Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census. It has possessed a post office since 1839.Minden is the principal city of the Minden Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Shreveport-Bossier City-Minden Combined Statistical Area.The community has been served by a newspaper since the 1850s, and the city's present publication, Minden Press-Herald, which has its office in a building previously occupied by a supermarket on Gleason Street south of Broadway Street, dates as a daily to July 18, 1966, but was originally published as two weekly papers, Minden Press on Mondays and Minden Herald on Thursdays.
Geography
Minden has an elevation of 253 feet (77.1 m). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.0 square miles (31 km2), of which, 11.9 square miles (31 km2) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) of it (0.75%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,027 people, 5,166 households, and 3,430 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,095.2 people per square mile (423.0/km²). There were 5,795 housing units at an average density of 487.2/sq mi (188.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 46.34% White, 52.17% African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.21% from other races, and 0.65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.61% of the population.There were 5,166 households, out of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.6% were married couples living together, 22.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.6% were non-families. 30.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.05.In the city of Minden, the population was spread out with 27.0% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 25.3% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years, higher than the state median age of 34.0 years. For every 100 females there were 84.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.7 males.The median income for a household in the city was $24,175, and the median income for a family was $31,477. Males had a median income of $28,401 versus $19,199 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,114. About 21.0% of families and 26.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 39.3% of those under age 18 and 20.1% of those age 65 or over.
Early settlement
Among the first settlers in the Minden area was Newitt Drew, a Welshman originally from Virginia, who built a gristmill and sawmill on Dorcheat Bayou in south Webster Parish in what became the since defunct Overton community. Minden itself was established in 1836 by Charles H. Veeder, a native of Schenectady, New York, who named it for the city of Minden in Germany. Veeder left Minden during the California Gold Rush and spent the rest of his life practicing law in Bakersfield, California.A year before Veeder arrived, a group from Phillipsburg (now Monaca, Pennsylvania), led by the 'Countess von Leon', settled seven miles northeast of Minden in what was then Claiborne Parish. For nearly four decades, this Germantown Colony operated on a communal basis. It was dispersed in 1871, when Webster Parish was severed from Claiborne Parish. The 'Countess' moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she died in 1881.One of three Utopian Society settlements in this area, the Germantown Colony was the most successful and lasted the longest, having peaked at fifty to sixty pioneers but usually with fewer than forty followers. The settlement had been planned by the countess’ husband, Bernhard Müller, known as the Count von Leon. He died of yellow fever on August 29, 1834, at Grand Ecore, four miles from Natchitoches, before he reached Webster Parish. Leon and his followers attempted to build an earthly utopia, socialist in practice, while awaiting for the Second Coming of Christ. For his religious views, Leon had been exiled from Germany. He intended to plant the settlement in Webster Parish to coincide with the latitude of Jerusalem, 31 degrees, 47 minutes. The colonists worshiped under oak trees at the center of the colony. They supported themselves from farming, with a concentration on cotton. The settlement is preserved at the Germantown Colony and Museum. A second museum in Minden, the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, named for Dorcheat Bayou, is located downtown at 116 Pearl Street. It preserves the cultural history of the city and parish from the 19th century.
Civil War
During the American Civil War, a large Confederate encampment, which housed some fifteen thousand soldiers was located east of Minden. Minden was a supply depot for the troops. Some thirty Confederate soldiers who died in the Battle of Mansfield and another engagement at Pleasant Hill are buried in the historic Minden Cemetery located off Pine Street. A modern cemetery, Gardens of Memory, opened in 1957 off the Lewisville Road north of town.In 1862, Confederate General Richard Taylor, son of Zachary Taylor, issued orders to round up deserters. According to the historian John D. Winters of Louisiana Tech University, near Minden were seen 'many robust-looking men claiming to be 'discharged soldiers.'' General Taylor reported that a ''large number of persons liable to military service . . . , deserters, enrolled conscripts who have failed to report, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, are to be found throughout the state.' He ordered militia officers and parish sheriffs to arrest all men who could not prove legal exemption or absence from military service because of furlough or parole. Liberal rewards were offered for the apprehension of such men.'Governor Henry Watkins Allen tried to make the state self-sufficient during the war. A factory for the manufacture of cotton and wool cards was erected at Minden and in full operation by the end of the war.In 1864-1985, divisions of General Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac, hero at Mansfield, and Maj. Gen. John H. Forney established winter quarters near Minden.
Coldest state temperature
On February 13, 1890, Minden recorded the state's all-time coldest temperature, minus-16 degrees during the height of the Great Blizzard. The humid subtropical climate, however, is usually mild in winter and mostly hot in summer.
Will Life
William L. 'Will' Life (June 23, 1887-October 1972) was from 1925 until his death the owner of the large Webb Hardware store in downtown Minden. A former member of the Minden City Council, Life was sometimes known as the 'father of modern Minden' because of his civic leadership.Life attended the former Minden Male Academy, which was located at what is now Academy Park. He graduated from Minden High School in 1905 and was a member of the 1904 basketball team. He resided in Minden his entire eighty-five years except during World War I, when he served for three years in the United States Army Signal Corps. On June 23, 1972, four months before Life's death, Mayor Tom Colten proclaimed 'Will Life Day' in Minden. He is interred at Minden Cemetery.
1930s
During the Great Depression, one of the two Minden banks failed, and a fire destroyed a major section of the downtown in 1931. Five banks now exist, Minden Building and Loan, Capital One, Regions, Citizens, and Richland State. On May 1, 1933, a tornado destroyed some 20 percent of the residences in Minden.The Larry and Gladys Hunter family for decades operated the Coca-Cola Bottling Company outlet in Minden. While soft drinks were produced at the facility into the 1960s, the facility is now a distribution center. It is located across from Minden Cemetery. The Hunters also subsidized the Minden Redbirds semi-professional baseball team.Artist Ben Earl Looney was born in the Yellow Pine community in south Webster Parish and graduated from Minden High School in 1923. He taught art throughout the United States in a career from the 1920s until his death in Lafayette in 1981.
Minden businesses
Minden has a large number of businesses and an active Chamber of Commerce, which maintains offices near the intersection of Broadway and the Sibley Road. Two former executive directors of the chamber were elected mayor, Tom Colten in 1966 and Paul A. Brown in 1989.The Webster Parish Courthouse, completed in the late 1950s, is located a few yards west of its former location, which became a parking lot for the new Minden City Hall/Civic Center in the early 1970s.Minden is the city of license for CW affiliate KPXJ, Channel 21
Education
Minden is served by the Webster Parish School Board, an elected body which maintains administrative offices on Sheppard Street. Minden High School, located at the intersection of Sullivan and College streets, completed major renvoation in 2007. The original school dates to the turn of the 20th century.There is a vocational technical school in Minden, Northwest Louisiana Technical College, located on Constable Street near the sites of the Webster Parish fairgrounds and Griffith Stadium, a baseball field, where the former Minden Redbirds semi-professional team played. The facility has undergone several renovations, including a $361,000 expansion in 1966, when it enrolled only 170 students. A lunch room, science room, library, and business department were then added to the campus. A program for training Licensed Practical Nurses began in 1967.Northwest Technical College will be moved in the coming years to a new and expanded site off the Interstate 20 service road.Elementary schools include E.S. Richardson, William G. Stewart, J.L. Jones, and J.E. Harper schools.The middle school is located at the site of the former historically black Webster High School, which closed in 1975, with desegregation into Minden High School. The previous junior high school, Theresa M. Lowe Junior High School located near the technical college, was closed after desegregation and converted into an alternative school. Theresa Lowe graduated from Rayville High School in Rayville, the seat of Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana and received her Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. She was a long-time teacher of the seventh grade at the former Minden Junior High School and a leader in the renamed Louisiana Association of Educators.There is also the private Glenbrook School off the Lewisville Road toward Shongaloo, which began within the First Baptist Church in 1970.The Louisiana Missionary Baptist Institute and Seminary, which offers bachelor's, master's, and doctor of theology degrees, is located off the Homer Road in Minden. The theologically conservative institution was opened in 1952 by the pastor L. L. Clover (1902-1975) of Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.
Politics
Jack Batton(1913-1996), mayor of Minden, 1978-1982; former city council member; merchant and civic leader,Democrat.
William Jasper Blackburn(1820-1899), mayor of Minden, 1855-1856; newspaper publisher; laterU.S. Representative(1868-1869),Republican.
Bruce M. Bolin(born 1950),state representativefrom Webster Parish, 1978-1990); state district court judge, since 1991, Democrat
James E. Bolin(1914-2002), state representative, 1940-1944; state district court judge, 1952-1960; Louisiana appeal court judge, 1960-1978, Democrat.
Jesse L. Boucher(1912-2004),real estatedeveloper and former mayor ofSpringhill, taught at Minden High School in the latter 1930s, Democrat.
Parey Branton(born 1918) represented Webster Parish in the Louisiana House from 1960-1972, Democrat.
J. Frank Colbert(1882-1949), mayor (1944-1946), state representative (1920-1925), and member of the Webster Parish Police Jury (1912-1920).
Tom Colten(1922-2004) served from as the first Republican mayor, 1966-1974. He later headed theLouisiana Department of Transportation and Developmentunder three governors of both parties.
Floyd D. Culbertson, Jr.(born ca. 1910), mayor from 1940-1942
John T. David(1897-1974) was mayor of Minden from 1946-1955, when he resigned after twomisdemeanorconvictions forbootlegging. He was thereafter elected to three terms on the Webster Parish Police Jury, Democrat.
Everett Doergewas a former educator and former Louisiana House member, 1991-1998. He was succeeded by his widow,Jean M. Doerge, also a former educator, a Democrat, and a native ofNatchitoches Parish. She has since been reelected twice without opposition. Everett Doerge won the post in the 1991 general election by defeating the RepublicanEugene S. EasonofSpringhill.
Harmon Drew, Jr., Court of Appeals Judge (born 1946), Democrat.
R. Harmon Drew, Sr.(1917-1995), former municipal judge and a Democratic state representative
John C. Fleming, physician, author; member of theUnited States House of Representatives, Republican
E.D. Gleason, member of the Louisiana House from Webster Parish from 1952 until his death in 1959, Democrat
Mary Smith Gleason, succeeded her husband as a member of the Louisiana House, 1959-1960, Democrat
Jasper Goodwill, mayor of Minden, 1955-1958; started employeehealth insuranceandpensionplans, Democrat
Thomas Jerald 'Jerry' Huckaby, a 1959Minden High Schoolgraduate, served in Congress from 1977-1993. He represented the Fifth Congressional District, which did not include either Minden or Webster Parish, Democrat.
Herman 'Wimpy' Jones, State senator from 1956-1960, Democrat; founder of restaurant that became the Southern Kitchen in Minden.
Edward Kennon,Louisiana Public Service Commissioner, 1973-1984, Democrat
Robert F. Kennon, wasthe youngest mayorever in the state of Louisiana. Served as mayor of Minden from 1926 to 1928, being 23 at election.DemocraticGovernor of Louisiana, 1952-1956
Coleman Lindsey, Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana, 1939-1940; state senator from Bossier and Webster parishes, 1924-1928 and 1932-1940; judge inEast Baton Rouge Parish, 1950-1968
W. Matt Lowe, mayor of Minden from 1916-1920; Webster parish police juror from 1940-1954, Democrat
J. Frank McInnis, state court judge, 1930-1953, Democrat
Leland G. Mims, Webster Parish police juror from 1953-1976; jury president, 1956-1973, and president of the Police Jury Association of Louisiana, 1965-1967, Democrat
John Willard 'Jack' Montgomery, Sr., Minden attorney and state senator from 1968-1972, Democrat.
Frank T. Norman, mayor of Minden from 1958-1966; worked to establish the municipal power plant, Democrat
E.S. Richardson(1875-1950), Webster Parish school superintendent and president ofLouisiana Tech UniversityinRuston, namesake ofE.S. Richardson Elementary School, Democrat
Billy Henry 'Bill' Robertson(born 1938), current mayor, elected in 1990, Democrat
John N. Sandlin, succeeded John Watkins in Congress, 1921-1937; ran unsuccessfully in 1936 for the U.S. Senate against fellow DemocratAllen J. Ellender
Robert T. Tobin(1911-2007), a retired educator, served on an interim basis as mayor of Minden in 1989, the first and thus far onlyAfrican Americanto have held the position, Democrat.
John T. Watkins, served in theUnited States House of Representatives, Democrat.
Sports
Billy Joe Booth(1940-1972), after playing for Minden High School andLouisiana State University, joined theOttawa Rough Ridersof theCanadian Football League, having played from 1962-1970. He died in anairplanecrash inCanada. He resided inHarvey, Louisiana.
Larry C. Brewer(1948-2003), a 1966 graduate of Minden High School, played successfully forLouisiana Tech UniversityinRustonand joined theAtlanta Falconsafter college graduation but was unable to meet the commitment because of an injury. Brewer became acertified public accountantand worked in hospital management until his death of a drowning accident while on a family vacation inHawaii. He resided inSand Springs, Oklahoma, nearTulsa.
George Doherty(1920-1987) was a former professional football player (right tackle) who coached Minden High School to two state championships in 1954 and 1956 and then coached at Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State University.
Louis Dunbaris a former center for theHarlem Globetrotters.
Fred Haynes(1946-2006), a 1964 Minden High School graduate, became a champion college quarterback at LSU, where he was affectionately known as the 'Littlest Tiger' because of his modest physical size.
Charles T. 'Charlie' Hennigan(born 1935), originally fromBienville Parish, graduated from Minden High School in 1953 and played forNorthwestern State UniversityinNatchitochesbefore joining the newly-createdHouston Oilersin 1960.
David Allen Lee(born 1943) is a retired industrial executive inBossier CityinBossier Parishwho holdsNational Football Leaguepunting records during his tenure with the formerBaltimore Coltsfrom 1966-1978. Prior to his professional duties, Lee played for Louisiana Tech.
Jackie Moreland(1938-1971) was the first All-Americanbasketballplayer for Minden High School. He thereafter played for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, theDetroit Pistons, and the formerNew Orleans Buccaneers. He died ofcancerat thirty-three.
Sammy Joe Odom(1941-2001) was an MHS and Northwestern State football star who played in the 1964 season for theHouston Oilers. He was later the administrator for theDe Soto ParishPolice Jury inMansfield.
Chase Pittmanis defensive end for theCleveland Browns.
Raymond Tate(1964-2010) Minden's only 'High School Parade All-American,' 1981. Led MHS to state championship in 1980. Played for theUniversity of Houston, where he was AP All-Southwest Conference at running back in 1984 and 1985. Had 71 yards on 10 carries in the1984 Cotton Bowl Classic. Passed up by NFL teams.
Jimmy Upton(1949-2003) excelled intrack and fieldat Minden High School and thereafter at theUniversity of Louisiana at Monroeand was admitted to three halls of fame.
Stephret Williams, Jr.is a former NFL wide receiver who played for theDallas CowboysandCincinnati Bengals.
Others
Gene Austinwas asinger, sometimes called 'the firstcrooner'.
Alan Bean, U.S.astronautlived in Minden as a child while his father was employed there by theUnited States Soil Conservation Service.
James Burton, a popularguitaristwho once performed withRicky NelsonandElvis Presley, was born in Dubberly, Louisiana in 1939 and raised in Minden until he was ten years of age.
Barbara Colley(born 1947) is a romance and mysterynovelistinNew Orleanswho grew up in Minden.
John Jones, an honorably discharged African American formerUnited States Armycorporalwas jailed in August 1946 under dubious pretenses ofloitering. He was released and lynched by a civilian posse, having reportedly refused to give a war souvenir to a white person.
Charles E. Maple(1932-2006), journalist and chamber of commerce official in Minden and several other cities
Percy Mayfieldwas a notedbluessinger.
A. T. Powers(1896-1975) was a prominentMissionary Baptistclergyman in Minden from 1956-1961.
Maggie Renfro, anAthensnative and Minden resident, is the third oldest person living in the United States, since deceased.
Ada Jack Carver Snell(1890-1972) was ashort storywriter who specialized in the literature of theCane RiverofNatchitoches Parish.
David Snell(1921-1987) was ajournalistandcartoonistfor the defunctLife Magazine.
Tam Spiva(born 1932) is atelevisionscript writer (ABC'sThe Brady Bunchand CBS'sGentle Ben).
Latha Tomlinson (born 1983) is a television writer forGhost Hunters.
Jimmy G. Tharpe(1930-2008) was anIndependent Baptistclergymanoriginally fromSibleywho foundedLouisiana Baptist Universityin Shreveport.
Stanley R. Tiner(born 1942), the executiveeditorofThe Sun HeraldinBiloxi-Gulfport,Mississippi, started his journalism career at theMinden Press-Heraldin 1969-1970.The Sun Heraldwon the 2006Pulitzer Prizefor itsHurricane Katrinacoverage.
Robert O. Trout(1904-1995) was a Minden educator and school principal prior to 1947, when he joined the faculty of Louisiana Tech University as a sociologist.
H.O. West(1900-1981), founder of West Brothers clothing stores, active in company, 1923-1981
Hank Williams married in Minden
Country singer Hank Williams, Sr., married Billie Jean Jones Eshliman in Minden on October 18, 1952. The next day, the couple repeated the vows in two separate public ceremonies. Less than three months later, Williams was dead. A judge ruled that the wedding was not legal because Billie Jean's divorce did not become final until eleven days after she had married Williams. Thereafter, Billie Jean married another singing giant, Johnny Horton. Horton died in 1960 and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Haughton in Bossier Parish.
