Grant Parish, Louisiana Genealogical Records Information

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Grant Parish History and Information

Grant Parish Facts

Grant Parish was created by Act 82 of March 4, 1869 , from Rapides and Winn Parishes and the parish was named in honor of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant . The Parish seat is Colfax . The Courthouse had an unkown records loss in the 1880's.

It is borderd by Winn Parish (north), La Salle Parish (east), Rapides Parish (south), Natchitoches Parish (west) . Cites, Towns and Communities include Colfax, Dry Prong, Georgetown, Montgomery, Pollock . Unincorporated areas of interest in the parish include Antonia, Bagdad, Bentley, Breezy Hill, Faircloth, Fairfield, Fairmont, Farmland, Fishville, Hargis, Howcott, Iatt, Kadesh, Kateland, Lincecum, Lutes, McNeely, Mudville, New Verda, Nugent, Oak Grove, Prospect, Raven Camp, Rochelle, Rock Hill, Sand Spur, Selma, Simms, Stay, Summerfield, The Rock, Thompson Ferry, Veneer, Williana and Zion. The Official County Website is located at ? . See Extended History for More information.

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Grant Parish Court Records

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PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information. The Courthouse had an unkown records loss in the 1880's.

Grant Parish Clerk of Court has Court Records from 1880 and Land Records from 1880 and Probate Records from 1880 has Marriage Records from 1880 and is located at 200 Main Street, P O Box 263, Colfax, LA 71417, (318) 627-3246, (318) 627-3201 Fax.
The Clerk of Court for each parish in Louisiana performs the functions of more than one office. As the Recorder, the office of the Clerk of Court receives, files, records and indexes all mortgages, conveyances and all other instruments recorded in the Public Records for the Parish. The Clerk’s Office receives and files all pleadings, such as petitions, answers, motions and other filings in Civil and Probate matters, as well as indictments, bills of information and other filings in Criminal matters. The Clerk’s Office also handles special Juvenile matters and Criminal Neglect cases. Another function of the Clerk’s Office is the issuance of Marriage Licenses and recording their returns after the marriages are performed.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include:Louisiana Marriages, 1718-1925, Louisiana Marriages to 1850, Louisiana Marriage Records, 1851-1900, New Orleans, Louisiana Marriage Records Index, 1831-1925, Louisiana Land Records. You may also search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which does cover Louisiana and does cover surrounding states. Many pioneers and settelers bought land from the government instead of individuals.

Click Here to Search Louisiana Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Grant Parish Court Records. Email us with websites containing Grant Parish Court Records by clicking the link below:

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Grant Parish Vital Records

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Tax records are a valuable but little-used source. Almost everything was taxed: household and personal goods, livestock, slaves, and property. Tax lists can be used as a substitute census, to create complete neighborhoods for a neighborhood study, establish relationships, locate land, and so on. Unfortunately, most of these lists no longer exist in Louisiana, but those that are extant are usually found in the tax assessor's office in the Grant Parish courthouse.

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Grant Parish Genealogical Addresses

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The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Grant Parish Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Grant Parish Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

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Local Louisiana Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Louisiana State Archives , 3851 Essen Lane, PO Box 94125, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9125; (225) 922-2012
Louisiana Historical Society, 5801 St. Charles Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana 70115; 504/866-3049, [EMAIL]
Louisiana Genealogical & Historical Society, P.O. Box 82060, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70884-2060-60
National Archives and Records Admin, 501 W Felix Str, Building 1, P.O. 6216, Fort Worth, Texas 76115-3405; archives@ftworth.nara.gov, Fax: 817-334-5511
Louisiana Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
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Grant Parish Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Louisiana Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Grant Parish. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Grant Parish Tombstone Transcription Project.

Most Catholic church registers are still in the local parish church. Many of them have been translated and published.

The recording of cemetery inscriptions in Louisiana has long been a project of the DAR and numerous genealogical societies. Genealogical publications continually print these inscriptions in their issues.

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Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

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When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Grant Parish Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Grant Parish Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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County History

By Louis R. Nardini, Sr.

Grant Parish was one of the “Reconstruction” parishes of Northwest Louisiana. It was created out of the southern part of Winn Parish and the northern part of Rapides Parish. The name “Grant” applies in honor of U. S. Grant, by Act 82 of March 4, 1869, (The Democrats of the local area did not like the idea of their parish being named after a northern General and declared that the Parish of Grant was named after R. H. Grant who was a cabin-boy on one of the steamboats which ran the Red River. This boy later worked himself into the position of Captain of the Packet U and I which ran the Red River from Alexandria to Jefferson, Texas—only the most skilled captains were qualified to operate in the upper Red River waters.)

The area of Grant Parish consists of 642 square miles and the boundaries are: commencing at the confluence of Bayou Darro with the Red River, eastward to a point of confluence of Little River and Catahoula Lake; thence up Little River to the junction of Castor Bayou and Dugdemonia; West on the south boundary of Winn Parish to the Range line between two and three; thence south from the Range lilne to the Township lines 8 and 9, and west to where this line crosses the Red River, the Red River being the western boundary of Grant Parish. Thus Grant Parish of Louisiana was formed in the year 1869.

The formation of Grant Parish was born in the minds of some of the best and most loyal citizens Louisiana ever had. In the year 1869, C. C. Dunn, H. V. McCain, Phillip Burstein, M. Gans, David Hardy and J. M. McCain of Montgomery, then in Winn Parish, and James Hadnot, L. Yarborough, T. K. Smith and others of prominence of the Rapides Parish area, conceived the idea of forming a new parish out of the north portion of Rapides Parish, the south portion of Winn Parish and the west portion of Catahoula Parish. To this end a petition was drawn up giving specific boundaries of territories to be ceded from the above mentioned parishes. A larger petition was signed by the citizens of these territories and was sent to the legislature, then in session, to pass an act forming the new parish to be known and designated as Red River Parish, with courthouse at Montgomery, Louisiana, which was the River Center of the new parish to be formed.

The petition fell into the hands of William Calhoune, a Republican and then an heir to his father’s estate consisting of 1,000 slaves and land with a river frontage of seven miles on Red River, interstate. Calhoune changed the petition, leaving off some of Winn Parish to the north, thus making the estate of his father the Red River center of the new parish. And in this new forged petition it was asked that the new parish be called Grant and that the new parish site center be located on the Red River and on the Calhoune plantation and that the new parish seat be called Colfax, after one Schuyler Colfax who was the vice president of the United States at that time. One can well understand the travesty of this act and it will be better understood when we recall that this was done in reconstruction days when Louisiana was under martial-law, and in the hands of provost-martials, all of whom were under the protection of the Federal government. Such men as these provost-martials were to eventually be responsible for the many small groups of Southern organized resistance, which were at this moment reaching a fever-pitch throughout the southern states.

FLAGS THAT HAVE WAVED OVER GRANT PARISH
Perhaps the best way to execute the writing of the history of an area, is to drop back into the history of the area, and to describe the flags which have flown over that area, for out of this comes the stories of the adventurers, the warriors and the settlers.
1. The Red Hawk pennant of the Caddo Nation of Indians, when this nation became a federation, when it split into separate tribes and each group following a leader to settle elsewhere. Thus the Yatacees settled on Nantachie Lake near present-day Verda, Louisiana.
2. The Spanish flag of the explorer, the Leon and Castile which were carried by Columbus, and Hernando DeSoto, in 1541.
3. The French fleur-de-lis, carried by LaSalle, Iberville, Beinville and St. Denis, 1700.
4. The Spanish Bourbon flag of 1762.
5. The French Tri-color of 1802.
6. The United States Flag of 15 stars and 13 stripes in 1808 after the Louisiana Purchase.
7. The Independent flag of Louisiana when Louisiana succeeded from the Union.
8. The Stars and Bars of the Confederacy when Louisiana entered the Civil War.
9. And then again Old Glory.

THE BUFFALO
Each fall of the year came the Buffalo in their annual fall-migration, out of the Grant Plains area of the present United States, through Oklahoma they passed, and in Texas at the Trinity River they turned eastward and the Buffalo being a large and heavy beast left a well-marked trail, past the present day areas of Nacogdoches, San Augustine and Milam in Texas. They crossed the Sabine River into Louisiana and then past the areas of Many, Natchitoches fording the Red River there, then near Montgomery. They crossed the stream of water, later to be called the Rigolet de Bon Dieu past Verda, Dry Prong, Bentley and Pollock in Grant Parish. Then they went past Jena, Jonesville, to the Ferriday-Vidalia area near the Mississippi River. Many parts of the different herds of Buffalo spread out to graze on the lush grasses of Texas and Louisiana.
That part of this old Buffalo trail from the Trinity River in Texas to Natchitoches, La., became known as “El Camino Real” and from Natchitoches, La., to Vidalia, La., that portion of the Buffalo trail became known as the Natchitoches to Natchez Trace.

THE INDIANS
The passing of the Buffalo each fall of the year attracted Indians of many different tribes and federations for here along this trail was their winters supply of meat to be taken with little effort. Many Indian tribes came to settle permanently along this trail. There are many relics of these past tribes which have been found and many are being found today. The locations of the discovery of these Indian relics bring out the true locations of the Natchez Trace, which followed the Buffalo Trail.

THE MILLAGE AND MOUND INDIANS
In the year 1000 A.D. came the Mound Indians to settle along the Buffalo Trail and mounds have been found in many locations along the buffalo Trail as far west as Nacogdoches, Texas some of the mounds were Burial-Mounds and others were prayer mounds. Only the burial mounds contained artifacts, which give us information as to the abilities of the Indians of that early period. The Millage Indians were somewhat earlier than the Mound Indians and artifacts found of these Indians do not show the intelligence of the Mound Indians.

LATER INDIANS
I will list here the Indians who used the Grant parish area to settle on or those which used it for a hunting ground and as this history each tribe be brought in as the History progresses.
1. The Caddos. The tribes were, the Natchitoches, the Yatasee, the Doustonies, the Nakassa ( a small branch tribe of the Natchitoches Indians), the Washati and the Koasatti (Coushatta a branch of the Washatai).
2. The Natchez
3. The Tensas.
4. The Choctaw. The Kora Triber of this Nation and The Iatts.
5. The Attapas: these tribes, the Calcusi, the Oupalusi.
6. The Yazoo.
7. The Appalachi: Ibitoupa combined some of the Mouscohigan.
8. The Tunica
9. The Biloxi and the Mobile.

One wonders what was in the Grant Parish area apart from the Buffalo Trail and the beasts, which used it, to attract so many tribes of different Indians to the area. There were these things: Nuts: Chinquapin, Hickory, Pecan, Acorn and Black Walnuts, all of which are available today; Fruits: Persimmon of which the Indians made a dried bread called Sanqumin, Peaches, Musquadines, Wild Grapes, Wild Plums, Mayhaws, Berries: Huckleberries, dewberries, Blackberries, Mulberries, Elderberries (which when the wood was cut and dried, was used as arrowshaft). Wild Strawberries were found in cool marshy places. Wild Game included bear, deer, buffalo, squirrel, opossum, rabbit and raccoon. Wildfowl found in the area included, wild ducks and geese of many species, wild turkey, grouse, such as quail and sage hen, carrier pigeon, morning dove, robin and blackbird.

There was an abundance of fish for the taking in the rivers, streams, lakes and bayous.
Many of the mentioned tribes grew such vegetables as melon, squash, pumpkins, corn, and a species of potato, beans and peas. Gourds were grown as food containers, when dried and processed.
There was the Sassafras tree, the dried leaves of which were beaten into a powder and used as a seasoning. (We know this product today as file’, a seasoning for gumbo.) The roots of this tree was dried and then boiled to make a delicious tea, which was sweetened with wild honey. The small chips of a fallen tree were used to be burned in ceremonial and courtship fires, which when burned in small pieces produced a pretty blue flame and the smoke had a pleasant odor.
The inner bark of the black locust tree was used as a toothache medicine. Dried and ground coontail moss of the lakes was used as a pacifier for teething babies. Powdered buffalo horn, burned in rich-lighted pine, was an easement, when the smoke was inhaled, for the suffers of asthma or hayfever. The Indians even had their intoxicating beverages, which were made from the fermenting roots of the waterlilly or nenocks. Wildrice and onions were used by the Indians to make their Kombo-lichi (gumbo).

THE EXPLORERS
Hernando DeSoto, born in Badajos, Estramandura in Spain in 1501 died and was buried in the Mississippi River May 21, 1542 and according to others June 5 or June 30, 1542.
DeSoto was in Spain fresh from the conquest of Peru with Pizarro, when he was appointed governor of Florida and Cuba with orders from Spain to explore and settle the land of Florida. On May 12, 1539 with nine ships loaded with 570 men, 950 horses, 350 swine and all other necessary equipment, landed at Tampa Bay, Florida and began an exploration of the interior of the present United States.
The following clues from the Chronicles of the DeSoto expedition shows that DeSoto traveled the Natchitoches to Natchez trace:
From the Chronicles of Gonzado Quadrado Charmillo de Zafra and Garcilasso deLaVega, both of which were on the DeSoto expedition and who were hardy enough to stand the vigors of travel and both lived to reach Panuco on the Coast of Mexico. These two give the most vivid accounts of the expedition. Both later in Spain became priests to repent for their part in the cruelties inflicted on the Indians during this expedition.

The Chronicles shows that La Vega has this to say: We wintered in the year of 1540 among the Haysoozs (Yazoos) who lived in the mid-Mississippi state area. We took all of their food and sent them into the wilderness thus depriving them of their homes. In January of 1540 we crossed the Mississippi River. On the east side of this large river were high bluffs. When one looks westward he could see for a great distance the low flat land area. The Indians of this area deserted their villages long before we arrived taking with them all of their food and burning their homes so that we had to live off the swine which had been brought along for just such a purpose. We followed an animal trail westward and on occasions we killed many of the beasts. They were not unlike cows of Spain except that they have a large bump above their shoulders or forelegs. We came out of this valley into hill land and fresh water was in abundance as it gushed out of the earth in many places. Note: One such place could have been Choctaw Springs. (A camp grounds east of the present-day Montgomery and at the site of Fraziers old saw mill.) Thus, LaVega’s description of the area which began at Natchez Bluff, the animal trail, the buffalo trail and the buffalo were according to that just completing their winter migration to the Mississippi River.

Charmillo de Zafra: “We marched one day west from the Rio de Cannis in all this cold country this Wednesday, March 21, 1541, at the end of the day we came to a place called “Toalli”. All of the Indians have houses built so, the houses are built are built of reeds in a manner of tulles and daubed with mud which show as a mud wall. They are very clean and have a small door; when you shut it up and build a fire within it is as warm as in a stove”. All of the Indians have houses built so. Note: The Red River near Natchitoches at this time had an unusual heavy cane growth; Thus the Spanish description Rio de Cannis, Cane River. Later Spaniards also referred to the Red River of this area as Rio de Cannis. The Adais Indians lived on Spanish Lake as it was later called. This lake had an abundantly heavy growth of cattails, which resembled the Tules of Spain. “Toalli” a slang, Spanish expression referring to houses built of tules. The Mud and Reed houses so described were typical of the Caddo Federation of Indians of which the Adais near present-day Robeline, Louisiana was a tribe, as was the Yatasee, which was settled on Nantachie Lake near present Verda, Louisiana. The Adais or “Toalli” were about fifteen miles from the Rio de Cannis or Red River at Natchitoches. Fifteen miles was the usual distance of soldiers, foot and horseback, traveled in one day. To further substantiate the Buffalo trail; DeSoto encamped at Toalli and his Lieutenant, Louis De Muscoso, followed the Buffalo Trail westward as far as the Trinity River in Texas where the animal trail turned northward. Charmillo was also with Muscoso.

THE CADDO FEDERATION OF INDIAN TRAIL SYSTEM
La Vega wrote “In much of this area traveled, I noticed cut into trees, three notices, as if they were marking a trail through the wilderness. We followed these markings of “Natchez Trace” trail of notches, northward from Toalli”. Thus it was after DeSoto had traveled the Natchez Trace and El Camino Real as far as the Trinity River, that he traveled northward into the Arkansas and Missouri area, then returning along the Mississippi River to the Confluence of the Red River where he died. The Spanish then built boats and descended the Mississippi River and followed the Gulf Coast line to reach safety at Pamico on the Mexical gulf coast.

La Vega gives us our first clue of the Caddo Indian Trail System of which El Camino Real and the Natchez Trace was a part. This three notches trail system extended as far north as the Illinois and Ouisconsin; as far west as the Coahile below the Rio Grande River; south to the gulf coast and eat to the Natchez Indians. Because of the similarity of the spelling of the Spanish word for notches and Natchez the Three Notches is often wrongly credited to the Natchez Indians. The Three Notches are the mark of the Caddo Federation of Indian Trail System. The Natchez Indians were not the long-distance traders as were the Caddos. The Caddo trader or Jumas, as he was called, was a specialist in his job. He was the eye, the spy, the goodwill ambassador, or, to put it to modern-day vernacular, the Public Relations Executive of his people. This explains why the Caddos were not in wars with their neighboring tribes as were many of the other tribes and nations of Indians. Thus, in less than fifty years after Christopher Columbus discovered America, the white man trod the soil of Grant Parish. And no one knows how long before this time the Red Hawk Pennant flag of the Caddos waved over this area.

THE COMING OF THE FRENCHMEN
April 9, 1682 Cavalier Roberto de LaSalle, having descended the Mississippi River to its mouth and planted a plaque there, claimed all land drained by this river for France. He named it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIII and Queen Anne.
Returning up the Mississippi River he established Fort St. Louis near Starving Rock among the Illinois Indians and left Captain Henri De Tonty, the Iron Hand, as Commandant.
LaSalle departed for France via the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. He had given De Tony orders to remain there and that he would return by sea and sail up the mouth of the Mississippi River and establish a settlement.

LaSalle on his return trip missed the mouth of the Mississippi River and mistakenly landed in Matagardo Bay on the Texas Coast where he established another Fort St. Louis in 1685 . In attempting to reach Canada, LaSalle was assassinated by some of his fellow men. At this time, Father Joutil took command of the remnants of the ill-fated Fort St. Louis on the Texas Coast.

MEMOIRS DU CAPTAIN HENRI DE TONTY
Fearing something was amiss in the plans of Sieur de LaSalle, I departed from Fort St. Louis among the Illinois, taking with me eleven others, and in November of 1689 we left in search of LaSalle, for it was four years since he departed from this place and we have had no word from him. From talking with the visiting Indians I learned to follow the southern Indian trails by following the Encoches de Trace chemin du arbresbois, (Notches marking a road or trail through a forest). After having traveled as far south as I had previously with Sieur de La Salle in 1682 we returned up stream to the Village of the Natchez and traveled La Trace du Encoches (Trail of the Notches) westward. In May 1690 I was among the Natchitoches Indians. These Indians spoke the same tongue as those visiting the Illinois. I followed the Encoches westward to the Hassinnais (the Hasania – a Caddo Tribe that was located on the Trinity River in Texas near present-day Salcado. Here the Frenchmen I had with me refused to go further, so I gave up the search for LaSalle. Note: De Tonty listed the Caddo Indian Tribes in this order; The Yatari (Yatasee), The Natchitoches, The Haydays (Adais), The Hayish (Ais or Ayish near San Augustine, The Nabodkas (Nacogdoches near Nacogdoches) the latter two tribes being in Texas and Hassinnais or Hasinai near Salcado in Texas. Thus Henry De Tonty, the Iron Hand, before or in the early days of May 1690 followed the Natchez Trace through Grant Parish.
Father Joutil later found the trail of the Notches and had this to write in his memoirs. “Among the Hasinnas (Hasinai) at this place we found a trail eastward which was as well marked as the trail Parish in France to Florence in Italy (he was referring to the trail through the Alps Mountains between France and Italy). Joutil caught up with Henry De Tonty among the Arkansas Indians near present-day Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

PIERRE LE MOYNE, SIEUR D’IBERVILLE
JEAN BAPTISTE LEMOINE, SIEUR DE BIENVILLE
LOUIS JUCHEREAU DE ST. DENIS
1700
The Journal of Father Paul Du Ru, February 1 to May 8, 1700
Iberville having established Fort Biloxi in 1699 in Mississippi and taking sick at the Village of the Tensas, we returned down the Mississippi to the Natchez. At this village was a Wichita Indian who stated that he had visited a Spanish Mission in the Tejas (Texas) Country. Here among the Natchez on March 29, 1700 Iberville decided to return to Fort Biloxi, but he sent an expedition westward with the Wichita Indian acting as guide to scout for the Spanish, Father Du Ru writes: “The Party consisted of 22 Frenchmen. I included in that number with Sieur de Bienville, Sieur de St. Denis, the two Tulon brothers, Roberto and Pierre, Sieur Le Vasseur, a maker of maps, and 16 others. We followed an easy trail westward and on April 20 we reached the Yatasee Village situated on Nantachie Lake. Here we rested for two weeks but in the meantime Sieur Bienville and Sieur St. Denis and four others left to visit another tribe of Indians of the same family as the Yatasee where they obtained several gourds of salt. Note: This tribe of Indians would have been the Dustonis (Salt Indians on Saline Bayou near Goldonna, Louisiana). Bienville Diary mentions his visitation there in April 1700.
We departed this area on May 5 and while I was crossing a small river near Petite Ecore, my canoe capsized and I lost the Images with which I perform the services of the Mass. Thus this stream of water was named “Rigolet De Bon Dieu”, Small River of God, Note: This location was called Ecore Rouge or Petite Ecore or Petite Ecore Rouge, Red Bluff or Little Red Bluff, respectfully. At low water stage the French later called this location “Roche Passerelle”, Rocky Ford or Rocky Footbridge. Later this site became known as Creola Bluff and the beginning of Montgomery, Louisiana, which is the oldest town in Grant Parish. On May 8, 1700 we were among the Natchitoches Indians of the same family as the Yatasee. They lived on an island formed by the Riverie Rouge (Red River). At this place Sieur de Bienville purchased boats (Caddo Pirogues), when he was made to understand that the Riverie Rouge emptied into the Mississippi River. St. Denis and nine others were left to further scout the Caddo family of Indians. I departed with Sieur Bienville and the others.
In 1702 and again in 1710 St. Denis and Jules Lambert had come over the Trail of the Notches to trade with the Natchitoches Indians.

RELATION DE ANDRE PENICAUT ET LA PROVENCE DU LOUISIANA
1713-1714

Penicaut had come to Louisiana with Iberville in 1799 as a Ships Carpenter and he had a formal education superior to many who held higher positions than he on this continent. He kept a diary of his travels in Louisiana from 1699 to 1720. Thus this eyewitness account concerning the area of, or bordering on Grant Parish.
Thus I use Andre Penicaut’s narrative as source material for the following. “All together we entered the Riverie Rouge which flows east into the Mississippi, coming from the northwest. After we had traveled upstream for eight leagues we came upon a stream flowing from the north called Des Ouachitas (the stream getting its name from the Ouachita Tribe of Indians which resided on its west bank – however, the stream flowing into the Red River at this location is the Black River and the Ouachita River empties into the Black River). Eight leagues upstream is another stream flowing from the north (Saline Bayou which separates LaSalle and Rapides Parishes). Fifteen leagues upstream we came to a waterfall which extended the full width of the Red River and we had to portage our boats around these falls. (This was the Rapides near present-day Alexandria.) Four leagues upstream is a small Rigolet, Bayou Darro. Six leagues upstream from this place the Red River forks of which one on the right M. de St. Denis said was the Rigolet de Bon Dieu. (This was at the site of present day Colfax, Louisiana. St. Denis must have explored this area in 1710 when he and Jules Lambert were in the area.) From this point we took the left stream. Seven leagues up this stream (now Cane River) we came to Ecore de la Croix or Cross Bluff (Moinet Bluff near Chopin, Louisiana). One league upstream from this place we took the left branch of the Red River (Old River which is a short distance upstream from present day Cloutierville, Louisiana). Nine leagues upstream from this point we found the Natchitoches Indians on an island in the Red River, on which they lived. We arrived November 25, 1713.”
Thus in the spring of 1714 when St. Denis had erected the two block houses among the Natchitoches Indians and named the location Post St. Jean Baptiste Des Natchitoches which destined to become the oldest permanent settlement in the area of the Louisiana Purchase and so, too, one must realize that the Natchitoches to Natchez Trace was to become the first of Louisiana’s busiest trails for trading with Fort Rosalie among the Natchez and with the Natchitoches post. Here also is the beginning of Louisiana History, which the former historians have so carelessly neglected.
When St. Denis departed on his expedition into Mexico he left ten men to maintain trade relations with the Caddos and other neighboring tribes. Indian campgrounds were established near Montgomery, Louisiana and at the Old Eboneezer Spring area. These were locations where the Courrier Du Bois, as the French traders were called, met to trade with the Indians.

1715-1762
During this period the area of Grant Parish and the Natchitoches to Natchez Trace was intermittently inhabited by French trappers, hunters and traders. And along the Red River Post Du Rapides was established in 1723 to protect the portage at the rapids (near Alexandria, Louisiana) with Captain Etienne Layssard as Commandant. This French post was to have considerable bearing concerning the future of the area of Grant Parish. Layssard at Post Du Rapides had a company of fifteen men. Of the very early families to develop from the personnel at the Natchitoches Post and Post Du Rapides and whose descendants are living in Grant Parish are: Derbonne, Lemoine, Dupuy, Layssard, Prudhomme, Poissot, Le Caze, Vallerie, Lavesphere, Vercher, Levasseur, Barberousse, Rachal and Lacour. These family names are listed today in Grant Parish, Natchitoches, Winn, Rapides, Vernon, Red River and DeSoto Parishes. Trading posts and overnight resting-places were established for the flatboarmen who began navigating the Mississippi and Red Rivers from New Orleans to Natchitoches. One such place was established by the Layssard brothers, Nicholas and Jean at the present-day site of Colfax, Louisiana in 1742. In this same year two ex-French soldiers, Lavesphere and Brosselier began maintaining “Travasser” (a kind of flatboat) service from New Orleans to Natchitoches. These two men had rigged their boats with pulleys, which enabled them to pull their boat through the shallow places in the river at the low-water stage. Thus these two men became the talk of the year as they maintained year-round water service in the Louisiana frontier.
Through the Grant Parish area during this period were trappers and Indian traders named Pierre Largen, Jean Lagross, De Lery, Beaulieux, Allarge Bejoeux, who incidentally had traded in the Grant Parish area and along the Trail of the Notches as early as 1708-1709-1711-1713 with St. Denis. Bejoeux blazed a trail from the old Opelousas Trail near Sieper and Simpson, Louisiana to the Point of the Confluence of the Red River and the Rigolet de Bon Dieu across from Colfax, Louisiana. Actually this man was being considered to lead the trading expedition into Texas at the time St. Denis was selected to head the excursion. There are also letters and data stating the Bojoeux was the Frenchman who had received Father Hidalgo’s letter of 1711 inviting the French to come and trade with the Spanish Mission in the Coahile Region south of the Rio Grande. Other traders were La Frenieres, Lobotinerre, the two Barberousse brothers and Jean Baptiste Derbonne.

1762
In 1762 Louis XV of France gave Louisiana to his cousin, Charles III of Spain. It was not, however, until 1767 when Commandant Louis George de la Perrier, on September 7th met Don Antonio Ulloa and had the sad responsibility of turning over the Natchitoches District 7 of the Province of Louisiana to the Spaniard.

The District 7 of the Province of Louisiana encompassed all land on the west bank of the Ouachita River to its confluence with the Red River and all land drained by the Red River upstream from that point. So actually all early history pertaining to this area is also part of the early history of Grant Parish.
In 1776 Athanase De Mezieres was appointed Commandant at Post St. Jean-Baptiste des Natchitoches and Etienne Layssard was appointed Commandant at Post Du Rapides. Under the Spanish domination the French and the future settlers were to fare better than under the French rule. The Spanish were more lenient with their land grants and such business at this time was left entirely in the hands of the commandants of the various Army Posts.

In the 1780’s Louis Charles DeBlanc became Commandant at the Natchitoches Post and in the name of Spain he granted land to Hosea Sos and Hosea Marie Ortiz. This land grant was in the immediate vicinity of present-day Montgomery, Louisiana. Four miles north of Montgomery a section of land was granted to Victor Rachal, called “Guatto” and Rachal established a store there, which soon became a rendezvous for settlers and Indians. Soon afterwards the Priests of the Jesuit Order established Bon Dieu Mission there. (This Mission was later moved to Creola Bluff after the Red River had taken the Rigolet De Bon Dieu as its main channel which occurred over a period of years from 1832 to 1836.)
During this period the Appalachie Indians took the site which is now Colfax as their village site.
Michael Gaspardo Fiol, a friend of DeBlanc, was given trade and freight right privileges to maintain a route from Natchitoches to Natchez. He had also obtained a floating grant of land from De Blanc. It called for six square leagues of land according to the Spanish measurement, which extended from and included Coochie Break in Winn Parish and astraddle the Natchitoches to Natchez Trace.
By 1886 Fiol was leading immigrants from the United States from Natchez overland to Natchitoches. There was during this period many Anglo Saxons who had sided with Great Britain in the American Revolution and these people were now unpopular in the Thirteen States.
Fiol had taken this grant of land with the intention of selling homesites and farms to the Americans, but at this he was not successful. The Anglo Saxons arguments being: “Just a little farther to the west, I can acquire land by homesteading rights.”
Fiol had to also have the misfortune, he stated at Natchitoches, to have the land pirates who infested the Natchez Trace to rob him of the payroll, which was to be brought to Natchitoches for the soldiers, stationed there. However, he was never caught spending such monies of the Spanish Realm.
Fiol eventually established himself a residence near Coochie Break, which was nothing short of being a fort. This residence was said to have been a hangout for the lawless of the Natchez Trace area. By the end of the eighteenth century, Louisiana had become a useless and most costly barrier in the possession of Spain. The treasure report of 1779 showed that the total amount of revenue from the Province of Louisiana amounted to $537,869. $453,046 of this came from the Mexican subsidy. The expenditures for maintaining the Militia and Government Officials and operating expenses amounted to $769,602, thus leaving a deficit of $257,993 in order to protect this insolvent province. Thus Spain realized that the gift of the Province of Louisiana from France in 1762 was not as valuable as it was first thought to be.

Spain in a secret treaty of San Ildefonso, October 1, 1800, returned Louisiana to France. The treaty was ratified at Aranjues March 21, 1801, thus Spain relieved herself of her most useless provincial burden.

The United States was not notified of the transfer until 1802 and by that time an equally serious cause for alarm had occurred; Juan Ventura Moralas, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, had on October 18, 1801, closed the port of New Orleans to American shipping.
Congress authorized by President Jefferson sent James Monroe to France to seek for this country only the purchase of New Orleans.

Napoleon, fearing that England would take Louisiana, as she had Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland stated: “They shall not have the Mississippi River which they covet. The United States asks for only one town, but I already consider Louisiana lost.” So when Monroe arrived in France, Napoleon was in a selling mood and quickly resulted the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803, for $15,000,000.
William Charles Cole Claiborne was appointed Territorial Governor of Louisiana in 1804. However, he had been in New Orleans acting in that capacity since December 20, 1803 when he had met with General Wilkinson there and taken over the Province of Louisiana in the name of United States from Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo, then Governor of the territory for Spain.
Almost immediately after 1804, settlers began to move into the Grant Parish area. Thomas Hubbs, John Herbert Jr., and Gilliard Layssard already in the area acquired more land.