Black Business Month: Blacksmithing in Koran

August is Black Business Month, founded as a time to acknowledge and uplift Black-owned businesses across the U.S., that have existed and persisted despite the obstacles historically put in front of them. Unfortunately, there are obstacles in researching black owned businesses, too. When searching the History Center’s own archives, and city directories and local newspapers readily available to us, such as the Shreveport Times and Journal, the Bossier Banner and the Plain Dealing Progress, there was little to find on early black businesses in Bossier Parish, when life and news sources were segregated in the first half of the 20th century and beyond. Then I remembered History Center staff Margaret Rhodes Mims telling me about her grandfather’s blacksmithing shop in Koran in south Bossier Parish.

Margaret’s grandfather, Henry Louis Rhodes, who was born in 1888, lived just up the hill from her on what is now the Johnston-Koran Road. Mr. Rhodes had learned the blacksmithing trade from his father, also a blacksmith, and had built his own shop on his father’s land. Margaret’s father and uncle also stayed on this land, as did Margaret until the destructive floods of 2016.

Margaret’s parents both worked outside the home, so she and her younger siblings would go up the hill to “bother” their grandfather, “Papa”. Papa, in turn, would put Margaret and her brother Iza to work, but to the kids it was entertainment. Margaret remembered getting to work the bellows, blowing air to make the coals turn red. She didn’t even remember being bothered by the heat!

Though by the early twentieth century some blacksmithing shop work was taken over by steel and factory manufacturing, blacksmiths were still in demand for farrier work, shoeing horses and mules, especially in a rural agricultural area like Koran. The mules and horses were critical to pull wagons, plows, or haul logs for the timber industry. Mr. Rhodes was the only blacksmith from south Bossier to Minden as his grandkids remembered.

Care of the hooves is essential to a horse’s health and ability to perform their duties, since the hoof carries their entire weight, so someone who can properly trim and shoe horses was and is a critical skilled worker for horse owners. Mr. Rhodes was especially valuable as one who could both make the shoes (a blacksmith) as well as safely handle the horse or mule in order to trim the hooves and properly fit and nail the shoe to the hooves. In other words, he possessed both the technical or ‘hard skills’ of a blacksmith with the ‘soft skills’ of a horse whisperer. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mr. Rhodes himself owned horses that lived on his Koran property, and that Margaret and her siblings loved to ride bareback (when no adults were looking!)

In addition to shoeing horses, Mr. Rhodes had other smithing skills, such as repairing plows and making neck yokes for cows to keep them from escaping through fences. He also had a superpower in his key-making ability. Margaret said he made the key for the First National Bank in Shreveport simply by looking at the lock!

Of course, with the advent of motorized vehicles and farm equipment like tractors, demand declined. None of Mr. Rhodes’ kids or grandkids carried on the blacksmith business, but before his passing in 1981, he did teach another local man to shoe horses. Trail riding is still a very popular pastime in Bossier Parish, and farriers are still needed.

If you know a Black-owned business in Bossier Parish history, we would love to hear about it, or copy information and photos for our collection. The History Center is open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Henry L. Rhodes, C. 1970's
• Horse shoeing exhibition, pilgrimage at West Feliciana Parish, La. Circa 1980s. Digital Collection, State Library of Louisiana Historic Photograph Collection (https://www.state.lib.la.us) 

Article by: Pam Carlisle

On the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Japan: A Story of Survivor Shoji Tabuchi

Shoji Tabuchi, who made Bossier City home for a decade in the 1970’s, was a young classically-trained violinist in Japan who set himself a goal to be a country music star in America when as a college student he heard Howdy Forrester, fiddler for Roy Acuff, on tour in Japan. Ultimately becoming the fiddler for Bossier’s homegrown country music star David Houston, who wowed audiences in his own right, and then in his own show and theatre in Branson, MO, Shoji attained that goal and then some. If you visited Branson, Missouri, the entertainment tourism-based city in the Ozarks, or know anyone who did from roughly 1980 – 2020, you’ve very likely heard of this showman who revered the country classics, yet added enough flash to his performances to make them Las Vegas-worthy. A less well-known aspect of Shoji’s story may be his status as a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima.

Over eighty years ago, in May, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces. The event, which became known as V-E Day (Victory in Europe) marked the end of WWII in Europe. But for the rest of that summer, World War II escalated in the Pacific. June 1945’s Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest Americans had seen. Then, on August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Superfortress bomber aircraft called the “Enola Gay” dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. A few days later the B-29 named “Bockscar” dropped a second atomic bomb over Nagasaki.

Combined, the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki claimed approximately 200,000 lives in Japan. In between the two bombings, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, further pushing an end to the war. On August 15th (August 14th in the Western Hemisphere) President Harry S. Truman announced that Emperor Hirohito had accepted the terms of unconditional surrender. In England, August 14th became known as V-J Day (Victory in Japan). In the United States, Truman announced V-J Day would be celebrated Sept. 2nd 1945, when the agreement was formally signed on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Shoji Tabuchi was born in Daishoji, Japan in April, 1944. Effects of the atomic bomb could be felt for miles out from its “ground zero,” such as from heat or the blast itself, which damaged buildings. Following the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1946, though the family was not in Hiroshima itself or within the lethal radius for radiation, Shoji was evacuated riding on his mother’s back, while she pushed his baby brother in a carriage. Journalist Bob Greene related this story of Shoji’s evacuation in “Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War,” published in 2000. (“Duty,” about Greene’s father and Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., who commanded the Enola Gay, is available as an e-book with your Bossier Parish Library card through the library’s Hoopla platform.)

Greene accompanied the Enola Gay crew members, General Paul Tibbets (pilot), Colonel Thomas Ferebee, (bombardier) and Major Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk (navigator) on a Memorial Day reunion trip to Branson in the 1990’s. Their topmost desire while in Branson was to see Shoji Tabuchi in his theatre. Shoji Tabuchi Theatre staff ushered their party, which included spouses, to a section of special seats and asked for the three crew members to sit together. Ferebee, knowing Shoji’s heritage and their own famous connection to the Enola Gay joked, “Why, so they can shoot us?”

Shoji Tabuchi actually had one of his famous theatrical moments planned. He paused his performance to ask the three men to stand and be recognized by the audience. Theatre staff approached the men and their wives with flowers and gifts. After the show, the party was invited to Shoji’s lounge area. Shoji at first made small talk, but then he told his story of clinging to his mother’s neck as they made their way to the mountainside to escape the heat and effects of the nuclear blast at Hiroshima. He especially wanted the three men to hear the sentiment he attributed to his father, that “all would have died” if the bomb hadn’t been dropped. Believing the devastation of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened the end of the war, Shoji expressed that the Enola Gay’s crew members spared the lives of “men, women, children” all over Japan, like himself.

The Branson fiddler and showrunner Shoji Tabuchi passed away at age 79 on August 11, 2023. His funeral and burial were in Oak Grove, LA (West Carroll Parish), the hometown of his wife Dorothy and daughter Christina.

If you have stories or photographs of people connected to Bossier Parish, please visit or contact us at the History Center. You might also want to visit the History Center if you would like to read about Shoji Tabuchi’s early experience in the American music business and in Bossier City in Tillman Frank’s book, “I was there when it Happened.” If you are interested in the History of World War II, please come to our monthly World War Tuesday coffee and discussion series. The next one is September 9th at 10:30 am. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Shoji Tabuchi in the Bossier Press, June 29, 1972.
• Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay waving from its cockpit. USAF photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. 
• Enola Gay bombardier Thomas Ferebee. Photo Taken by Ted H. Lambert, who served in the USAAF (20th AF) on Tinian during WWII. Licensed under <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

“Invasion” Force Hits Bossier’s East Bank During World War II

The Bossier side of the Red River was the scene of a unique event 80 years ago. Soldiers dashed out of boats amid billowing smoke screens and hurried towards the east bank. Planes fired on enemy positions, as the clatter of machine guns echoed along the river, and medics tended the wounded. No, war hadn’t come to Bossier City. The fighting was simulated, meant to give spectators a glimpse of America’s fighting forces in action and encourage the support of those forces by the purchase of war bonds.

War bond drives, or war loan drives as they were also called, were a critical aspect of U.S. policy during the Second World War. They helped raise funds that the government used to buy equipment and supplies for the war effort, and they helped foster a sense of patriotism among citizenry by providing a means to contribute to that effort. There were eight such drives between November 1942 and December 1945. The mock invasion held in Bossier City on Sunday afternoon, June 10, 1945, was part of number seven.

In the days leading up to the event, local newspaper stories heightened interest by telling of the military machinery and maneuvers that would be on display and the guests who would attend, including Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis and movie star of that era, Robert Young. Personnel would be present to sell bonds. In an article on June 9, Barksdale’s Bark, the newspaper of Barksdale Field – as the base was then called - depicted the upcoming event. “One hundred Barksdale GIs, armed with rifles and machine guns, will be disgorged from nine Higgins boats tomorrow, and behind a smoke screen, will plunge into an inferno of explosions, … belching flame throwers, roaring dive bombers and wheezing bazooka shells to secure a beachhead,” the paper stated. According to the article, Barksdale supplied the troops who would go ashore and much of the equipment to be used, including jeeps, walkie-talkies and blank ammunition. The Higgins boats, named for Andrew Higgins, founder of the New Orleans company that built them, were brought by truck from Texas.

The “Red River Bond Invasion Show,” as the event was referred to in some local newspapers, got underway before a crowd estimated to number between 25,000 and 30,000 spectators that had gathered along both sides of the river and on the Texas Street bridge. Prior to the start of the invasion, Young addressed those assembled and “placed decided emphasis on the need to buy war bonds,” according to an article the following day in The Shreveport Journal. Navy Lieutenant Joe McMeel, survivor of a bombing attack on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin just four months earlier, spoke as well and reminded the crowd that although victory had been secured in Europe, the war in the Pacific continued.

After the guest speakers, the invasion commenced. The Shreveport Journal article of June 11 described the scene: “As the men advanced to establish their beachhead, smoke bombs … were set off, providing continuous protection to the men landing on the shore and to those moving upward on the beach. Even as the men advanced, the … P51s (fighter aircraft) continued to come over, providing a cover for them and blasting an opening … to aid the men in their move forward.” This must have been quite a sight to see on Red River! Once the objective of planting a flag in enemy territory was achieved, the invasion ended.

Persons who purchased bonds at the event and in the days just prior to the event were allowed rides on the Higgins boats. Young, who years later would achieve fame on tv in shows like “Father Knows Best” and “Marcus Welby M.D.,” signed autographs for those who bought bonds of $1000 or more. The June 11 article in the Shreveport Journal states that approximately $21,000 in bonds were sold during the afternoon’s show. That amount combined with money from bond sales across the country during the seven weeks of the Seventh War Loan Drive helped achieve a final total of more than $26 billion. Yes, billion.

For one Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1945, Bossier’s east bank became a stage, offering a more forgiving glimpse into the brutal beach landings at places such as Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. For a moment, the crowd had a visual reminder that freedom isn’t free.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• 7th War Loan poster/Wikimedia Commons
• The Planters Press headline, June 7, 1945/Newspapers.com
• Boat landings on Bossier's east bank/Barksdale's Bark, June 16, 1945

Article by: Kevin Flowers

When History was in the Making in the History Center: A Hurricane Katrina Remembrance

It’s been twenty years, on August 29, since our neighbors on the Gulf Coast had to face the devastation of Hurricane Katrina (and soon after that, Hurricane Rita). Their lives were transformed, and for a while, life here at the Bossier Parish Library was transformed too. It never occurred to us the critical role a public library might play in disaster response, several hours away from the disaster, but we learned on our feet. Hundreds of evacuees poured into the Bossier Parish Central Library and History Center so they could use the computers to look at satellite photos of their homes, to try to contact friends and relatives whose whereabouts were unknown, to watch a New Orleans news channel via the Internet and to fill out their FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) applications.

The evacuees also came to the library as a place to spend time outside of a crowded shelter or relative’s house and as a place to let their kids be kids in our cheerful Children’s Department.

Our librarians did what librarians do – they provided lots of information, from local bus schedules to how to get food assistance - but they expanded their role well beyond that. They provided sympathetic ears and hugs and friendships. They collected books the displaced children could keep, so they wouldn’t have to worry about returning them in a completely unpredictable future time.

History Center staff noticed that history was being made all around us. We put all the tools necessary for doing oral history interviews, like tape recorders, blank tapes, consent forms and notebooks in a box where they were easily accessible. Every staff member was encouraged to record oral history interviews with hurricane evacuees as they came in, no appointment necessary.

We recorded stories of several evacuees who used the library in the days and weeks following the hurricanes, including Nell Charney, an elderly woman who lived by herself in a second-floor apartment in New Orleans’ midtown. She rode out the storm and spent days in her apartment, surrounded by water that reached to the ceiling of the apartment below, without power or any means of communication with the outside world. She was eventually rescued, she believed, by members of the Coast Guard who reached her by boat. They had no way to get her out of her apartment but by breaking her window and helping her though it, thus beginning her journey that eventually found her settling in Bossier City near relatives. She had dramatic memories of the rest of the evacuation:

And of course the boats were having to be very careful because they couldn’t see what was underneath the water, except you could see maybe just the tip of a lamppost … might be sticking up out of the water. So, they were all having to be very careful. We started toward the Broad Street Overpass…

After being dropped off at the overpass, Ms. Charney noted:

It’s a good thing I had on my hat, because that sun was beaming down, and I didn’t know if, when we’d ever get picked up, up there. The helicopters were flying around, but none came down. There had been…evidently, there had been crowds of people on this overpass earlier. Maybe even the day before; because there was all this debris, uh, strung, you know, out along. Lot of food, apples,…some good stuff. Like lanterns, there was a nice lantern there. People had, uh, been there with their possessions and they had just had to leave a lot of it when they got picked up.

In addition, we collected oral history interviews of library staff, recording and transcribing their stories of family members and other loved ones directly or indirectly affected by the monster storms, and of being “on the front lines” helping patrons who were hurricane survivors and evacuees. Former Children’s Services Director Lucille Marabella recalled that library staff “…genuinely showed how much we cared for these folks. It was something that I will never forget for many reasons, personal as well as professionally. Hopefully we can learn from it.” Former Reference Librarian Martha Matlock recalled in her interview that, “I learned a lot about myself during that period of time; how important it is to think that you are connected to about just anybody that walks in that door in some way. And, don’t let them ever go away empty handed…If you can’t give them what they need, send them some place where they can find it.”

The transcripts of these recordings are available for reading at the History Center, or they can be emailed to out of town family members or researchers. As stated by past History Center Director Ann Middleton, these interviews evoke strong memories of what it was like to be in Bossier as an evacuee, or as a provider of a safe haven for family members, or as a concerned public servant during a heart- wrenching time. We are able to share these thoughts and feelings through the generosity of the people who agreed to record an interview for posterity.

We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Nell Charney
• Lucille Marabella – BPL photo

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Sears Had Long History in Bossier City

Walking through Pierre Bossier Mall, there is no indication that its east end was home to Sears. Gone is the Sears sign that once hung above the mall entrance to the store, that entrance now blocked by a security gate. Beyond the gate, darkness inhabits the space once filled with everything from clothing and homewares to appliances and tools. Sears’ ending stands in stark contrast to its beginning in Bossier City sixty-nine years ago.

A simple, straight-to-the-point headline appeared in the November 30, 1956 edition of the Bossier Press newspaper, “Sears Opens Bossier Store.” The Heart of Bossier Shopping Center, at the intersection of Old Minden and Benton Roads, had been chosen as the store’s site. The accompanying article described the structure: “The 18,000 square foot building is in the same architectural model as the rest of the Big Chain Center of which it is a part. Modern in every detail, it includes a super service station, a customer catalog desk, and 18 complete departments.” Store advertisements featured products like 21-inch television sets for $148 that brought a “photo-sharp picture right into your living room” and Kenmore automatic washers for $188 that were “like having 2 washers in 1 with one speed for regular fabrics and a slower speed for delicate fabrics.”

That the word modern was applied to the store was no surprise. According to the Bossier Press article, the store was designed by the firm founded by noted modernist architect William B. Wiener. He and his half-brother Samuel were responsible for bringing the European Modernist style of design to Shreveport and Bossier. The article called the store “an important new milestone in the commercial history of Bossier City.” Hired to manage this milestone was Texas native Forest Vaughn, who, according to the same Bossier Press article, had previously worked as an assistant manager for Sears in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Sears began in 1892 as a mail-order watch and jewelry business founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in Chicago. The business quickly grew, thanks in no small part to its ever-expanding catalog. In 1933, the first Christmas Wish Book was published. An article from July 25, 2017 in Smithsonian Magazine states, “By the early 20th century, Sears was already a household name across the United States, one that represented rural thrift and industry as well as material abundance and consumer pleasures.” Across the country, Sears stores began springing up. According to the magazine article, more than 700 stores were in operation in the U.S. by the mid-1950s.

The Bossier store moved into a larger building in the Heart of Bossier in 1966 with nearly 50,000 square feet of floor space and another 7,700 square feet for an automotive service center. Bossier newspaper accounts of the move quoted Forest Vaughn stating the store’s size reflected the company’s confidence in Bossier’s continued growth. “We feel sure that our Bossier City friends, on visiting the new store, will agree with our slogan, ‘Sears has everything’,” he said. The store served customers at that location for the next 16 years until moving into Pierre Bossier Mall in March 1982.

With much fanfare, Sears was the first store to open in the mall. A ribbon cutting was held and grand opening sales were offered. For 36 years, Sears was an anchor store for the mall. But as Sears corporate fortunes declined, so too did those of the Bossier store and many Sears locations around the country. By the summer of 2018, local newspapers were carrying advertisements for the Bossier and Shreveport

Sears stores, proclaiming in bold type, “Store Closing,” “Everything Priced to Sell.” By September that year, the stores were history. The changing landscape of how we purchase goods and services was a factor in the demise of this former icon of American business. Oh, to be a kid again looking at the toys in the Christmas Wish Book one more time.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

•  Former entrance to Sears in Pierre Bossier Mall/Kevin Flowers
• Advertisement for new Sears location in Bossier/Bossier Press, Nov. 30, 1956

Article by: Kevin Flowers