[2] Public officials who have long sought to increase the industrial potential of the parish, expressed concern over the decline.

The parish has long depended on jobs in the petroleum and natural gas fields.

[3] The parish is named for 19th-century American statesman Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

It was created on February 27, 1871[4] from lands formerly belonging to Bienville, Bossier, and Claiborne parishes.

Speakers included Police jury president Leland Garland Mims and Judge Enos McClendon of the Louisiana 26th Judicial District Court, who gave a biographical sketch of Daniel Webster.

Among the first settlers in Webster Parish was Newett Drew, a native of Virginia, who about 1818 established a grist mill at the former Overton community near Minden.

His son, Richard Maxwell Drew was born in Overton and served as a district judge and state representative prior to his death in 1850 at the age of twenty-eight.

The parish voted for Republican Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 and George Wallace in 1968, when the former governor of Alabama ran on the American Independent Party ticket.

[19] Four years later in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney led in the parish with 11,400 votes (61.9 percent), 17 fewer ballots than McCain had received.

[23] The 39th MP Company of the 773rd MP Battalion and the 1083rd Transportation Company of the 165th CSS (Combat Service Support) Battalion reside at Camp Minden west of Minden, formerly the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant.