School Tragedy in East Texas Prompts Response from Bossier Parish

Among the many headstones at Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport, there stands one with the name of a young girl who perished 87 years ago in the worst school disaster in our nation’s history. Mary Priscilla Carney was only 12 that fateful afternoon in 1937 when an explosion reduced her school in New London, Texas to rubble. Bossier Parish responded, as did many communities, and began taking steps to ensure such a tragedy wouldn’t happen here.

Revenue flowing from the East Texas oil fields brought much-needed prosperity to New London in the 1930s. Located approximately 122 miles southeast of Dallas in Rusk County, the area grew as families moved there drawn by its wealth. Little expense was spared in building a school to accommodate the influx of children. An article from March 2007 in Texas Monthly magazine states that oil revenue “contributed to top-notch facilities … that included an elementary building, a gymnasium, and even a lighted football field. But the crown jewel belonged to children in fifth through eleventh grade (“senior year” at that time): the $300,000 two-story junior and senior high school, … fully equipped with a chemistry lab, an auditorium with a balcony, and an industrial-arts workshop.”

For Mary, who was in 7th grade, and approximately 500 of her fellow students, who occupied this nice, new crown jewel the afternoon of Thursday, March 18, 1937, the bell signaling the end of the school day was likely top of mind. It was supposed to sound at 3:30. What the students and their teachers didn’t know was that it would never sound. Its ringing would never be heard again.

Natural gas had been used to heat the campus since its construction. In January 1937, the school board voted to cancel its gas contract and save money by tapping into a nearby line of lower quality gas, sometimes referred to as a residue line, that was available for free. An article of May 1, 1995, on the Texas State Historical Association website states that tapping such a line “was a frequent money-saving practice for homes, schools and churches in the oil field.” In this instance, the practice proved deadly.

Within weeks of the change, ominous warning signs made themselves known. Headaches and burning eyes began afflicting students according to the online news site Texas Standard in an article from August 13 this year. But apparently no one suspected the culprit was a gas leak. At the time, natural gas had no odor additive, making leak detection difficult. As Mary and her classmates waited to go home that Thursday afternoon, the unthinkable happened.

Some accounts say it occurred at 3:05, others 3:17. A workshop teacher turned on an electric sander, unaware of the volatile gas fumes in the air. A spark flew from the switch, igniting the gas. The high school building exploded. The article on the TSHA website describes the blast: “Immediately the building seemed to lift in the air and then smashed to the ground. Walls collapsed. The roof fell in and buried its victims in a mass of brick, steel, and concrete debris.” A nightmare had come to New London.

Assistance arrived swiftly, as townspeople, oil field workers and many others who heard and felt the explosion rushed to the scene. Bossier Parish also offered help. An article in the March 25, 1937, edition of the Bossier Banner Progress newspaper details how businessman Arthur Ray Teague and E. W. Rice, chairman of the Bossier Red Cross chapter, delivered medical supplies. It also mentions Bossier City doctors John Victor Hendrick and William Mastin Scott arriving to render aid. The Planters Press newspaper of the same date describes Bossier firefighters arriving on scene to provide first aid and “anything else which would be of help.” Barksdale Field - as Barksdale Air Force Base was then known - sent planes with medical supplies, and according to item in the March 20, 1937, issue of the Miami Tribune of Miami, Florida, these planes flew over the disaster site and dipped their wings as a show of condolence.

The death toll estimate was approximately 300 killed, including about 16 teachers. Five of the young victims, including Mary, were brought to funeral homes in Shreveport. An investigation into the cause of the accident “concluded that gas had escaped from a faulty connection and accumulated beneath the building,” states the 1995 article on the TSHA website. This conclusion prompted Bossier officials to begin checking gas lines.

On April 9, 1937, The Plain Dealing Progress newspaper noted that the Bossier Parish School Board “ordered a thorough inspection of plumbing or gas fixtures in all school buildings of the parish burning natural gas.” Approximately two weeks prior, classes at Benton High School were cancelled for a day while repair work was done to gas lines, although in its April 1 edition, the Bossier Banner Progress states, “This work was not undertaken because of any fear of an explosion, but because the gas bills have been too high of late.”

Texas quickly passed legislation requiring something be added to natural gas to give it an odor, making leak detection much easier. Other cities and towns followed suit. Because of New London, the rotten egg smell signaling a gas leak became the industry standard. And lives have been saved because of it. Mary and her classmates and their teachers did not die in vain.

If you have any information or items relating to the history of 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/

Images: 

• Mary Priscilla Carney/courtesy Christie Marie Shepherd Findagrave.com
• New London monument to those who perished/courtesy Wiki Media Commons

Article by: Kevin Flowers

The First Catholic Church in Bossier Parish: Christ the King, Part 2

Did you know that Christ the King Catholic Church in Bossier Parish is home of the largest number of Spanish-speaking parishioners in the Diocese of Shreveport – which covers all of north Louisiana? September 15th through October 15th marks Hispanic Heritage Month, so let’s take an additional look at the history of Christ the King in downtown Bossier City, the first Catholic Church in Bossier Parish.

Christ the King was built in 1940 at the corner of Barksdale Blvd. and McCormick St. in old downtown Bossier City, a handsome white brick veneer church in the Spanish Mission style. In the church’s early history, this structure was its main expression of Spanish culture. In 1978, the growing church’s building was completely reconstructed in a modern, airy style with numerous windows and vast open space, leaving no hint of its previous Spanish style. Within the following decades though, Spanish language and culture could be seen and heard through the real structure of a church – its people.

In 1987, the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport began its Hispanic Ministry, an outreach program to Spanish-speaking Catholics in north Louisiana. “As Hispanic Catholics migrate into our area, we need to welcome them warmly as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,” asserted Bishop William B. Friend in the May 28, 1994, Shreveport Times. Within the ministry’s first five years, one Spanish Mass a month was conducted in south Shreveport at Saint Mary of the Pines and one was conducted in Bossier City at Christ the King. Father Rigoberto Betancurt, a pastor in Monroe, conducted both masses.

The coordinator for the diocese’s Hispanic Ministry, Elisa Milazzo, looked forward to the day when Spanish Masses could be held weekly, and had high hopes that the Shreveport-Bossier area would get its own Spanish-speaking priest. In July of 1999, Milazzo got her wish. Reverend Betancurt came to Shreveport fulltime to be chaplain over Hispanic ministries in the Diocese of Shreveport’s western deanery (geographic area). In the August 13, 1999, Shreveport Times, Milazzo affirmed that Betancurt’s arrival “has been an inspiration to all of us…You just can’t imagine the anticipation.”

The Times article also told the backstory of Father Rigo, as he likes to be called. Growing up in Pacora in northeast Colombia, Betancurt’s father died when he was only 7, but he never lost the memory of his father taking him and his 9 siblings to daily mass at five o’clock each morning. When Betancurt was in fifth grade and a group of priests visited his school to inspire the boys to train for priesthood, he signed up. His mother discouraged that path however, telling young Rigo he was needed to support the family. He became a teacher of music and Spanish, but ultimately could not ignore the call to priesthood. He trained in Medellín, Colombia, then Rome, Italy before returning to Colombia for his ordination in 1983.

Father Rigo’s first assignment was to a university in Brussels, Belgium, where he studied for a master’s degree in theology. Those studies were cut short when his mother became sick and he returned to Colombia. There he served in various churches and schools until he founded a church in the poorest section of the country’s second largest city, Medellín. He set his sights on helping members of the local drug gangs but the unspeakable violence of the time continued. When the director of Hispanic ministries for the Diocese of Alexandria (which once included what is now the Diocese of Shreveport) visited Betancurt in Colombia with an appeal to help fill the need for Hispanic services in northwest Louisiana, Betancurt made the complicated decision to leave his family and homeland. He did not know English, but set himself to the challenge of the move. He said, “I want Catholic Hispanics to know each other, who we are and be together for the Eucharist [communion]. I want people to reinforce their belonging to the diocese and to be in contact with pastors.”

The goal for the new Hispanic chaplaincy was to increase membership in individual parishes as well as strengthen the diocese. Like the priests in colonial and early Louisiana, who found in the scattered Catholic communities in the state’s remote areas accustomed to being unchurched, Betancurt found that many immigrants from Latin America had also faced a shortage of priests and parishes and were not accustomed to churchgoing. To reach these potential parishioners, Betancurt had many advantages. In addition to fluency in Spanish, he held valuable cultural knowledge, such as how holidays and services specifically to honor the Virgin Mary are central in the beliefs and practices of many Hispanic Catholics. However, perhaps Father Rigo’s best “secret weapon” was his certification as a soccer referee. He ran weekly pickup games at the LSU Shreveport soccer fields, where he could build relationships and invite the players to church.

In 2002, Father Betancurt, and the diocese’s Hispanic Ministry, were homebased at Christ the King. By 2003, Spanish services went from once a month to several a week, reported the April 28 Shreveport Times, and Father Rigo introduced Monday evening masses at Christ the King for service or hospitality industry workers who were not be able to attend church on the weekends. Christ the King also offered language classes both for English speakers to learn Spanish and Spanish speakers to learn English, and ministered to the spiritual and basic needs for migrant workers who sent their wages back to family in their economically-ravaged home countries.

Father Rigo believed that separate Spanish and Anglo masses and fellowship groups were what Hispanic parishioners typically needed upon arrival in a new home or homeland, but he said his ultimate goal is that the Anglo and Hispanic communities could eventually merge. Christ the King Parishioner Mary Morgan, who took the church’s Spanish classes and was welcomed as an honorary member of the church’s Hispanic community, echoed that sentiment. “Our prayer,” she said, “is that this becomes a bilingual parish. That is really what would be wonderful.”

The History Center always appreciates donations of photos and documents of Bossier Parish churches and other local institutions, and we are especially looking to add items from the Hispanic communities of Bossier Parish. If you have stories or photos or other items to donate or allow us to copy for our collections, be sure to visit or contact the History Center. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). 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

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:

• Father Rigoberto Betancurt. Photo courtesy of Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City.
• Father Rigoberto Betancurt at Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City, C. 2003 Photo courtesy of Christ the King Catholic Church.
• A celebration of the Virgin Mary at Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City, C. 2003 Photo courtesy of Christ the King Catholic Church.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

The First Catholic Church in Bossier Parish: Christ the King, Part 1

September 15 through October 15 marks Hispanic Heritage Month. Did you know that the first Catholic church in Bossier Parish is home of the largest number of Spanish-speaking parishioners? Christ the King Catholic Church in downtown Bossier City is part of the Diocese of Shreveport. The church was built in 1940 at the corner of Barksdale Blvd. and McCormick St. in old downtown Bossier City, making it the first Catholic church built in Bossier Parish. The building was a handsome white brick veneer church in the Spanish Mission style. In the church’s early history, this structure was its main expression of Spanish culture.

Louisiana was founded by the French as an explicitly Catholic colony, but it ultimately existed under many flags, including those of Spain, France, Great Britain, and the United States. When Louisiana became a US territory following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Protestantism was allowed into the territory. Multitudes of Protestants came, with many finding their home in north Louisiana, while the Catholicism of the early French and Spanish colonies of southern Louisiana, and of Natchitoches, Louisiana’s earliest settlement, remained.

Early attempts to bring a Catholic Church to northwest Louisiana came from the Diocese of Natchitoches and by priests recruited from France to build up this diocese. One of these French priests was Father John Pierre, who had established a church parish on Bayou Pierre in DeSoto Parish, but who recognized that Shreveport on the Red River was to become the larger community. Father Pierre got permission from his bishop to settle in Shreveport and found scattered Catholic families of mostly Irish, German and Italian immigrants. He concluded that because these families had not had a home parish available to them for decades, they became accustomed to being “unchurched.” Father Pierre persisted, though, and in 1857 he was able to raise enough money to build the first Catholic church in Shreveport, a small wood frame building near the corner of Milam and McNeill streets, called Holy Trinity Catholic Church. As part of the newly-formed Diocese of Alexandria (1910), the Holy Trinity church parish covered a large area of northwest Louisiana, including as late as 1926, Catholics in the civil parishes of Bossier, Claiborne and Webster, plus downtown Shreveport and north Caddo Parish.

In the 1930’s the Bishop of Alexandra, Daniel Desmond began a building program within the diocese which coincided with a time of growth for the population of Bossier City, including the construction of Barksdale Air Field. On October 5th of 1940, the Shreveport Journal announced that work had begun the previous on the first Catholic church ever to be erected in the parish of Bossier on a lot the size of one square city block, two blocks from Bossier City’s downtown.

This new church would get its own priest (and a rectory), the Rev. Milburn J. Broussard, who was serving at Barksdale Field. Father Broussard supervised the construction of the new 400-seat church and rectory in addition to being in charge of “organizing the Catholics of Bosier Parish.” The project was very much a local effort, with construction by the Bossier City firm Westerfield Brothers, elaborate iron work of the altar canopy by parishioner and Bossier welder Athos Guillot, exquisite Christmas and Easter altar backdrops using florals and special lighting from SSgt. Ralph T. Adams, a former interior designer from Chicago stationed at Barksdale in Personnel Services and the well-known Bossier Parish Home Demonstration agent Lettie Van Landingham with her home demonstration assistant and Christ the King parishioner, Mrs. J.A. Quiggles, undertaking the innovative landscape design and garden to beautify the church’s lot.

The church was considered complete by January 1st, 1941, and was dedicated in February. Those are the formal dates, but according to church history, the parish joyfully held the first religious service in the church before the end of 1940, Christmas Midnight Mass.

In next week’s history article, read about Christ the King Catholic Church’s growth and changes in more recent decades. The History Center always appreciates donations of photos and documents of Bossier Parish churches and other local institutions, and we are especially looking to add items from the Hispanic communities of Bossier Parish. If you have stories or photos or other items to donate or allow us to copy for our collections, be sure to visit or contact the History Center. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). 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

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: 

• Photo of first church building of Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City, soon after it was built. Shreveport Times, February 2, 1941
• Rev. Milburn J. Broussard. Photo from The Planters Press, Bossier City, Louisiana, November 15, 1945

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Old Friends on Old Downtown Bossier

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I beg to differ. At least among old friends discussing a photograph in our History Center collection of old downtown Bossier City (Barksdale Blvd.) circa 1952, it is worth 6,173 words. At least, the photo elicited that many words in the transcribed oral history interview, recorded in 2011 at the History Center with friends Samuel “Aaron” Kelly and Larry Moore. Both men were born in the mid-1930s and were lifelong Bossier residents. (They also passed away within months of each other in 2017 and 2018.)

Aaron Kelly went downtown every Saturday with his father, a contractor. Starting with Norris Food Market in the photo’s foreground and working his way up the street, Mr. Kelly, with some help from Mr. Moore, gave me a “guided tour” through the busy downtown of mid-century Bossier City. Next door to Mr. Norris’ Food Market, at least as late as 1947, was Whisenhunt’s jewelry and watch repair shop where, the men informed us, railroad employees went once a month on a mandate to have their watches checked and certified to make sure they were right on time.

Across the street was Barksdale Drug, owned by partners Dutch Fenton and Arthur Ray Teague. Kelly and Moore told me the partners invented Teague and Fenton Foot Remedy, marketed nationally. Mr. Kelly said, “You could order that Teague and Fenton. Man, it would get rid of athlete’s feet. Strong alcohol is what it was. Mr. Moore quipped, “And get rid of a sore throat if you drink enough of it.”

Barksdale Drug also had a soda fountain that was, apparently, the gathering spot: “That was Saturday, after the Friday football games. I mean that was a city council meeting down [there]. Everybody that was anybody in Bossier City was going to be at Barksdale Drug on Saturday to replay the ballgame,” remembered Mr. Kelly.

Of course, one of Mr. Kelly’s favorite places to go downtown as a boy was the movie theatre, the Southland, but he also couldn’t forget the fascinating blacksmith shop behind Red River Motor Company. Mr. Moore remembered, “They could make anything”. As Mr. Kelly described it, “They had all kind of machines in there and they had a lot of lumber. They made …wagons that horses would pull.” Even in the 1940s, trucks weren’t ubiquitous and people would bring in wagons for repair, or to get a wagon wheel made. In fact, there was a horse and mule barn downtown then, too. “Most of the smaller farmers, [a horse-drawn wagon] was just about all they could afford,” said Mr. Moore.

It is not the same as the downtown of Mr. Moore’s and Mr. Kelly’s memory – there are no blacksmith shops or drug stores, after all – but the new “East Bank” incarnation of downtown Bossier City has become an entertainment destination once more. If you have stories or photos of downtown to share, please let us know. If you want to see more pictures of historic Bossier City, be sure to visit our History Center Research Room where we have drawings by BPSTIL student John Fox on display. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). 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

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: Downtown Bossier City, LA Circ 1952. Photo by Bacon’s Studio. Bossier Parish Libraries History Center photo.

Article By: Pam Carlisle

Reading and Roller Coasters, Log Rides and Library Cards

September is Library Card Sign-up Month. As Bossier Parish Community Engagement Librarian Andrea Gilmer wrote in her column last week (9/4/24) the campaign began as a challenge laid down by then-Secretary of Education William H. Bennet to members of the American Library Association in 1987. The challenge, that the librarians chose to accept, was to see that every child obtains a library card, and every child uses it. Just two years later, the librarians of Caddo and Bossier Parishes had come up with a nearly foolproof plan to reach that goal right here in northwest Louisiana. That was because their plan was put into action at a beloved (especially by kids) local institution, Hamel’s Amusement Park.

Hamel’s Amusement Park began by Charles M. “Milton” Hamel Sr. as a dairy farm in the 1930’s. By 1960, after adding a variety of animals at his own expense for the enjoyment of local children, his dairy farm included a nice-sized zoo, encircled with a mile-long train so visitors could see the free-roaming animals. With rides and attractions added by the Hamel family, especially Milton’s son who became operations manager following his father’s death in July, 1969, Hamel’s became an amusement park complete with roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and other major rides, thus becoming the main family entertainment attraction in the Shreveport-Bossier area until its closure in 1999.

Hamel’s, local librarians knew, was the perfect place to get kids and families excited about summer, and therefore, the perfect place to get them excited about summer reading. It was also the perfect place to make receiving their own library cards a special and memorable event. They began forming many partnerships to make a multi-parish library card sign-up campaign and summer reading program kick-off happen there, beginning in 1989.

First, in partnership with KTBS TV station, all second graders in Caddo and Bossier schools were issued library cards and bused to Hamel’s for a special event to receive them, watch performances and story times on stage, and have some time on the rides. Second graders were chosen as the benchmark year for children to receive their library cards because, explained Sally Tanner, supervisor of libraries for Bossier Parish Schools in the May, 1992, Bossier Perspectives school board newsletter, this is the age at which children begin to read independently and to read for pleasure.

After several days of getting all second graders to the park, the finale of the library card campaign at Hamel’s was a time was set aside for the public of all ages to visit Hamel’s and get in free with a library card. For visitors who didn’t yet have a library card, librarians were standing by at the park gate to issue one on the spot. Or, one could pay a dollar to enter and the proceeds would go to literacy organizations, which were also represented at the event.

Additional partners for the library days at Hamel’s included ARKLA gas, AT&T Pioneers and of course, Hamel’s Park. It was no surprise Hamel’s was willing to cede their park for some early-season educational fun. Milton Hamel, the father, had been known for his involvement in community organizations and charities focused on children, including the Caddo Foundation for Exceptional Children, the Salvation Army Boys Club Advisory Board, and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, among many others. His son Milton followed suit, and had also served Louisiana’s Fourth Congressional District as the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) representative for two terms in the 1980s.

The library card signup program at Hamel’s was so successful that after only its second year, and the participation of about 14,000 schoolchildren and a doubling of library summer reading program registrations, the campaign won a community service award from the Louisiana Reading Association.

Sadly, Hamel’s closed at the end of the 1990’s, its demise partially brought on by costly damage from a tornado, and the desire of Milton Hamel to move on to other economic development projects. The site is now home to Riverpark Church, which retained some structures of the park and still hosts some community events on the property, such as Paws in the Park in October to raise money for local animal rescues. And if you were a fan of the park’s Pinfari metal roller coaster, and you’re willing to travel to Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, Colorado, you can still take a ride on it. It was just moved, reassembled and re-opened in the Denver area in 2023!

You can, of course, still visit the Bossier Parish Libraries anytime to sign up you or your child for a library card. If you do that this month, you can take a picture with an oversize version of our library cards located at each Bossier Parish Libraries branch. Be sure to share it on social media and tag us so we can like your post! Come visit the Bossier Central Complex, which now includes the History Center, at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). 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

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: 

• “Judy Covington, Resource Director at Stockwell Place, and Libraries Supervisor Sally Tanner take to the merry-go-round” – photo from the May 1992 Bossier Perspectives newsletter for Bossier Parish School Board employees. Howard Jones collection, BPL History Center
• Performer and children on stage at Hamel's Amusement Park for Second Grader's Day when 1600 children received library cards, summer 1993, BPL History Center collection
• Creshaun Harris and Sharen Smith, Bossier Central Complex employees with a Bossier Parish Libraries “library card”

aticle by: Pam Carlisle