19th Century Mississippi River Maps Collection:
1868-1869 St. Charles and St. John Parishes
1866-1876 Jefferson and St. Charles Parishes
1866-1872 St. Charles Parish
- 1800 — Treaty of San Ildefonso.
- 1801 — Thomas Jefferson becomes president of the United States.
- 1803 — Louisiana Purchase—the United States pays France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River, which doubles the size of the nation and opens the way for westward expansion. Thirteen states are eventually carved from the Louisiana Territory.
- 1803–61 — Rise of Louisiana plantations; period brings economic and cultural prosperity to the German Coast.
- 1804 — Congress passes act prohibiting slave importation.
- 1804 — An Act of Congress approved on March 25 divides Louisiana into two territories: the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana. The County of the German Coast was in the Territory of Orleans.
- 1805 — First legislation passed to establish a county seat.
- 1805 — First courthouse is established.
- 1805 — On February 17, a legislative act defines the County of the German Coast.
- 1806 — Jefferson Document appoints Jean-Nöel Destrehan to Orleans Territorial Council.
- 1806 — Original St. Charles log church burns and is replaced by a wood-framed church painted red (known as the Little Red Church). The Trépagnier family donates a statue of St. Charles Borromeo.
- 1807 — St. Charles Civil Parish is established when Act I of the 1807 legislature divides the Territory of Orleans into nineteen civil parishes on March 31.
- 1807 — Pierre St. Martin is appointed first superior court district judge for St. Charles Parish.
- 1811 — Major slave uprising on German Coast
- 1811 — State appropriates funds for public schools.
- 1812 — First steamboat arrives in New Orleans.
- 1812 — War of 1812 begins.
- 1812 — Louisiana’s first state constitution is adopted.
- 1812 — Louisiana becomes a state on April 30 by an Act of Congress.
- 1814 — Captain Rene Trudeau’s “Troop of Horse” participates in Battle of New Orleans.
- 1815 — Prospect Plantation is established in New Sarpy.
- 1815 — Battle of New Orleans
- 1824 — New Orleans philanthropist John McDonogh envisioned using the Bonnet Carré Crevasse site for a future Mississippi River outlet.
- 1826 — Second parish courthouse is erected.
- 1845 — The Louisiana Constitution of 1845 establishes the Office of State Superintendent of Public Education and directs the legislature to establish free public schools.
- 1848 — Father Paret arrives on the German Coast to serve St. Charles (Red Church) parishioners.
- 1850s — Ellington Plantation is established. Later owned by F. A. Luling, for which settlement is named.
- 1850s — Mozella Plantation is established.
- 1850 — St. Charles Parish is included in the newly established New Orleans Archdiocese.
- 1852 — First parish public school superintendent is appointed.
- 1852 — Parish courthouse is enlarged.
- 1853—Yellow fever epidemic kills over eleven thousand in the New Orleans area including St. Charles Parish.
- 1854 — First railroad line passes through St.Charles Parish.
- 1856 — Unnamed hurricane devastates southeast Louisiana (Last Island).
- 1859 — First Protestant church is established on Old Spanish Trail.
- 1860 — Abraham Lincoln elected U.S. president.
- 1861 — On January 26, Secession is approved at the Louisiana Secession Convention.
- 1861 — After Secession, Louisiana becomes part of the Republic of Louisiana.
- 1861 — The Confederate States of America is formed.
- 1861 — On March 21, Louisiana becomes a part of the Confederate States of America.
- 1861 — Civil War begins on April 12.
- 1861 — On April 19, President Lincoln issues a Proclamation of Blockade against southern ports.
- 1862 — St. James Methodist Church is established in Hahnville.
- 1862 — New Orleans falls to Union forces without a shot. Skirmishes take place at Boutte Station, the courthouse, and Des Allemands. LaBranche Plantation (St. Rose) and Fashion Plantation (Hahnville) are destroyed by Union forces.
- 1863 — President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
- 1864 — Henry Allen is elected governor of Confederate-held Louisiana.
- 1864 — Georg Michael Hahn is elected governor of Union-held Louisiana.
- 1864 — A new Louisiana Constitution is adopted.
- 1865 — Bethlehem Baptist Church is founded by African American missionaries near present-day Hahnville.
- 1865 — Civil War ends; Reconstruction period begins.
- 1865 — U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau establishes Rost Home Colony at Destrehan Plantation.
- 1865 — President Lincoln is shot on Good Friday, April 14 and dies on April 15.
- 1866 — L’Englise Notre Dame du Rosaire (Our Lady of the Rosary) Chapel is established in Taft.
- 1866 — Canaan Baptist Church is erected in Killona.
- 1866 — “Carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” begin to arrive.
- 1868 — Louisiana is readmitted to the United States.
- 1868 — Louisiana Lottery Company is chartered.
- 1868 — Louisiana Reconstruction Constitution is adopted.
- 1870 — Italians are recruited for the agricultural workforce in the New Orleans region.
- 1870 — Judge Othello Flagg establishes the Village of Flaggville.
- 1870 — Carpetbaggers control most business in St. Charles Parish.
- 1871 — Bonnet Carré Crevasse occurs and remains open until 1882.
- 1872 — George Michael Hahn establishes the Village of Hahnville. Flaggville is subsequently absorbed into Hahnville.
- 1873 — First issue of the St. Charles Herald is published. Georg Michael Hahn is rumored to be the owner.
- 1874 — Mount Zion Baptist Church is established in St. Rose by Palmer Elkins.
- 1875 — St. Charles is recorded as one of the top three parishes in rice production.
- 1876 — Colonel Thomas J. Sellers purchases Trepagnier Plantation in present-day Norco. The plantation was later consolidated with Roseland and renamed Diamond.
- 1876 — Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
- 1877 — Reconstruction draws to a close in Louisiana, ending longest-lasting Union occupation in the United States.
- 1877 — St. Charles “Red Church” rectory fire destroys all records except the original register of 1739–1755.
- 1880 — First recorded parish public school is established.
- 1880 — St. Charles Parish is site of the first and largest labor strike of cane workers for better wages.
- 1881 — The Bethlehem Benevolent Society is incorporated.
- 1883 — Parish ferry service provides seven landings.
- 1883 — Telephone service begins in St. Charles Parish.
- 1884 — Davis Crevasse occurs (Luling).
- 1885 — Special delivery of mail begins.
- 1890s — Red Church interdiction begins due to church charter conflict.
- 1890 — Rural delivery of mail begins.
- 1893 — Unnamed hurricane devastates parts of southeast Louisiana.
- 1893 — Louisiana Lottery ends.
- 1897 — Internationally renowned 20th Century artist Clarence Millet is born in Hahnville.
- 1897 — Mount Airy Baptist Church is established on Old Spanish Trail.
- 1897 — St. Matthew Baptist Church is established in New Sarpy.
- 1898 — Spanish American War
- 1899 — On October 10, State Senator Basile LaPlace, Jr., is murdered at Ormond Plantation.