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06-03-2025
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Redlining in Cedar Grove
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explored how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and described the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. We will learned about how glass coffins were once fashionable in the United States in the sixth article in the series, and we learned about a glass coffin factory that once operated in Cedar Grove. In the seventh article in the series, Dr. Gary Joiner discusses how redlining harmed Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Is it possible to point to a single factor that doomed Cedar Grove from recovering its vibrancy from the first third of the twentieth century? The answer is unequivocally yes. The US Government created the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as part of the New Deal programs in the 1930s. The intent appeared noble: to rescue clients and banks from bankruptcy and catastrophic failure. In practice, however, they assured strong banks would mitigate potential losses by protecting their best accounts. Any property with a mortgage in a 'good' neighborhood was safe. Any street with such housing was deemed acceptable for long-term loans. Any properties not meeting the highest standards became increasingly suspect. Any streets where people lived who were not White Anglo-Saxon Protestant were suspect and affected adjoining 'good' properties. The reasons given for rating neighborhoods are overtly bigoted from today's lens. The HOLC surveyed 239 cities nationwide to determine the viability of granting or continuing mortgages. Only two cities in Louisiana was surveyed–New Orleans and Shreveport. The HOLC came to Shreveport in 1940 and left chaos in its wake. The survey team, by practice, none of whom were from our region, created 25 neighborhoods. Twenty-three were in Shreveport, and two were in Bossier City. They used the 1930 Decennial Census to identify streets. They also used local street maps or Sanborn Fire Insurance Mao Company's index pages. They used the local Globe Map Company street map of Shreveport. The surveyors, called valuators, artificially ranked neighborhoods by letter grade, A-D. Class A was the best, and Class D was 'hazardous' and uninsurable. They created artificial boundaries that suited their purposes. They also did not cover all areas within cities. They flagged industrial areas (appropriately) as non-residential but penalized adjoining residential neighborhoods as undesirable. When they canvassed Cedar Grove, they ended the survey at 79th Street. The canvassers deemed Cedar Grove below the street to be primarily rural. The industrial northwestern area of Cedar Grove was hatched, indicating the proper extremities. The remainder from Hollywood Avenue/Pierremint/Southfield, south to 71st Street, was coded Yellow C-7, except for the area south of 65th Street, midway between Fairfield Avenue and Thornhill Avenue, west to the previous town boundary and south to 71st Street. This portion was coded Red D-9. This extended south to 80th Street and east to Linwood Avenue. C-7Population 90% white, 10% negro – composed of middle class salaried workers, mechanics and quite a few tradesmen who maintain their business in this section. It is the best section of Cedar Grove, formerly a separate municipality. Predominant type of building is single family, with a small commercial area along 70th street and Fairfield street. Area is about 60% built up. Age of properties 1 to 25 years only fairly well maintained. No shifting of population. D-9Population 60% white 40% negro. This section is the Southern part of Cedar Grove. About 20% built up. Population consists mostly of wage earners of lower to middle class, some salaried workers, laborers and mechanics. White population resides West of Railroad. Single family buildings predominate. Age of properties 1 to 20 years with white property fairly well maintained and negro property poorly maintained. Section is at the extreme end of the city limits, somewhat inaccessible. Cedar Grove has been an integrated, working/middle-class neighborhood from its inception. The harm done by the HOLC in 1940 still rings true throughout the decades. Redlining harmed its residents by preventing them from obtaining mortgages and/or low-interest mortgages. According to the 2020 Decennial Census, Cedar Grove's population is healthy but older: Total population 4161 White 371 White % 8.92 All persons Black 3630 All Person Black % 87.24 Asian 14 Hispanic 120 18+ Population 3210 Housing Units 2260 Occupied 1757 Unoccupied 503 59th Street to Hollywood Ave/Pierremont/Southfield East. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 233 and 234 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 71st Street West to 73rd Street West. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 241 and 242 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 73rd Street East to 76th Street East. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 240, 242, and 244 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. 78th Street West to 80th Street West. Digital composite map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company plates from 1935. Plates 242 and 244 in Volume Two, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company 1935 maps of Shreveport, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Collection in the Library of Congress. Red lines are neighborhood boundaries. Gray polygons are building layer objects from the City of Shreveport GIS —georeferencing, research, and Cartography by Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. Sources: Library of Congress, Introduction to the [Sanborn Map] Collection. 'Fighters; Louisiana Campaign Gains Heat From Charges, but Effect on Primaries Is Doubtful. Home Rule Chief Issue,' New York Times, December 8, 1935, Section E, Page 11. See Richard L. Engstrom, 'Home Rule in Louisiana—Could This Be the Promised Land?' Louisiana History, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1976, pp. 431-455. 'Cedar Grove Pastor Asks Probe of Riot,' Shreveport Journal, January 7, 1936, Page 11. For an extensive investigation of housing discrimination by the Federal Government during the 1930s and since, see Gary D. Joiner, 'Redlining in Shreveport,' or Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- General
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Cedar Grove had a glass coffin factory
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explored how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and described the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. In this, the sixth article in the series, we will learn about how glass coffins were once fashionable in the United States and learn about a glass coffin factory that once operated in Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – 'What will be of interest to the entire world is the Glass Coffin factory now nearing completion and which will soon be in active operation in Cedar Grove,' wrote a reporter for The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 26, 1921, pp. 51. Yes, that's right. Cedar Grove once had a glass coffin factory. But what is a glass coffin, exactly? The industrialization of casket machinery transformed the business of death in the United States by the 1920s, when multiple companies began producing caskets with glass windows. Glass windows were originally added to caskets so that family and friends could look into the coffin to see the body of the deceased. But that's not the only reason why glass casket windows became popular. 'The window also would alert onlookers that the occupant had been accidentally buried alive if breath condensation appeared on the inside of the glass,' wrote Troy Smythe in an article called Failure to launch: The American glass casket industry, published by the Corning Museum of glass. By the early 1920s, The National Glass Coffin Company in Cedar Grove, Louisiana (now Shreveport) was determined to provide yet another service for glass coffin customers. 'A circular letter received from the Nationa Glass Casket Co., Denver, Colorado, states that they are going to build a factory at Shreveport, La. for the purpose of manufacturing glass caskets. Their reason for locating at Shreveport is 'because that section offers and unlimited supply of natural gas and glass sand, and water rates for the transportation of the product,' wrote The National Glass Budget, a weekly review of the American glass industry, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1919. 'The coffins and caskets to be manufactured, it is believed, will revolutionize the coffin industry in this country. The glass coffins are hermetically sealed and are moisture proof as well as vermin proof and persons buried in these receptacles may be unearthed thousands of years hence in the same identical condition as when interred,' explained The Shreveport Journal. During the 1920s, glass caskets were a fashionable trend in the United States. On Apr. 24, 1969, on the Egypt Plantation in Cruger, Mississippi, farm workers were using a backhoe near the old bank of the Yazoo River when they hit something 2-4′ deep in the ground. Suddenly liquid began pouring from the object, and when the farm workers began investigating the situation they suddenly saw woman's body inside. She was wearing a red velvet dress, a long cape, silk boots, and she looked like she was in her early 30s. 'The Lady in Red,' as she was later called, had red hair and pale skin. After the farm workers called the local sheriff, an investigation proved the strange liquid to be alcohol and determined that the woman had been buried long ago. The coffin was later determined to be a Fisk Airtight Coffin, which was made by the Fisk company in Rhode Island. Their caskets were used to preserve the bodies of the deceased as they were shipped home to their families far away. Who was the Lady in Red? Her identity is still a mystery, but it is suspected that her body was buried long before the Civil War–which proves that caskets with glass windows were being used in the South long before a glass casket company opened in Shreveport during the 1920s. The idea of covering the dead in a liquid that preserves their bodies is nothing new. An ancient Roman method covered the bodies of the deceased in liquid gypsum that acted almost like a plaster. Archaeologists have found that Roman burials in liquid gypsum date back at least 1700s years. Those who grew up watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures, pictured the post-apple Snow White asleep in a glass coffin, waiting for her prince to show up and kiss her back to life. It's a rather Grimm story. More than 80 years after the release of the 1937 film, the image of Snow White in a glass coffin is a little bit creepy when you think about it. But now that you know a little about the history of America's glass coffin industry in the 1920s, are you really surprised that such a coffin would appear in a cartoon movie released in 1937? The National Glass Coffin Company was based in Denver, Colorado, and a patent for one of the class coffins was filed on Nov. 7, 1916. And though we can't be certain that this is the exact model that was produced by the same company's Shreveport factory, we can easily make assumptions. The patent application stated that the coffin was comprised of a base and a cover, with the base made of glass reinforced with metallic elements. The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 26, 1921, pp. 51. The National Glass Budget, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1919. Glass Worker, Volume 41, No. 1, Oct. 1, 1921, pp. 11. The Caucasian, Shreveport, Louisiana, July 8, 1909, pp. 4. United States Patent Office Official Gazette, Department of The Interior, May 1, 1917, pp. 96. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
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Cedar Grove's first residents, topography, and first streets
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner took readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. The fifth article on Cedar Grove explores how Cedar Grove was settled after the Louisiana Purchase, how streets became bisected in Cedar Grove, and describes the topography of the little community that later became a Shreveport community. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Cedar Grove neighborhood of Shreveport today is bordered by Southfield Road and Hollywood Avenue on the north, Line Avenue on the east, Linwood Avenue on the west, and 84th Street and 85th Street on the south. In modern Shreveport, Cedar Grove is bisected north and south by 70th Street and east and West by I-49. But things haven't always been this way. Cedar Grove was once an independent town with its own boundaries. It was also an economic powerhouse that eventually allied with Shreveport. Did you know that several adjoining neighborhoods, including Eden Gardens, Oakmont, Woodlawn, Home Gardens, Morningside, and Shady Grove, owe their existence directly to Cedar Grove? The oldest detailed map of the area that would become Cedar Grove is found in the Louisiana Office of State Lands records in Baton Rouge. This is a portion of the original Patent Survey Map of Township 17 North, Range 14 West. Cedar Grove occupies Sections 24 and 25. The Cedar Grove township was surveyed in 1837, and the map was finalized in 1839. The boundary line between sections 24 and 25 is the original Pierremont Road track. The oldest land occupation is shown as a field owned by Weathersby. Cedar Grove is generally flat or gently rolling terrain and is well drained. West of I-49 and north of 70th Street is mainly flat. Original patents in Cedar Grove occurred in 1839, 1849, and 1859. Not all acreage was patented, and not all of the land patents went to the same individual. A land patent is the first time a king or government offers land to a private individual or a business. The initial transaction is called separation from the sovereign, and after that, the transfer is called a deed. William Laslay Pickens, a native of Livingston County, Kentucky, purchased 360 noncontiguous acres in sections 24 and 25 for $1.25 per acre. The land was prime geography for growing cotton. One of William Pickens' sons, Israel, served as sheriff of Caddo Parish during the Civil War. The Pickens family cemetery is located in Cedar Grove near 74th Street and St. Vincent Avenue. The oldest grave is William Pickens, who died at age 46, just three years after purchasing the property. Several wealthy Shreveporters, some owners of early Cedar Grove industries, purchased most of the remaining Pickens land in 1910. Among them were former Louisiana governor Newton Crain Blanchard, real estate developer J.B. Atkins, Lee Emmett Thomas, Wesley E. Wheless, and John D. Wilkinson. Shreveport had friendly relations with Cedar Grove. The city extended street car service to its near neighbor, separated by five miles of mostly undeveloped land. While workers in Cedar Grove refineries and factories mostly lived there, owners and managers typically lived in Shreveport. Eric Brock, writing about Cedar Grove in 1998, described the original street plans and how they morphed into the larger City of Shreveport grid: 'Cedar Grove's original plan was drawn up by Wheelock, Call, and Call, a Shreveport development corporation, though other developers followed and expanded Cedar Grove to its present size. It consisted of a grid of streets surrounding an area set aside for factories. The idea was that workers could live close to their jobs. Initially, 1,574 lots were laid out for homes. Five streets running north to south and 14 running east to West made up the first phase of development. Initially, the north/south streets were named Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio Avenues, but soon the names were changed: First, respectively, to Western, Atkins, Division, Southern (as it connected, via the streetcar line from Shreveport to the already extant Southern Avenue to the north), and Highland. After the annexation [in 1927], in order to avoid confusion with other Shreveport streets, the north-south streets of Cedar Grove were given their present names: Dowdell, St. Vincent (it was connected with the already extant St. Vincent Avenue to the north), Dillman, Southern, and Henderson, respectively. The east-west streets, first named A through N Streets, were later renamed 67th through 80th, respectively. The numbering followed a pattern begun when the development's limits were extended to the north. The idea was that 70th Street was 70 blocks south of Stoner Avenue and so forth. Actually, the numbering was miscalculated by several blocks – which is not surprising since a great deal of land between Cedar Grove and Shreveport then remained undeveloped. Today, Cedar Grove possesses streets numbered 58th through 85th.' 'Cedar Grove was first a town on its own' by Eric J. Brock, printing in Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, Feb. 21, 1998. The railroad tracks initially divided east-west running streets in Cedar Grove into east and west names. (For example, East 70th Street and West 70th Street.) But as Shreveport grew to the West after 1927, extensions of existing streets received the West designation but were not necessarily connected to the original streets. That's why West Jordan Street does not connect to Jordan Street, etc. Eric J. Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol of Urban Decay, Cedar Grove Was Once a Booming Industrial Town,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, March 19, 1994. Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. [Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. The (Shreveport) Times, Aug. 25, 1897, pp. 8 The Shreveport Daily News, July 18, 1861, pp. 3 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
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Cedar Grove was an oil boom town
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) showed us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. In the second article of the series, we learned how Shreveport became a hub for automobile production in the early days of the horseless carriage. The third article of the series examined how manufacturing changed in Cedar Grove after automobile production ended. For the fourth article in our series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner takes readers back to 1905-1910, when Cedar Grove sprung up in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, as a small oil boom town. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Cedar Grove neighborhood in modern-day Shreveport was once a little oil boom town that sprang up overnight. Boom towns like Oil City and Trees City (from the previous timber boom) sprang up quickly in North Caddo Parish. Cedar Grove is one of those oil boom towns. Cedar Grove might have remained a pastoral setting during the early 1900s, and Caddo Parish may also have seen slow, steady economic growth if oil and gas deposits had not been discovered twenty miles north of Shreveport near Caddo Lake in 1905. Oil from Cedar Grove was transported through pipelines beginning in 1910. Former timber railroads now serviced oil companies. Refineries sprang up to process the oil and gas into useable products. Pipelines and railroads revolutionized the oil and gas business—access to transportation allowed oil fields to be separated from processing centers. Two early refining centers in Shreveport were located in Anderson Island and Cedar Grove. Several wealthy Shreveporters, some owners of early Cedar Grove industries, purchased most of the remaining Pickens land in 1910. Among them were former Louisiana governor Newton Crain Blanchard, real estate developer J.B. Atkins, Lee Emmett Thomas, Wesley E. Wheless, and John D. Wilkinson. Shreveport had friendly relations with Cedar Grove. The city extended street car service to its near neighbor, separated by five miles of mostly undeveloped land. While workers in Cedar Grove refineries and factories mostly lived there, owners and managers typically lived in Shreveport. Cedar Grove had many growth opportunities. The topography of the northwestern portion was flat, negating the need to move mountains of soil. The railroad tracks (now part of the main trunk line of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad) bisected the town east and West. Early oil companies eyed the town as a favorable location for refineries and associated factories. With an influx of industrial companies in Cedar Grove, lumber mills were needed to build the factories and homes. Cedar Grove became a nexus of the industry. Pipelines brought gas to run the local factories. Refined oil and petroleum products were loaded on railroad tank cars destined for larger markets. Among the early petroleum-related refineries were the D'Artois Refining Company, which produced a variety of oils and grease products, Western Carbon, McNutt Carbon, Rogers Refining, and Louisiana Fuel and Gas. Several of these were merged into the more significant Crystal Oil and Refining Company. 'The establishing of another refinery in the Shreveport, La., district is noted as follows by the Shreveport News: 'Ground will be broken at once, it was announced yesterday, for the $150,000 plant of the Marine Oil and Refining company at Cedar Grove, the site to cover 10 acres. The plant will be installed at a cost of $150,000 and the D'Artois process for the running of lubricating oils without a wax plant will be used. This, according tot he announcement, will cut the price of making high grade lubricants in half. Low grade Caddo oil will be used,' we read in Vol. XXII–No. 1 of the Apr., 1917, pp. 24 of The Petroleum Gazette from Titusville, Pennsylvania. In Shreveport Chronicles: Profiles From Louisiana's Port City, by Eric J. Brock, published by The History Press in Charleston, South Carolina in 2009, we learn that George D'Artois, the founder of the D'Artois Refining Company, was the grandfather of George D'Artois, the commissioner of public safety during Shreveport's civil rights movement. Sources: Shreveport Chronicles: Profiles From Louisiana's Port City, by Eric J. Brock, published by The History Press in Charleston, South Carolina, 2009 The Petroleum Gazette, Titusville, Pennsylvania, Vol. XXII–No. 1, Apr., 1917, pp. 24 The (Shreveport) Times, Oct. 20, 1915, pp. 8 The (Shreveport) Times, July 30, 1910, pp. 9 The (Shreveport) Times, Jan. 28, 1907, pp. 3 The Shreveport Journal, June 25, 1909, pp. 6 Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. Eric J. Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol of Urban Decay, Cedar Grove Was Once a Booming Industrial Town,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, March 19, 1994. Brueggerhoff's Shreveport City Directory 1917, R.L. Polk & Co., Dallas, Texas; Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol.' Brock, 'Currently A Standing Symbol.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
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Shreveport's 'factory movement' of 1911 completely transformed Cedar Grove
The Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail project is expanding its scope with a new series designed to help historic villages, towns, neighborhoods, and/or cities in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, investigate three different versions of their communities: the past, the present, and the future. Team members include Dr. Gary Joiner, Mik Barnes, Jaclyn Tripp, Dr. Laura Meiki, Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douong, Dr. Amy Rosner, Dr. Rolonda Teal, and Brenton Metzler. The team is now focusing on the history of the Cedar Grove neighborhood. In this, the first article in the series on Cedar Grove, Dr. Gary Joiner (Professor of History at LSU Shreveport) shows us how a social movement in 1911 Shreveport drastically changed Cedar Grove. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Did you know that Cedar Grove was once a hotspot of industry in the American South? The first hint of modern industrialization occurred in Cedar Grove in 1859 when Louisiana reserved 280 acres of land in Section 25 for the Vicksburg, Shreveport, and Texas Railroad as part of a grand attempt to create a transcontinental railroad. Much of the railroad bed across northern Louisiana was cleared and prepared, but the tracks for the transcontinental railroad in this region were not laid before the Civil War. Both sides of the future railroad tracks remained farms and forested areas for the remainder of the nineteenth century, but things began to change after the formerly enslaved were emancipation. After the Civil War, Black farmers and farm workers lived in the area that would one day become Cedar Grove. This rural community was integrated long before political and social conventions swept America. The first house of worship in Cedar Grove, Little Hope Baptist Church, was built in 1894 on an acre of land donated by Maria Wright. Wright was a Black landowner and a charter member of the congregation. The people of Cedar Grove came together in 1904 and formed the village as a legal entity. Within less than a decade, Cedar Grove underwent a brilliant factory movement that successfully attracted workers and factories to the area. This article focuses on Cedar Grove's urbanization, which caused the village to grow so rapidly that it became a positive example of social and economic change in the American South. However, the article also acknowledges that when Cedar Grove transitioned from a village to a neighborhood in Shreveport, the former community lost some of its historic identity. The origin of the name 'Cedar Grove' is a mystery. Historian Eric Brock conjectured that it might have been the name of the Pickens family plantation or perhaps from the Caddo Indian word, Wahahula, meaning 'watering place,' or even early settlers who mistook the abundant pine trees for cedar trees. However, regardless of how Cedar Grove got its name, in January 1911, The Shreveport Journal published an article about a master plan for Cedar Grove that had been planned by an Indiana man. 'George B. Wheelock of Anderson, Indiana, Represeting a Strong Firm, announces that at least four manufacturing plants will be established and car line extended on lot sale plan,' wrote a Shreveport Journal reporter on Jan. 18, 1911. 'The Indianians have purchased a large tract of land situated just south of the city along the line of the Kansas City Southern railroad… The name of the tract just purchased is Cedar Grove addition. It will be laid off in lots of 50 by 150 feet, with 60-foot streets and 20-foot alleys. Forty acres will be reserved for factory sites, for donation by the promoters. The plan is to place the lots on sale at $200 each, payable $20 down and $10 per month until paid fair. The citizens will be asked to buy the lots as real estate investments.' In the article, Wheelock also said the plan was to locate industries on the lot sale plan, which his team had followed most successfully in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Anderson, Indiana, and other places. 'If we sell these lots in Cedar Grove addition to the people at their actual worth without any industries being located thereon, and then we establish the factories, we will be putting the industries here virtually as gifts to the citizens,' said Wheelock in the article on pp. 3. George B. Wheelock was a highly praised businessman from Anderson, Indiana. He was manufacturing 'horseless carriages' in Indiana as early as 1907, and he served successfully on a committee of 13 men who completely transformed Anderson, Indiana in the early 1900s. 'We don't care to give one person credit over another in our great movement, but we can't resist the temptation of suggesting three rousing cheers for Goerge B. Wheelock… the literal hub about which this lot movement has radiated,' wrote a reporter for The Anderson Herald in a story that published on Apr. 17, 1908. 'It has been called the Watkins plan and Mr. Watkins suggested it. But the one man above all others, Mr. Watkins included, who made it go, was our own fellow townsmen and spendid citizen, George B. Wheelock… He has been a veritable dynamo that, operating in the center, has been felt to the very point of the circumference, and to him first, let us doff our hats.' An article about how Anderson, Indiana attracted factories to their town, printed in The Indianpolis Star on Dec. 27, 1908, stated 'But in order to obtain the results they had in mind they did not shift the work or responsibility to one organization or one class of men, but formed themselves into one great committee, the duty of which was to get results… Literally every many, woman, and child in the city is entitled to great credit for the success of the movement, for each responded to every call and took advantage of every opportunity to help.' By January of 1911, Wheelock was in Shreveport trying to begin what he called the 'factory movement.' His movement would teach the people of Shreveport how to work together in a way that included all citizens regardless of class. Mrs. George B. Wheelock of Anderson, Indiana, came to Shreveport, too, in late September 1911. Many Shreveport socialites considered her a guest of honor. 'A splendid start was made at last night's mass meeting in behalf of the factory-securing movement which has been launched in Shreveport. The proposition is a big one, but it was put to the people of Shreveport in such a way as to show that there is absolutely no chance for anybody to lose a dollar and in such a manner as to convince the most skeptical that the whole proposition can be carried through to successful completion,' we read in The Shreveport Journal from Jan. 27, 1911. The plan was to establish a new industrial subdivision with at least four factories and a workforce of at least a thousand people. A complex of glass manufacturers came to Cedar Grove in the coming years. There are four reasons the manufacturing of glass was ideal for Cedar Grove. First, there was flat land. Immediate access to vast sources of natural gas for furnaces attracted glass manufacturers, too, as did ready access to a railroad trunk line and an unlimited supply of high-grade sand from the Red River. Cedar Grove glass factories made large-pane plate glass windows, canning jars, soda bottles, bell-shaped utility pole insulators, and skinny kerosine lamp chimneys. Belgian immigrants who came to Cedar Grove to work contributed much of their expertise. Among these firms were the Shreveport Window Glass Company, a subsidiary of the National Window Glass Company, the National Glass Company, and Southern States Bottling. Wheelock explained to local papers in 1911 that at least 5,000 people would move to Shreveport, and it would take less than 18 months to get everything rolling. The funny thing is that people actually bought into the project. They believed Wheelock. And because they believed the Shreveport Factory Movement plan actually worked. A committee of ladies raffled off two lots to help support the 'factory movement' in late Feb. 1911. People began making commitments to buy residential lots and commercial areas. The factories were on their way, and both the lower and upper classes in Shreveport were in support of the movement. As the first few years of the factory movement passed, with workers and employers in Cedar Grove happy with the progress, some detractors, holding to the Southern agrarian way of life, railed against urbanization in Cedar Grove. But a lengthy rebuttal to this way of thinking appeared in the May 28, 1913, issue of the Shreveport Journal. 'The Caddo Oil Refinery is today compactly built, a magnificent plant operating full time, and has money in reserve to declare a dividend on July 1. This plant is a credit to any city, and anyone condemning this proposal does not state facts.' The Shreveport Journal, May 28, 1913 Shreveport newspapers were quick to document the progress. They wrote about the success of Hudson Lumber Company and the slow-growing success of Caddo Window Company. Meanwhile, people in Cedar Grove were working at factories and using their salaries to purchase homes near the factories. One newspaper documented that many factory employees who purchased their own homes had gardens that produced as much food as farmers outside of Cedar Grove who lived on five acres. The movement was growing stronger, and a middle class was beginning to form in Cedar Grove. By June of 1911, The Shreveport Journal reported that Cedar Grove was on the railroad map. 'Trains leave K. C. S. shops 6:15 a.m., arrive Cedar Grove 6:25 a.m. Return, leave Cedar Grove 6:30 p.m. arrive Shreveport 6:40. Fare ten cents each way.' 'The Timpson [Broom] handle factory, while about complete, never has been operated consequently cannot be accused of putting men out of employment,' stated an article in a Shreveport Ad Club publication. 'This plant, within a few weeks from now, will be properly operated, having ample funds behind it for operations, which means the bringing into Cedar Grove, of a large number of men and their families. The Shreveport bottle and glass company, for a long time gave steady employment to a number of men. It did bust up, and a few men got stuck for their last couple of weeks wages, and we have no apologies to make. However, this plant has been taken over by the Ridgeway people of Indiana and will be in full operation shortly, which means the bringing in of from 200 to 400 skilled workmen. This will bring about the addition of a large number of families. The above represents the industries at Cedar Grove at the present time. It is a true statement of facts, and watch for the announcement of additional enterprises going into this addition.' By Feb. 1912, Wagner Glass Works was under construction and Gardner Brass Works was producing carburetors. The Caddo Window Glass Plant was ready for operation. Almost a year later, on Jan. 20, 1914, the following appeared on pp. 1 of the Shreveport Times: 'Full dinner pails and cozy homes, clattering hammer, and loaded car: Solid town of the South. 'What has been done in Cedar Grove proves it is a good thing–what is being done proves it permanence–growth of the factory site is remarkable.'' The newspaper reported that the Caddo Window Glass Company was running full blast, and a 50K steel water tank 110 feet high was on its way to Cedar Grove. The Shreveport Glass and Bottle Works had hired hundreds of people, and the Hudson Box and Manufacturing Company had a sawmill in full operation. Throughout the relatively short period in which Cedar Grove was far ahead of any other town in the region, there were more than 30 factories of different types in Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove had zero unemployment, its own banks, its own entertainment venues, churches, fraternal lodges, and in hindsight Cedar Grove was a thriving, growing, viable town. George B. Wheelock, the retired carriage manufacturer from Indiana who began Shreveport's Factory movement, didn't live to see the success of his dreams for Cedar Grove. He died at his home in Anderson, Indiana, on July 26, 1914. On Jan. 13, 1920, an election made it official when citizens in Cedar Grove voted to change the name of Cedar Grove to 'South Shreveport.' 'As soon as the necessary legal steps can be taken the name of Cedar Grove will be changed to South Shreveport,' announced The Shreveport Journal on Jan. 14, 1920. Cedar Grove was annexed into Shreveport city limits in 1927. It is now known simply as a neighborhood. Sources: The Shreveport Journal, Jan 14, 1920, pp. 11 The Shreveport Journal, Sept. 2, 1911 he (Shreveport) Times, Aug. 12, 1911, pp. 3 The Shreveport Journal, Mar. 8, 1911, pp. 2 The Shreveport Journal, Jan. 27, 1911, pp. 26 The Shreveport Journal on Feb. 20, 1911, pp. 1 The Shreveport Journal, June 21, 1911, pp. 6 Original Land Patents, Sections 24 and 25, Township 17 North, Range 14 West (1839), Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Louisiana Department of Administration, Office of State Lands, Historical Documents Collection, Baton Rouge. Caddo Parish Clerk of Court Records, 1862-1865. Original Land Patents, Sections 25, Township 17 North, Range 14 West (1859), Caddo Parish, Louisiana. History of First Baptist Church of Cedar Grove. Eric J. Brock, 'To the Caddos, Cedar Grove Was 'Wahahula,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, August 15, 1999. 'Our History: Cedar Grove to mark centennial soon,' Lafayette [Louisiana] Daily Advertiser, February 20, 2014 Eric J. Brock, 'Cedar Grove Was First a Town On Its Own,' Presence of the Past, Shreveport Journal, February 21, 1998. Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City, Louisiana. The Indianapolis Star, Dec. 27, 1908, pp. 5. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
