Back-to-School in Bossier Pop Quiz

It’s back to school time…and time for a quick pop quiz! Question 1) What was the first high school in Bossier Parish? Question 2) What was the first brick building in Bossier Parish? Answer, Question 1: Pioneer High School in Plain Dealing. The Pioneer High School cornerstone in Plain Dealing was laid in 1888, making it the first high school in Bossier Parish. The school opened in January of 1889, Answer, Question 2: Plain Dealing High School. In 1921, a new brick building was built for Plain Dealing High School to accommodate its growing student body. It was the first brick building to be ... Read Full Blog

Mail Order Day and the Sears Catalog's Significance to Black Americans

August 18th is National Mail Order Catalog Day, to celebrate the old-fashioned way of shopping by selecting items in a printed catalog, and ordering and paying for it by mail or over the telephone. This ability to order items from a catalog, and not having to rely on the limited inventory of small-town stores, was significant not only for the convenience and a wider availability of “stuff” to go into American homes. Mail order’s success brought changes to American society, and these changes were especially important for African Americans, particularly in the South. The first really successf... Read Full Blog

The Sanders House of Plain Dealing, Both Practical and Trendy in its Time

Wow, it’s hot out lately. Thank goodness for air conditioning. It’s hard to imagine living here in the South without it. These “dog days” of summer are a good time to revisit the southern architectural style of the dogtrot house, which featured a central open corridor from the front to back of the house.  This style of house was common throughout the Southeastern United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

If you were building a house a hundred or a hundred fifty years ago, the dogtrot style was practic... Read Full Blog

More Memories from The Walker’s Chapel Reunion of the Matlock/Wise Family

I spent some time in July, National Family Reunion Month, looking through the History Center’s oral history collection for some recollections of, or from, Bossier Parish family reunions. On October 11, 2003, Bossier Parish Libraries History Center staff attended the Matlock/Wise family reunion in Walker’s Chapel and conducted oral history interviews. That reunion provided an amazing opportunity to gather family history, as well as learn more about everyday rural life in the first half of the 20th century. Last week we looked at the interviews conducted with Rex Matlock and his younger siste... Read Full Blog

The Walker’s Chapel Reunion of the Matlock/Wise Family

 July is National Family Reunion Month, and next Monday, July 31st at 2PM we will be having a Genealogy and Family Reunions presentation at the History Center, where you can get ideas for ways to collect and use family history at your reunion. Recently I re-discovered some oral history interviews where a Bossier Parish family reunion provided such an opportunity to gather family history, as well as shed light on everyday rural life in the first half of the 20th century. On October 11, 2003, Bossier Parish Libraries History Center staff attended the Matlock/Wise family reunion in Walker... Read Full Blog

Dr. Elizabeth E. Cassinelli - Children Have a Potential, Pt. 2

Since it is still, July, Disability Pride Month, let’s take a second look at the CHAP Program of Barksdale Air Force Base. CHAP, which stood for Children Have a Potential, was a pioneering program for handicapped children who were US Air Force dependents. The program was instituted Air Force wide in 1961 and Barksdale was one of the earliest bases to implement it. And on Barksdale, the medical services related to CHAP were coordinated by a pioneer in her own right, pediatrician Dr. E. Elizabeth Cassinelli.

Dr. Elizabeth Cassinelli was, as reported in her 1995 obituary, ... Read Full Blog

CHILDREN HAVE A POTENTIAL at Barksdale Air Force Base

 It’s the middle of July, and that means it’s the middle of Disability Pride Month. This commemorative month is in July because July 26th is the anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act (1990), which protects the rights of Americans with disabilities to ensure Americans can experience the talents of people of all abilities. It’s a perfect time to look back on a pioneering program in US education and military family history, Project CHAP, Children Have a Potential. CHAP, which was announced in a letter sent to all Air Force commands in October, 1961 by Chief of Staff of the Unit... Read Full Blog

Bossier Parish Soldiers Gave All in Korean War

 On the evening of Sunday, July 26, 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower was nervous. The armistice ending the Korean War was due to be signed the following day, and according to White House Assistant Staff Secretary Arthur Minnich, Eisenhower feared “that there was the possibility that something would go wrong before the signing was complete.” Those fears proved unfounded, as the armistice was signed the following morning at 10 a.m., 70 years ago this month, ending the conflict which saw families across the nation burying loved ones killed in action, including three from Bossier Parish.<... Read Full Blog

Bossier Parish Man Still Missing from Korean War

Seventy three years ago this month, President Harry Truman was taking a break from the stress of life in the White House by relaxing at his home in Independence, Missouri. The peace and quiet he enjoyed would not last. Word came on June 24th (June 25th in Korea) that North Korean troops were invading South Korea. Truman rushed back to Washington and committed U.S. forces as part of a United Nations effort to defend the South. The Korean War had begun. Approximately 36,500 U.S. service members would lose their lives in the brutal conflict. One member from Bossier Parish is still among the mi... Read Full Blog

Memorial Day Remembrances - Far Away yet Close at Heart PART 2

For presentations and articles leading up to Memorial Day, I thought I would show fallen soldiers from Bossier Parish being remembered in their hometowns. But some of our soldiers who fought in Europe, and met a tragic end there, stayed overseas. Though it may have been small consolation to their heartbroken families, the American cemeteries and memorials in Europe, most of which commemorate the service and sacrifice of Americans who served in World War I and World War II, are among the most beautiful and meticulously maintained shrines in the world, under the auspices of the American Battl... Read Full Blog

Memorial Day Remembrances - Far Away yet Close at Heart

In honor of upcoming Memorial Day, I found a local history story that is an ocean away, in some of the most beautiful natural surroundings European countries have to offer, surrounded with flags of the United States. They are the American Cemeteries maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), a government agency founded in 1923 that now manages 26 cemeteries and 35 monuments created after a variety of wars across four continents. The land is generously donated in gratitude to America, and is never taxed in these foreign countries. Forty percent of these cemeteries and mon... Read Full Blog

The Last Cotton Compress, and the Dying Art of “Calling the Press”

Not too long ago, while cleaning out the home of my mother-in-law in Coushatta, my husband Rick found an unusually titled LP record, “Cornbread for your Husband, Biscuits for your Man: Mr. Clifford Blake Sr. Calls the Cotton Press” (1980) and an accompanying report by folklorist Donald W. Hatley. My mother-in-law was a fan of the annual Louisiana Folk Festival at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, put on by NSU’s Louisiana Folklife Center, which also published the above materials. Now they are a part of our History Center collection, and I was on a mission to find out what a cot... Read Full Blog

May Day - A Spring Diversion of Blossoms and Pageantry in 19th-Century Bossier

With a timeline spanning centuries, and geographically stretching around the northern hemisphere, the holiday of May Day, celebrated on May first to revel in the arrival of spring, has had different meanings across time and place. Many traditions, however, such as dances around a maypole, crowning a May queen and gathering flowers for decorating and bestowing on friends and neighbors, remained remarkably consistent across centuries and oceans. This week’s column examines local May Day celebrations of post-bellum nineteenth century. Twentieth-century celebrations will follow next week.

Looking at Earth (Day) with a View from the Moon

Earth Day, a celebration of clean air, land, and water, is coming up on Saturday, April 22nd. Earth Day began in 1970 as part of a newly-developing environmental movement. But did you know, the environmental movement really took off, so to speak, far away from the Earth, with the Apollo space missions?

The Apollo missions, which began in 1961 and concluded in 1972, resulted in inspiring photographic images of our startlingly blue orb of a planet set in stark contrast to the blackness of space. These included the first photo of the Earth taken from space by a human. It became known... Read Full Blog

Billie Stevens: Wonder Librarian

It’s Women’s History month, and a perfect time to look back in our history and share the story of Bossier Parish Libraries’ very own Wonder Woman. Imagine a job ad like this, in the 1950’s: Wanted for Bossier Parish Libraries, a hard worker to perform the following duties: Put buckets under leaks, cut the tops off of large cans and nail them to cover holes in the floor, order books for all the schools in the Parish (in addition to all the public library books), take the bookmobile on unpaved roads to Rocky Mount or Chalybeate Springs, Red Land, Walker’s Chapel, or Mott, get that book mobile... Read Full Blog