Historic Iberville, St. James, St. John the Baptist, and St. Mary Parishes Collection

Iberville Parish is named for Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who founded the French colony of Louisiana. It was founded 10 April 1805. The parish has a total area of 653 square miles, of which 619 square miles is land and 34 square miles (5.21%) is water. Its largest city and parish seat is Plaquemine. St. James Parish is part of the Acadian Coast and is one of the state's nineteen original parishes, created by an act of the territorial legislature on 31 March 1807. The original seat of government was the community of St. James on the west bank of the Mississippi, but was moved in 1869 to Convent on the east bank. The parish has a total area of 258 square miles, of which 246 square miles is land and twelve square miles (4.52%) is water. St. John the Baptist Parish was established in the early 1720s by a group of German colonists and is also one of the original nineteen parishes of the Territory of Orleans which later became the State of Louisiana. This parish was the second permanent settlement in Louisiana and considered part of the German Coast. The parish seat is Edgard and the largest city in this parish is Laplace The parish has a total area of 348 square miles, of which 219 square miles is land and 129 square miles (37.07%) is water. St. Mary Parish was founded in 1811 and has a total area of 1,119 square miles with 613 square miles of land and 506 square miles (45.23%) of water. The parish seat is Franklin, while its largest city is Morgan City.