In the period after the American Civil War, Marshall H. Twitchell, a Union veteran from Vermont who had led United States Colored Troops, came to Red River Parish, Louisiana to become an agent for the Freedmen's Bureau, having passed the administrative examination. He married Adele Coleman, a young local woman. Her family taught him about cotton farming. In 1870, Twitchell was elected as a Republican to the Louisiana State Senate. He appointed his brother and three brothers-in-law (the latter natives of the parish) to local positions, including sheriff, tax assessor and clerk of court. Twitchell worked to promote education and to extend public representation and civil rights to the former slaves, known as freedmen.