Like many of you, I have wondered over the years why our ancestors migrated into Union Parish. I suppose there are numerous reasons, but here are a few other in addition to the ones others have mentioned so far. 1. New Land Put on the Market by the Government. Until I think 1907, the US government supported itself primarily by the sale of land to citizens. As land was obtained by the government by purchase or conquest, it was surveyed, land offices opened, and then the new land was put on the market. For example, what now consists of 33 counties in a vertical strip in central Alabama was opened for settlement to the whites by the victory of General Andrew Jackson over the Red Sticks of the Creek Confederacy in 1814. Land offices opened in 1817 in Georgia's state capitol of Milledgeville, and they opened in Alabama in 1818. This resulted in a massive migration from Georgia and the Carolinas into this portion of Alabama. North Louisiana was owned by the US since 1803, but it took until the 1830s for this remote region to be surveyed by the government. I'll have to double check to be certain of the dates, but I believe the first Union Parish land to be put on the market was in 1835 (perhaps 1834, I can't recall offhand). This newly available land plus possibly foresight of the Panic of 1837 probably caused the first wave of white migration into Union (then Ouachita) Parish from the Butler, Lowndes, Dallas County region of Alabama in the spring of 1837. Most of the original Union Parish settlers moved there during this period: the Woods, Paynes, Wards, Hams, Seales, Taylors, and others. A wonderful resource for why these settlers chose the Union Parish area is found in the late Frank Owsley's book "Plain Folk of the Old South" (he was a professor of history at the University of Alabama for many years). It is a wonderful little book by an expert on Southern history. He refutes the myth of the South as a collection of wealthy plantation owners, poor whites, and slaves by proving the existence of a very large "middle class" of white farmers who either owned no slaves or very few. For the most part, I think Union Parish consisted of these middle-class farmers (the wealthy plantation owners mostly lived in the Mississippi Delta or on lands better suited for plantation farming). Owsley explains why settlers chose to move from one place to another (it was according to the type of land they were used to farming). Another reference for more about the land issue is: "History of Public Land Law Development", by Paul W. Gates, United States Government Printing Office, 1968. It can be found in most large libraries. 2. Drought in Alabama/Georgia in 1845-1848. What appears to be a second wave of migration into Union Parish from Alabama and Georgia began in about 1847, apparently just after or during the Mexican War. Settlers came from Houston Co Georgia as well as Bibb, Perry, Dallas, Wilcox, and Monroe Counties, Alabama, to name a few. I have searched for a long time for some common cause behind this migration; although clearly various families moved into Union Parish continuously since 1837, the 1846-1848 wave was more significant. While I can't prove drought was the reason, I think it must be. There was a severe drought in Georgia and Alabama that began around 1845. It did not seem to affect Mississippi or Louisiana. Here is a reference to this drought: A letter written in 1846 by Penelope Yelvington and her son Moses C. Yelvington of Talbot County Georgia to her son Robert J. Yelvington of Greenwood, Louisiana: ...We have the hardest times in this country that we ever have had since we have lived here. Corn cannot be bought for a dollar a bushel. The folks are going from here to Arkansas a good many of them...We have had the hardest times now that I ever have seen in my life. There is no corn in Georgia nor much of anything else to eat or feed with... (From: The Georgia Genealogical Magazine, No. 34, October 1969, p. 2343.) There are many other such references to this drought. *************************************** I have no information about later migrations into Union Parish other than to comment that the railroad came to Union Parish in the early 1900s, through Bernice. Railroad construction lured many men from place to place in this period, including many Union Parish families into Texas between 1900 and 1910. Some railroad workers could have remained in Union Parish. ************************** One further comment about the number of Union Parish citizens who married in Union County: at times it was not possible to travel to Farmerville easily from the northern portion of the parish due to high water. The Loutre was sometimes too high and perhaps other creeks. I've been told this is the reason some of my family married in Arkansas. Tim Hudson -----Original Message----- From: Mary Margaret Selig-Trahan [mailto:mmst@classicnet.net] Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 7:23 AM To: LAUNION-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: RollCall Jack...this is a good idea....I have often wondered why most of Union Parish came from the same area in AL and if most of those families came from the same area in GA....mmst ----- Original Message ----- From: Jack F Milam <byjacque@bellsouth.net> To: <LAUNION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 7:46 AM Subject: RollCall > Jack F Milam - Jacksonville, FL > > Searching for Milam, Brasher, DeShazo > > I would like to see something about goings-on, a TimeLine of Events, why families moved to Union Parish in mid 1800's, why my gf, a single man, would have moved there from Georgia about 1905, etc. > > >