Cheneyville, Louisiana facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cheneyville, Louisiana
|
|
|---|---|
|
Town
|
|
| Town of Cheneyville | |
 |
|
Location of Cheneyville in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
|
|
.svg)
Location of Louisiana in the United States
|
|
| Country | United States |
| State | Louisiana |
| Parish | Rapides |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.02 sq mi (2.63 km2) |
| • Land | 1.02 sq mi (2.63 km2) |
| • Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
| Elevation | 66 ft (20 m) |
| Population
(2020)
|
|
| • Total | 468 |
| • Density | 460.63/sq mi (177.82/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (CST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| Area code(s) | 318 |
| FIPS code | 22-14660 |
Cheneyville is a town in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 625 at the 2010 census.
History
Cheneyville was founded in 1811. The town was named for settler William Cheney.
Cheneyville is significant in the history of the Restoration Movement associated with Alexander Campbell. In 1843 most of the membership of a Baptist congregation, under the leadership of William Prince Ford, who had been influenced by Campbell's writings, became a Church of Christ. The Cheneyville Christian Church is the oldest congregation associated with the Restoration Movement in Louisiana. In 1857, Campbell visited the congregation and was favorably impressed by its fellowship between the races.
Ford is also known as the original slavemaster of Solomon Northup, the main character in the feature film, Twelve Years a Slave. Northup was an African-American who had been born free, but kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold to Ford in New Orleans in 1841.
Cheneyville used to host Domino Festival but later started Founder's Day - a family-friendly festival that celebrates the town's history with a parade and vendors in October. It's free to the public and attracts a crowd.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, Cheneyville has a total area of 1.0 square mile (2.6 km2), all of it land.
Demographics
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1910 | 498 | — | |
| 1920 | 678 | 36.1% | |
| 1930 | 835 | 23.2% | |
| 1940 | 913 | 9.3% | |
| 1950 | 918 | 0.5% | |
| 1960 | 1,037 | 13.0% | |
| 1970 | 1,082 | 4.3% | |
| 1980 | 865 | −20.1% | |
| 1990 | 1,005 | 16.2% | |
| 2000 | 901 | −10.3% | |
| 2010 | 625 | −30.6% | |
| 2020 | 468 | −25.1% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census | |||
2020 census
| Race | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 121 | 25.85% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 320 | 68.38% |
| Other/Mixed | 22 | 4.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 5 | 1.07% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 468 people, 275 households, and 156 families residing in the town.
Notable people
- State Senator C. H. "Sammy" Downs lived in Cheneyville, where his son, the retiring veteran Rapides Parish District Attorney, James C. "Jam" Downs, was born. Sammy and Jam Downs also lived in Alexandria, where they practiced law. Jam Downs currently lives in a restored farmstead in Lecompte.
- Wilbur Dyer, state representative from south Rapides Parish from 1974 to 1980
- Historian Sue Eakin, author and editor of Twelve Years a Slave, is interred at Cheneyville in the Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery.
- Robert J. Munson, state representative from Cheneyville, 1956 to 1973; interred at Trinity Episcopal Cemetery
- Leroy Augustus Stafford, a Rapides Parish planter and brigadier general in the Confederate Army who was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, was born in 1822 at Greenwood Plantation near Cheneyville. His son, David Theophilus Stafford, also a Cheneyville native, was the sheriff of Rapides Parish sheriff from 1888 to 1904 and subsequently the Louisiana adjutant general from 1904 to 1912.
See also
In Spanish: Cheneyville para niños
