Marksville, Louisiana

Marksville is a small city in and the parish seat of Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,702 at the 2010 census, an increase of 165 over the 2000 tabulation of 5,537.

Louisiana's first land-based casino, Paragon Casino Resort, opened in Marksville in June 1994. It is operated by the federally recognized Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe, which has a reservation in the parish.

History

The land where Marksville was founded on was once a meeting place, leading to the present day Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site.

Marksville is named after Marc Eliche (Marco Litche or Marco de Élitxe, as recorded by the Spanish), a Sephardic Jewish trader believed to be from Venice, who established a trading post after his wagon broke down in this area. His Italian name was recorded by a Spanish priest as ''Marco Litche;'' French priests, who were with colonists, recorded his name as ''Marc Eliche'' or ''Mark Eliché'' after his trading post was established about 1794. Marksville was noted on Louisiana maps as early as 1809, after the United States acquired the territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Eliche later donated the land that became the Courthouse Square in the center of Marksville.

Marksville's population has numerous families of Cajun ancestry, in addition to African Americans, European Americans, and persons of mixed European-African ancestry. Many of the families had ancestors here since the city was incorporated.

Marksville became the trading center of a rural area developed as cotton plantations. After the United States outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in 1808, enslavers purchased African-American slaves through the domestic slave trade; a total of more than one million were transported to the Deep South from the Upper South in the first half of the 19th century. Enslavers typically bought slaves from markets in New Orleans, where they had been taken via the Mississippi River or by the coastal slave trade at sea. Solomon Northup, a free black from Saratoga Springs, New York, was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Louisiana. After being held for nearly 12 years on plantations in Avoyelles Parish, he was freed in 1853 with the help of Marksville and New York officials. Northup's memoir, which he published after returning to New York, was the basis of the 2013 movie ''12 Years A Slave'', of the same name.

1947 Rain of Fish Incident

On October 23, 1947, between seven and eight o’clock in the morning, hundreds fish ranging from two to nine inches in length fell from the sky onto the streets and yards of Marksville. These were local freshwater fish, including: Large-mouth black bass ( Micropterus salmoides), goggle-eye ( Lepomis gulosus), several species of minnows, and hickory shad ( Alosa mediocris).

2015 shooting of Jeremy Mardis

On March 31, 2017, Judge William Bennett of the 12th Judicial District Court sentenced Stafford to forty years' imprisonment for the manslaughter of Jeremy Mardis. He was given a concurrent fifteen years for the attempted manslaughter of Christopher Few. Judge Bennett denied Stafford's defense request for a new trial. Stafford told the court that he did not know Jeremy was strapped in the front seat of the father's vehicle when he fired the fatal shots. Meanwhile, Greenhouse will be tried beginning June 12 on second-degree and attempted second-degree murder counts.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and 0.24% is water.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 5,065 people, 2,145 households, and 1,150 families residing in the city.

Education

All primary public schools are run by the Avoyelles Parish School Board, which operates two schools within the city of Marksville. In January 2018, 5 children from Marksville died in a car accident while traveling through Gainesville, Florida.

Elementary

* Marksville Elementary

High school

* Marksville High School

Media

Newspaper

* Avoyelles Journal

Radio

Notable people

* Allen Barbre, a football player with the Denver Broncos.
* Earl Barbry, an American politician and Native American leader
* D'Anthony Batiste (born 1982), Former football player for various teams
* Aaron Broussard, Jefferson Parish politician
* Chester Coco (1915–2001), lawyer and Louisiana state senator
* Edwin Edwards, four-term Governor of Louisiana
* Elaine Schwartzenburg Edwards, US senator in 1972
* H. Claude Hudson, civil rights activist and founder of Broadway Federal Bank
*Jeannette Knoll, associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court since 1997
* Chad Lavalais, former LSU and NFL football player
* Tommy Neck, LSU and NFL football player from the 1960s
* Ed Oliver, NFL football player
* John H. Overton (1875–1948), U.S. senator, native of Marksville
* Horace Pierite, former chief of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe.
* Gaston Porterie, former Attorney General of the State of Louisiana
* Charles Addison Riddle III, District Attorney and former State Representative
*Little Walter Jacobs, blues musician, 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
* Chief Sesostrie Youchigant, former chief of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe.

National Guard

1020th Engineer Company (Vertical) of the 527th Engineer Battalion of the 225th Engineer Brigade is located in Marksville.

Small communities in the area

*Brouillette
* Fifth Ward
*Moncla
*Spring Bayou
* Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation

References

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Cities in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana
Cities in Louisiana
Colonial Louisiana
Parish seats in Louisiana
1794 establishments in the Spanish Empire
Tunica-Biloxi