Newellton, Louisiana
Town
Town of Newellton
Newellton, Louisiana, Water Tower
Newellton, Louisiana, Water Tower
Location of Newellton in Tensas Parish, Louisiana.
Location of Newellton in Tensas Parish, Louisiana.
Location of Louisiana in the United States
Location of Louisiana in the United States
Coordinates: 32°04′22″N 91°14′21″W / 32.07278°N 91.23917°W / 32.07278; -91.23917
CountryUnited States
StateLouisiana
ParishTensas
Government
 • MayorTimothy Turner
 • Chief of PoliceDesmond "Gump" Ford
Area
[1]
 • Total0.87 sq mi (2.26 km2)
 • Land0.76 sq mi (1.97 km2)
 • Water0.11 sq mi (0.29 km2)
Elevation
79 ft (24 m)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total886
 • Density1,167.33/sq mi (450.58/km2)
Time zoneCST
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code
71357[2]
Area code318
FIPS code22-53930
Newellton welcome sign erected by the town council in 2012
Lake St. Joseph as seen from behind Britt's Pharmacy in Newellton

Newellton is a town in northern Tensas Parish in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population is 1,187 in the 2010 census, a decline of 255 persons, or 17 percent, from the 2000 tabulation of 1,482. The average age of the population there is 41 years.[3]

Newellton is west of the Mississippi River on Lake St. Joseph, an ox-bow lake. Further south toward St. Joseph, the parish seat of government, is another ox-bow lake, Lake Bruin, a part of which is the popular Lake Bruin State Park.

History

Newellton itself was founded in the early 19th century by the Routh family, for whom the defunct Routhwood Elementary School was named. John David Stokes Newell Sr., a planter and lawyer in St. Joseph, the seat of Tensas Parish, named the settlement for his father, Edward, a native of North Carolina who relocated to Tensas Parish in 1834.[4]

Newellton was designated a village in 1904. On April 4, 1951, under Mayor T. T. Hargrove, Newellton was upgraded to a town through the state Lawrason Act.[5]

In March 2014, Newellton became debt-free.[6]

Geography

Newellton is located at 32°4′22″N 91°14′21″W / 32.07278°N 91.23917°W / 32.07278; -91.23917 (32.072740, -91.239230).[7]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.9 square miles (2.3 km2), of which 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (12.64%) is water.

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
1910424—
192054127.6%
193062715.9%
194078925.8%
19501,28062.2%
19601,45313.5%
19701,403−3.4%
19801,72623.0%
19901,576−8.7%
20001,482−6.0%
20101,187−19.9%
2020886−25.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[8]
Newellton racial composition as of 2020[9]
Race Num. Perc.
White (non-Hispanic) 198 22.35%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 645 72.8%
Other/Mixed 31 3.5%
Hispanic or Latino 12 1.35%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 886 people, 403 households, and 245 families residing in the town.

Politics

In 2012, the former Newellton mayor, Democrat Alex Davis (born 1942), did not seek a fourth term. The first African American in the position, Davis unseated the 34-year incumbent Edwin G. Preis Sr.,[10] a white businessman, in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 7, 2000. Davis received 366 votes (56.8 percent) to Preis' 184 (28.6 percent), and Floyd Aaron "Coonie" McVay's 94 votes (14.6 percent).[11] A native of Oak Grove in West Carroll Parish, McVay was formerly the Newellton police chief. He died in 2012 at the age of eighty.[12]

The current mayor is the African-American Democrat Timothy Durell Turner, the former District 1 alderman, who won the election held on December 8, 2012, by a single vote, 217-216, over the Republican candidate, James Carroll Fuller Sr. (1936-2021), the former District 5 alderman.[13][14] Fuller, who is white, is a former resident of Braxton, Mississippi, and Denham Springs, Louisiana. Fuller had led Turner, 259 (44.7 percent) to 207 (35.8 percent), in the higher-turnout primary election held on November 6, with another 113 votes (19.5 percent) then cast for a second Democrat, Knola Ransome.[15]

In 2016, Fuller again challenged Turner and once again lost by one vote, 210 for Fuller and 211 for Turner.[16]

Fuller earlier was among 582 Louisiana elected officials named to former Governor Bobby Jindal's "Kitchen Cabinet Leadership Team". Two other Tensas Parish officials appointed to the panel were Assessor Irby Gamble and Coroner Keith D. Butler, both of St. Joseph.[17]

The Newellton police chief, Johnny Gales (1951-2021), a Democrat, was reelected in 2012. There are five municipal alderman, one of whom, Lavone G. Garner from District 5, is a Republican. She was elected to succeed Carroll Fuller, who left the council with his first race for mayor.[18]

As of 2013, there were four police officers and Chief Gales in Newellton, with two marked cars and one unmarked, and eighteen volunteer firefighters. The town clerk is Rhonda King (born 1953).[19]

Notable people

  • Andrew F. Brimmer (1926-2012), economist and first African American to serve as governor of the Federal Reserve System who was born in Newellton
  • Sarah Dorsey, author, historian, and benefactor of Jefferson Davis, lived at the Routh Plantation near Newellton in the early 1850s.[20]
  • Emmitt Douglas, president of the Louisiana NAACP from 1966 until his death in 1981.[21]
  • C.B. Forgotston (born in Newellton in 1945; died 2016) was a lawyer in Hammond and a state government watchdog and political activist. Forgotston graduated from Newellton High School in 1962.[22] He was a frequent guest on The Moon Griffon Show radio talk program.
  • Clyde V. Ratcliff (1879-1952), member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1944 to 1948; planter in Newellton[23]
  • Thomas M. Wade (1860-1929), member of Louisiana House of Representatives from 1888 to 1904, Louisiana State Board of Education, and Tensas Parish School Board; Tensas school superintendent for some twenty years after 1904[24]
  • Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker, African American trombonist, was born near Newellton.[25]

References

  1. ↑ "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Newellton LA ZIP Code". zipdatamaps.com. 2023. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Newellton, LA". zip-codes.com. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  4. ↑ "John ... and Edward Newell", Louisiana Historical Association, A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 2 (1988), p. 600
  5. ↑ "Public elected officials: Tensas Parish". files.usgwarchives.net. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Cole Avery, Newellton pays off all of town's debt, March 15, 2014". Monroe News-Star. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  7. ↑ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Edwin G. Preis". Baton Rouge Morning Advodate, July 29, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Results for Election Date: 10/7/2000". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Floyd Aaron "Coonie" McVay obituary". Monroe News Star. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Tensas Parish general election returns, December 8, 2012". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
  14. ↑ "One vote decides Newellton mayor's race". Monroe News Star, December 8, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  15. ↑ "Tensas Parish election returns, November 6, 2012". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Election Returns". Louisiana Secretary of State. December 10, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Bobby Jindal announces Kitchen Cabinet Leadership Team". bobbyjindal.com. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Louisiana election returns, November 6, 2012". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  19. ↑ http://enlou.com/communities/newellton.htm; Newellton Town Hall: 318-467-5050
  20. ↑ "Dorsey, Sarah Anne Ellis". A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (lahist.org). Archived from the original on September 25, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  21. ↑ "Douglas, Emmitt Jame". A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (lahistory.org). Archived from the original on September 25, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
  22. ↑ "C.B. Forgotston biographical sketch". forgotston.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2008. Retrieved January 23, 2009.
  23. ↑ Obituary of Clyde V. Ratcliff Sr., Tensas Gazette, October 8, 1952
  24. ↑ Yearbook of American Clan Gregor Society, pp. 101-103. Richmond, Virginia: Appeals Press, 1916, Egbert Watson Magruder, ed. 1916. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker". Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2008.

Further reading

  • "John ... and Edward Newell", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 2 (1988), p. 600
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