Ouachita Parish History Tidbits

Author: Lora Diane Peppers

  • Bayou DeSiard Country Club

    I have been on a collecting binge here lately on Ebay! This is a real color postcard of the Bayou DeSiard Country Club which still sits across the bayou from…

  • Census Help for the 1940 and 1950 Censuses.

    In 2022, the 1950 census will be released. It will be several months before all the names will be indexed by the big databases. When the 1940 census was released…

  • Smoot Field

    https://cdm16631.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/charm/id/13509 This photo was found in the collection of Mississippi State University. It was taken in August, 1926. Another photo showing a group of men posed around one of the…

  • Rare letters from a Former Monroe Mayor to his Brother.

    This letter comes from the collection of the Tennessee State Library. It is a two page letter from Arthur Hambleton Harris to his brother George Carroll Harris in Nashville. The…

  • Swansea Campbell Among the Apple Blossoms.

    These come from the collection of the Indiana State University. http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/hohenberger/Hoh004.022.0050 http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/hohenberger/Hoh004.022.0049 http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/hohenberger/Hoh004.022.0048 They show Miss Swansea Campbell posing under a blooming apple tree. they were taken May 1, 1932.…

  • Reverend G.W. Longwood

    This one comes from the collection of the New York Public Library. They also have the Monroe Broadcast newspaper from the mid 1930’s I would love to get my hands…

  • Unknown Mealy Photo Identified!

    The second Mealy photo I won, just felt SO familiar! When I got to work Monday morning, I began thumbing through my transcription of the Monroe Evening News World’s Fair…

  • An Unknown Mealy Photo

    I love Ebay! Over the weekend, I saw two unknown E.W. Mealy photos come up for auction. I was the only bidder. This first one I felt no familiarity with.…

  • The Sacrifice and Death of Father Louis Gergaud

    I have written about Father Gergaud before. He is considered one of the hero martyrs of the Shreveport Yellow Fever epidemic. While looking around on the internet for info about…

  • The First Boy Scouts Troop in Louisiana Started in Monroe.

    Did you know that Monroe had one of the first Boy Scout troops in the South? Yep! It all started back on September 19, 1909 when Isaac Cowden, with help…