Lake Providence
The history of the town of Lake Providence is varied and is quintessentially Louisiana. The name of the small village was derived from an odd source: Mississippi River pirates. Bunch and his band of pirates, occupying a critical bend in the river, terrorized travelers and merchants as they passed down the Mississippi. It was said that if a ship passed this bend with the lives of its' crew and its' merchandise in tact, it was surely an act of "Providence."
The village below that bend became known as Providence. It remained that until the early 1900's when Lake was added to the title to decrease post office confusion with Providence, Rhode Island.
Early Times
Lake Providence is the oldest town in Louisiana north of Natchitoches. Early on, it served as a stopping point for fur trappers and traders and other rough and rowdy types. The first permanent settlers were mostly from England, Scotland, Germany, and Ireland. Between 1803 and 1812, these folks migrated in from areas to the north and to the east of Louisiana. A settler named James Floyd claimed 640 acres along the Mississippi River. This land was to become the town of Lake Providence and surrounding areas.
Currently, the town of Lake Providence sits on a beautiful six mile long oxbow lake that was formed when the Mississippi River changed its' course many years ago. The town charter was adopted around 1812. The same year that Louisiana became a state. The town currently serves as the parish seat of East Carroll Parish. As you know, a parish is basically the same as a county; the term reflects our French Napoleonic history. But, it was not always called East Carroll.
Parish Names
Lake Providence has been part of numerous parishes throughout the years.
It was first part of the District of New Orleans in 1722, followed by the County
of Ouachita in 1805.
The land was soon divided up and Lake Providence
became part of Concordia Parish in 1809. Ouachita and Concordia are still
in existence today, but Warren Parish, which contained Lake Providence in 1815,
was not so lucky. Soon it was time to rename the area once again.
The area was named Carroll Parish after Charles Carroll of Carrollton Plantation in Maryland. Mr. Carroll was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the benefactor of a future state legislator. The legislator took the opportunity to honor his benefactor by naming a parish after him in 1832. In 1877, the land was divided up into East Carroll and West Carroll Parishes. Currently, East Carroll Parish is approximately 452 square miles with 118 square miles of that being water. The parish population, as of the year 2000, is 9,421. The projected population in the year 2005 is 9,281.