Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Author: Lora Diane Peppers

  • Little Bell Baptist Church

    This little church is located on the Perryville road between Hwy 165 and Hwy 139. I’ve loved this little church since I was a kid. It stands down the road…

  • Emy-Lou Biedenharn

    I wrote this back in 2007 for LA Road Trips Magazine.             Way back in 1913, the building that would become the Biedenharn Museum was just a glimmer in the…

  • Beit Ha-Chaim (Cemetery) of Congregation B’nai Israel

    The Jewish cemetery has been the burial ground of Monroe’s Jewish population for almost one hundred sixty years.  On September 28, 1861, the present cemetery property was purchased from the…

  • Endom Livery Stable

    The above building was built in 1878 by Frederick Endom. He and his brother were German emigrants who settled in Monroe just before the Civil War broke out. Fred was…

  • Lyceum Theatre

    This building once stood in the 100 block of DeSiard Street almost directly across from St. John. It opened December 29, 1909 as a vaudeville and movie theater. It boasted…

  • Jackson Street at the Turn of the Century: Another View

    On November 30 of last year, i posted a view of Jackson street taken probably between 1906 and 1910: .https://ouachitaparishhistory.com/2018/11/30/jackson-street-at-the-turn-of-the-century I found this second view, probably taken pre 1906 due…

  • Sidney and Annie’s Marriage License

    Back in 2001 I was very interested in Monroe’s black sheep couple! Their story fascinated me. I had access to a very bad copy of what looked to be a…

  • Sidney and Annie Saunders Part III

    Annie Saunders had now lost her husband and son.  She was inconsolable.  Rumors that Sidney and Annie were never married were still active among Monroe society.  When Sidney’s brothers and…

  • Sidney and Annie Saunders Part II

                Annie was born to the union of Alfred N. and Catherine Livingston in Bastrop around the year 1852.  One of the rumors was that Annie was of mixed race. …

  • Sidney and Annie Saunders Part I

    I wrote about Sidney and Annie over three issues of Louisiana Road Trips Magazine in 2012. I put most everything I knew about Sidney and Annie Saunders in those articles.…