Courthouse. The road was built, but the settlements remained in Iberville. The act of 1859 permanently settled the dispute between the two parishes by fixing these settlements in Iberville.
1837	In 1837, the boundary between the parishes of Iberville and Ascension was surveyed and in 1841, the first act was passed by the legislature establishing that boundary. Finally, the western boundary between Iberville and St. Martin Parishes was drawn in 1847.
1847	Finally, the western boundary between Iberville and St. Martin Parishes was drawn in 1847.

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The Iberville Parish Courthouse, 1848-1906; Plaquemine City Hall, 1906-85. Built by George and Thomas Weldon of Mississippi is one of Louisiana’s oldest public buildings. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

St. Basil’s Convent was built in 1849 as a large private home on La. 1 in Plaquemine, La. Seven years later it became a Catholic Convent operated by the Marionite order for well over a hundred years. Today the complex is a small hotel and elegant restaurant.

1850 - Indian Camp Plantation home is near Carville in Iberville Parish, R. C. Camp builds it near the site of an earlier Houma Indian village in 1850. It will become the site of the Louisiana State Leprosarium in 1894. The U.S. Public Health Service acquired it in 1921. For many years it is known as the National Hansen’s Disease Center.
1858 - Old Variety Plantation three miles from Plaquemine, La. on the Bayou Road is a Louisiana raised cottage built of solid cypress. Completely restored as a private residence, it is open by appointment only.

1860 Nottoway Plantation house is finished in White Castle, La. Architect Henry Howard designs it for wealthy planter John Hampden Randolph who names it after the Nottoway River in Virginia. It is the largest plantation home in the South with sixty-four rooms and 53,000 square feet. The house was restored by Arlin Dease and opened to the public in 1981. There are very few physical remnants of the early European presence in Iberville Parish, indeed, very little at all remains to attest to its early beginnings. Of course, many of the names are the same as those found on early censuses and the strong Catholic heritage still survives, but otherwise, hardly a trace of Louisiana's colonial background can be found. The Acadian influence has also diminished over the decades. Although part of Acadiana, Iberville has retained less of its Acadian heritage, language, and customs than the relatively isolated Acadian parishes in the interior of the state. This is probably a result of Iberville's proximity to the Anglo- American parishes east of the river and the increasing influence of outsiders who travelled the Mississippi and Bayou Plaquemine. Because of all these diverse influences, Iberville has developed its own culture and way of life different from any other parish in the state.

Its fishing and farming economy has changed to an industrial one, and its landmarks link it to its past as part of the antebellum South. The massive Nottoway Plantation, an imposing reminder of the days of slaves in the field and the exorbitant ways of Southern life is the largest antebellum mansion in the South. The unique International Acadian Festival is celebrated annually in Plaquemine, recognizing the tribulations endured by the Acadians who first settled this land.

Born in Canada in 1661, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville was selected by Count de Pontchartrain, the French minister of the Navy, to command an expedition to Louisiana. The French government was becoming concerned about the security of its Canadian territory and felt that the settlement of Louisiana would deter British expansion in the Ohio valley and along the Gulf of Mexico. Besides being an explorer, Iberville was a competent sailor and a ruthless soldier motivated by a vision of French empire and personal fortune. He drove the British from Hudson Bay in 1686 and for the next decade continued to harass the British colonies in Maine and New York. During all this time the wars and monarchs in Europe were more concerned with the home front. The treaties that ended the wars did little to settle territorial claims in the new world and even Hudson Bay went to the British. Iberville went on to secure Louisiana for France, but died at the age of 45 after contracting Yellow Fever. |Top of page|

Schools and Libraries

Schools	The Iberville Parish School System includes ten public elementary, middle, junior and senior high schools with a total enrollment around 7,000 and one vocational school with approximately 1,000 students. There are three parochial schools in Iberville parish to provide an alternative for students not attending public schools. All public and private schools are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the Louisiana Independent School Association. Currently the annual cost in public funds to provide schooling is $3,783 per student, one of the highest in the state and a pupil-to teacher ratio of 17.41:1.
Vocational	Vocational training is available at the Westside Vocational Technical Institute, a state-funded facility in Plaquemine, and in the vocational program of the parish schools. The Baton Rouge Regional Vocational Technical Institute And the Ascension Technical school are also located nearby and available to parish residents. Vocational training includes welding, auto mechanics, small engine repair, business, LPN nursing, machine shop, drafting and instrumentation. To assure that new and expanding businesses have a continuing pool of workers with the level of education and expertise necessary for their operations, the area’s colleges and universities, vocational/technical schools and high schools graduate trained and entry-level persons year round. Schools at all levels are augmenting their general education missions with programs explicitly connected with employment possibilities for their students. This is seen in secondary schools in career education curricula and programs such as adopt-a-school through which business contributes resources, curriculum guidance and, in some cases, instruction, counseling and the promise of jobs for graduates. Community colleges are increasing their industry-specific training and colleges and universities are developing partnerships with industry that involve human as well as technological development.
Higher Education	Within an hour and a half drive of x are eleven major colleges or universities. Five of these offer doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, engineering, medical and legal fields. These universities are nationally and internationally recognized as sponsoring extensive research activities. Among these institutions are those receiving national recognition for their schools of law, medicine and engineering as well as fine arts curriculum. Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU) 50 miles Louisiana State University (LSU) 20 miles Tulane University 75 miles Southern University 20 miles Southern Univ. @ New Orleans (SUNO) 75 miles University of New Orleans (UNO) 75 miles LSU Medical Center 75 miles Tulane University Medical Center 75 miles Loyola University 75 miles Xavier University 75 miles Dillard University 75 miles
Libraries	Iberville Prish Library Director - Dannie Ball 24605 J. Gerald Berret Blvd P. O. Box 736 Plaquemine, LA 70764-0736 225-687-2520 FAX 225-687-9719 Email - paivbl@unix1.sncc.lsu.edu 7 Branches - Bayou Pigeon, Bayou Sorrel, East Iberville, Grosse Tete, Maringouin, Rosedale, White Castle. Iberville Parish enjoys an excellent parish-supported public library system. The library is located near the Iberville Parish Courthouse in Plaquemine, with a head librarian and a total staff of 18. Volumes in the library total in excess of 130,000, with approximately 500 new additions per month. The facilities offer reading and other reference materials, such as periodicals, films and audio materials for all ages. There are 7 branch libraries located in Bayou Pigeon, Bayou Sorrel, East Iberville, Grosse Tete, Maringouin, Rosedale and White Castle. A childrenËs reading program is available during the summer. The large collections at the State Library, and the Louisiana State University Library are located within one half hour of Iberville and are available to parish residents. American Library Directory 1999-2000, R. R. Bowker

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Updated: Wednesday, September 20, 2000

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