Mer Rouge () is a village in

Morehouse Parish Morehouse Parish (French:Paroisse de Morehouse) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,629. The parish seat is Bastrop. The parish was formed in 1844. Morehouse Parish comprises th ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, United States. The name is French for "Red Sea". The population was 491 at the 2020 census, down from 628 in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

History

There is a hill that serves as a boundary between Mer Rouge and Bastrop, named "Red Hill". According to legend, French settlers recognized the "sea of red

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

" between the bluffs to the north and west of the area. They called it Prarie Mer Rouge, or the "red sea" prairie. On February 3, 1865, near the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, two squadrons of the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

cavalry attacked Mer Rouge and, according to historian

John D. Winters John David Winters (December 23, 1916 – December 9, 1997)John D. Winters obituary, '' Ruston Daily Leader'', December 10, 1997 was an American historian at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. He is known for his monograph ''Th ...

, seized some horses and mules, while also freeing some enslaved African-Americans. They then "burned about 300,000 bushels of corn ndsome cotton", thus undermining the production power of the pro-slavery rebels. In August 1922, in a case that would attract national attention, members of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

abducted two Mer Rouge men—Filmore Watt Daniel and Thomas Fletcher Richard—on the Bastrop highway. After torturing and killing the men, the Klansmen disposed of their bodies in nearby Lake Lafourche. Following the killings, Louisiana Governor John M. Parker sought help from the U.S. Department of Justice in suppressing Klan violence within the state. On October 5th, 2014 a

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

train crashed into a lowboy trailer hauling a tractor, seriously injuring both railroad crew and causing two engines along with 17 cars to derail. 50 homes were evacuated due to the leakage of argon gas from the tank car.

Geography

Mer Rouge is in central Morehouse Parish, east of Bastrop, the

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 five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equivalent term, shire town, is used in ...

. The above-mentioned Red Hill rises above the plain on which Mer Rouge sits, about halfway between the village and Bastrop. U.S. Routes

165 Year 165 ( CLXV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Orfitus and Pudens (or, less frequently, year 918 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 165 for this year ...

and 425 pass through the village. The highways lead together westerly to Bastrop but split in the center of Mer Rouge, the US 165 leading northeast to Bonita and US 425 leading south to Oak Ridge. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, 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 U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, Mer Rouge has an area of , of which , or 0.68%, are water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 956 people, 504 households, and 172 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 293 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 62.97%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 36.48%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.28% Native American, and 0.28% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.11% of the population. There were 264 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 20.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 30.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.86. In the village, the population was spread out, with 20.0% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 23.3% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 28.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.1 males. The median income for a household in the village was $23,472, and the median income for a family was $27,273. Males had a median income of $26,833 versus $19,861 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $12,759. About 29.7% of families and 39.6% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 51.7% of those under age 18 and 10.9% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

Lou Brock Louis Clark Brock (June 18, 1939September 6, 2020) was an American professional baseball left fielder. He began his 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the 1961 Chicago Cubs but spent most of it as a left fielder for the St. Louis ...

, former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player and member of the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

* Ben Lilly, big game hunter; once owned a farm located near Mer Rouge * Newt V. Mills,

congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

from Louisiana's 5th District; taught school in Mer Rouge from 1921 to 1932 * Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., writer of military history; born in Mer Rouge

References

External links