Ascension Parish (french: Paroisse de l'Ascension, es, Parroquia de Ascensión) is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 126,500. Its

parish seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

is Donaldsonville. The parish was created in 1807. Ascension Parish is part of the

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

metropolitan statistical area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

. Early European settlers of the area that was developed as Ascension and Gonzales were, for the most part, of French and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

ancestry. They settled among the Houma Indians who lived in the area. Among the projects and plans carried out by

Luis de Unzaga Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga (1717–1793), also known as Louis Unzaga y Amezéga le Conciliateur, Luigi de Unzaga Panizza and Lewis de Onzaga, was governor of Spanish Louisiana from late 1769 to mid-1777, as well as a Captain General of Venezuela ...

'le Conciliateur' while he was governor of

between 1769 and 1777 was the promotion of new settlements by Europeans, among them were French

Acadians The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the des ...

and Malaga in the fertile

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

region and more specifically in the Unzaga Post or 'Puesto de Unzaga' that he created in 1771 in

Pointe Coupee Pointe Coupee Parish ( or ; french: Paroisse de la Pointe-Coupée) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,802; in 2020, its population was 20,758. The parish seat is New Roads. Pointe ...

, the parish of Saint Gabriel in 1773 and Fort Manchac in 1776; the Ascension people occupied land at the confluence of the aforementioned European settlements. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, desertions had been of major concern to the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

Henry Watkins Allen Henry Watkins Allen (April 29, 1820April 22, 1866) was a member of the Confederate States Army and the Texian Army as a soldier, also serving as a military leader, politician, writer, slave owner, and sugar cane planter. He had made it to the ...

, before he was governor, reported more than eight thousand deserters and draft-dodgers about

Bayou Teche Bayou Teche (Louisiana French: ''Bayou Têche'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 waterway of great cultural significance in south central Louisiana in t ...

. There were some 1,200 deserters in

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, St. Tammany, and Ascension parishes. Planters in Ascension Parish later complained of raids by

guerrillas Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...

. In 1864, planter W.R. Hodges requested soldiers to protect the planted fields from such attacks.

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

soldiers were accused of "wandering about at will, and helping themselves . . . to whatever could be found," explains the

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 stu ...

John D. Winters in his ''The Civil War in Louisiana'' (1963). During the historic

2016 Louisiana Floods In August 2016, prolonged rainfall from an unpredictable storm resulted in catastrophic flooding in the state of Louisiana, United States; thousands of houses and businesses were submerged. Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards, called the disas ...

, around one-third of all homes in Ascension Parish were flooded. 15,000 homes and businesses took on water, mostly in the Galvez-St. Amant area, prompting a visit to St. Amant by then-presidential candidate,

Donald J. Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

. Ascension Parish is one of the 22 parishes that make up

Acadiana Acadiana ( French and Louisiana French: ''L'Acadiane''), also known as the Cajun Country (Louisiana French: ''Le Pays Cadjin'', es, País Cajún), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained mu ...

, the heartland of the

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

people and their culture. This is exhibited by the prevalence of the French or

Cajun French Louisiana French ( frc, français de la Louisiane; lou, françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louis ...

language heard throughout the parish, as well as the many festivals celebrated by its residents, including the Boucherie Festival, Lagniappe Music and Seafood Festival, Crawfish Festival, and the world-famous Jambalaya Festival. The largest city in Ascension Parish, Gonzales, is celebrated as the "Jambalaya Capital of the World".

Law and government

Long a Democratic bastion, since the late 20th century, like much of the rest of the South, Ascension Parish has registered more Republicans and election results have shifted. Since 2000, nearly 14,000 new voters have registered in Ascension Parish, and fewer than 1,000 of those are Democrats. Democrats still lead in registrants with 28,181; Republicans follow with 16,218. There are also 13,052 "No Party" registrants, as permitted under Louisiana law. Ascension Parish also had a small number of voters registered as upper case Independents. As of April 2007 there were 31

Libertarian Party Active parties by country Defunct parties by country Organizations associated with Libertarian parties See also * Liberal parties by country * List of libertarian organizations * Lists of political parties Lists of political part ...

members and 33 Reform Party registrants. The total registrants in April 2007 stood at 58,221. Republican

Eddie J. Lambert Eddie J. Lambert is an American attorney and politician from the state of Louisiana. A Republican, Lambert has represented the 18th district in the Louisiana State Senate since 2016. Lambert previously served in the Louisiana House of Represen ...

, an attorney in Gonzales who resides in Prairieville, has represented Ascension Parish in the Louisiana State Senate since 2016. Previously, he was the area state representative from 2004 to 2016. He unseated

Juba Diez Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a populatio ...

, the representative from 1976 to 2004. Joe Sevario, a Prairieville businessman, served in the state Senate for District 18, including Ascension Parish, from 1976 to 1994. On March 8, 2017, Ascension Parish President Kenneth Paul "Kenny" Matassa (born September 12, 1949), a Republican, along with Olin Glenn Berthelot (born August 1948), a Democratic businessman from Gonzales, faced

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...

in an attempted

bribery Bribery is the Offer and acceptance, offering, Gift, giving, Offer and acceptance, receiving, or Solicitation, soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With reg ...

scheme. The pair is charged with encouraging a candidate to withdraw from a local election on November 8, 2016. The

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

released its

true bill True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality. True may also refer to: Places * True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States * ...

to Judge Tess Stromberg of the 23rd Judicial District Court in Ascension,

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Tow ...

, and St. James parishes. Among those who testified in the case were Democratic Gonzales City Council member Neal Bourqueat. Matassa and Berthelot allegedly bribed the Democrat A. Wayne Lawson with offers of money and a government job to drop out of the city council race in Division E against Bourque, who nevertheless won reelection with 61 percent of the ballots cast. Matassa and Berthelot turned themselves in to authorities and posted a $5,000 bond. Reports, meanwhile, surfaced of a move before the parish council calling for Matassa to resign. He cannot be forced from the office, however, unless convicted of the crime. Matassa and Berthelot could have received up to two years in state prison either with or without hard time and/or a fine of $2,000. Matassa was instead acquitted in July 2018 of the election bribery allegations and returned to his duties as parish president with a legal cloud lifted from his shoulders.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the parish has a total area of , of which is land and (4.2%) is water. It is the fourth-smallest parish in Louisiana by total area.

Waterways

* Alligator Bayou *

Amite River The Amite River (french: Rivière Amite) is a tributary of Lake Maurepas in Mississippi and Louisiana in the United States. It is about long. It starts as two forks in southwestern Mississippi and flows south through Louisiana, passing Greate ...

* Amite River Diversion Canal * Anderson Canal * Babin Canal * Bayou Antoine *

Bayou Manchac Bayou Manchac is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou in southeast Louisiana, USA. First called the Iberville River ("rivière d'Iberville") by its Frenc ...

* Bayou Narcisse * Bayou Pierre * Bayou Pas * Bayou Conway * Bayou Francois *

Bayou Lafourche Bayou Lafourche ( ), originally called Chetimachas River or La Fourche des Chetimaches, (the fork of the Chitimacha), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 b ...

* Bayou Napoleon * Bayou Verret * Bayou Vicknair * Black Bayou * Blind River * Boudreau Bayou * Boyle Bayou * Braud Bayou * Cocodrie Bayou * Cotton Bayou * Crowley Ditch * Duckroost Bayou * Flat Lake * Grand Goudine Bayou * Hackett Canal * Heath Bayou * Henderson Bayou * Jim Bayou * Johnson Bayou * Lake Millet * Lake Villars * Laurel Ridge Canal * McCall Bayou *

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

* Muddy Creek * New River * New River Canal * Old New River * Panama Canal * Pipeline Canal * Rocky Canal * Roddy Bayou * Saveiro Canal * Sides Bayou * Smith Bayou * Spanish Lake * Welsh Gully

Major highways

Louisiana Highway 1 Louisiana Highway 1 (LA 1) is a state highway in Louisiana. At , it is the longest numbered highway of any class in Louisiana. It runs diagonally across the state, connecting the oil and gas fields near the island of Grand Isle with the no ...

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

* Louisiana Highway 16 *

Louisiana Highway 18 Louisiana Highway 18 (LA 18) is a state highway that serves Ascension, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Jefferson Parishes. Called the Great River Road, it runs from west to east, parallel to the west bank of the Mississipp ...

Louisiana Highway 22 Louisiana Highway 22 (LA 22) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs in a general east–west direction from the junction of LA 75 and LA 942 in Darrow to U.S. Highway 190 (US 190) in Mandeville. T ...

Louisiana Highway 30 Louisiana Highway 30 (LA 30) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs in a northwest to southeast direction from LA 73 in Baton Rouge to the junction of U.S. Highway 61 (US 61) and LA 431 east of Gonzal ...

Louisiana Highway 42 Louisiana Highway 42 (LA 42) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston, and Tangipahoa parishes. It spans in a general east–west direction. Route description From the west, LA 42 starts at an int ...

Louisiana Highway 44 Louisiana Highway 44 (LA 44) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Ascension, St. James Parish, Louisiana, St. James, and St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, St. John the Baptist Parishes. It runs from west t ...

U.S. Highway 61 U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designated ...

Louisiana Highway 70 Louisiana Highway 70 (LA 70) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves St. Mary, St. Martin, Assumption, and Ascension parishes. It is primarily a two-lane highway that spans . Route description LA 70 begins at an exit from U.S. Highway 90 in ...

Louisiana Highway 73 Louisiana Highway 73 (LA 73) is a state highway in Louisiana stretching from Geismar to Baton Rouge. LA 73 was built as a bypass to the backbends of River Road. It was soon after bypassed itself in a more complete way with U.S. Route 61 (Airline ...

Adjacent parishes

East Baton Rouge Parish East Baton Rouge Parish (french: Paroisse de Bâton Rouge Est) is the most populous parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 U.S. census, its population was 440,171, and 456,781 at the 2020 census. The parish seat is Baton Rouge, ...

(north) *

Livingston Parish Livingston Parish (Louisiana French: ''La Paroisse Livingston'') is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its parish seat is the town of Livingston. Livingston Parish is one of the Florida Parishes, a region which, unlike the rest of the sta ...

(northeast) *

St. John the Baptist Parish St. John the Baptist Parish (SJBP, french: Paroisse de Saint-Jean-Baptiste) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 42,477. The parish seat is Edgard, an unincorporated area, and the largest c ...

(east) * St. James Parish (southeast) *

Assumption Parish Assumption Parish (french: Paroisse de l'Assomption, es, Parroquia de la Asunción) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,421. Its parish seat is Napoleonville. Assumption Parish was ...

(southwest) *

Iberville Parish Iberville Parish (french: Paroisse d'Iberville) is a List of parishes in Louisiana, parish located south of Baton Rouge in the U.S. state of Louisiana, formed in 1807. The parish seat is Plaquemine, Louisiana, Plaquemine. At the 2010 U.S. census, ...

(west)

Communities

Cities

* Donaldsonville (parish seat) * Gonzales

Town

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana ra ...

Census-designated places

* Darrow * Lemannville * Prairieville

Unincorporated communities

* Aben * Acy *

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

* Barton * Belle Helene *

Bowden Bowden may refer to: Places Australia * Bowden Island, one of the Family Islands in Queensland * Bowden, South Australia, northwestern suburb of Adelaide * Bowden railway station Canada * Bowden, Alberta, town in central Alberta England * Bowde ...

* Brignac *

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

* Brusly McCall *

Bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from t ...

* Burnside * Cofield * Cornerview * Duckroost *

Duplessis Duplessis may refer to: * Duplessis (surname) **Maurice Duplessis (1890–1959), the 16th premier of Quebec ***'' Duplessis (TV series)'', a historical television series about Maurice Duplessis that aired in Québec in 1978 ***Duplessis Orphans s ...

* Dutchtown * Galvez * Geismar * Hillaryville *

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

* Hohen Solms * Hope Villa *

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

* Little Prairie *

McElroy McElroy is an Irish surname originating in County Fermanagh, Ireland, where the placename Ballymackilroy is found McElroy is the surname of a number of people: Family of Clint McElroy * Clint McElroy (born 1955), American radio personality, co ...

* Marchand * Miles *

Modeste Modeste may refer to: * Modeste (name), including a list of people with the name * French ship Modeste (1759), French ship ''Modeste'' (1759), a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy * French ship Modeste, list of French ships with this name ...

* Mount Houmas * Oak Grove * Noel *

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

* Philadelphia Point * Saint Elmo * Saint Amant * Smoke Bend * Southwood * Weber City

Demographics

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 126,500 people, 44,267 households, and 32,305 families residing in the parish.

Education

Ascension Parish School Board Ascension Parish School Board is a school district headquartered in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continenta ...

operates the local public schools. The parish is also home to private schools and — since 1998, to

River Parishes Community College River Parishes Community College is a public community college in Gonzales, Louisiana. It was previously located in Sorrento, Louisiana but was moved to Gonzales in 2014 with the construction of a new campus in the Edenborne Development. In Aug ...

National Guard

The 922nd

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

(Horizontal), a unit of the 769th Engineer

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

and the 225th Engineer Brigade. The 1021st Vertical Engineer Company also resides in

Gonzales, Louisiana Gonzales is a city in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 12,231. Known as the "Jambalaya Capital of the World", it is famous for its annual Jambalaya Festival, which was first held in 1968. S ...

Media

Two newspapers are based in Ascension Parish's two cities, Donaldsonville and Gonzales. '' The Gonzales Weekly Citizen'' is a bi-weekly newspaper formed after the merger of ''The Gonzales Weekly'' (founded 1920) and ''The Ascension Citizen'' (founded 1996). The '' Donaldsonville Chief'', founded in 1871, is the parish's longest-continually-published newspaper. KKAY 1590 AM is headquartered in Donaldsonville on historic Railroad Avenue. It is a local radio station that airs programs from local ministers and churches and about local high school softball and football.

Politics

References

External links

Ascension Parish government's website

Ascension Parish Sheriff's website

''Weekly Citizen'' newspaper

Ascension Parish Library

Explore the History and Culture of Southeastern Louisiana, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary

Radio station website
{{authority control Louisiana parishes Parishes in Acadiana Baton Rouge metropolitan area Louisiana Isleño communities Louisiana parishes on the Mississippi River 1807 establishments in the Territory of Orleans Populated places established in 1807