Mailing in the New Year

 Happy New Year! To round out the end of 2025, let’s take a look at one of the oldest institutions in Bossier Parish: the Post Office. The Post Offices in the United States are managed by the United States Postal Service, under the direction of the executive branch of the United States government. Unlike many agencies, however, the USPS does not report to a particular cabinet secretary, instead functioning as an independent agency under the Postmaster General. The first Postmaster General was American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin in July of 1775. Most Post Offices have their own Postmaster, who direct the local office and ensure the mail reaches its intended destinations. According to the “The United States Postal Service: An American History,” as the United States grew, so too did the Postal Service: “The number of Post Offices increased from 75 in 1790 to 28,498 in 1860. Post roads increased from 59,473 miles at the beginning of 1819 to 84,860 by the end of 1823. By the end of 1819, the Department served citizens in 22 states, including the newest states of Illinois and Alabama.” The Postal Service has also historically offered women potential careers, with many women serving as Postmasters, or Postmistresses, since the earliest days of the USPS. The USPS has worked to ensure that regardless of how rural a location may be, or how far west the boundaries moved, that the nation has remained connected. The growth of the United States of America and the growth of the United States Postal Service going hand-in-hand.

Here in Bossier Parish, the post office is younger than the parish itself. As some of you may know, and as a reminder for those who may not, Bossier Parish was not one of the original parishes in Louisiana. Carved from Claiborne Parish in 1843, Bossier Parish did not have a Post Office within its borders for roughly three years. In November of 1846, the first known Post Office in Bossier Parish was founded in the one-time community of Red Land. While the office would not be open long (closing for the first time in October 1853), the first Postmaster for Redland was Jerome B. Mading. Within the first two decades of the parish’s existence, the number of local Post Offices would fluctuate frequently. According to the July 1st, 1859, issue of the Bossier-Banner Progress, there were twelve operating Post Offices in the parish, with eleven Postmasters. By November 11th of the same year, the office in Bisteneau would be closed by order of the Postmaster General. The Red Land Post Office would be reopened after its initial closure in November of 1873, continuing until 1909 (albeit under a slightly altered name starting in 1895). The Redland office would be absorbed into the Plain Dealing Post Office, which persists to this day.

The Post Office that persists in the longest continuous stretch is in the parish seat of Benton. The Benton Post Office also had one of the first Postmistresses in Bossier. Mamie Edwards Stinson McKnight was the first acting Postmistress of Benton from July 1919 to April 1920. She, however, would not be the last. Of the several dozen Post Offices to have existed in Bossier Parish, only nine persist to this day (and only eight of which stand on the eastern side of the Red River). From north to south, the remaining Post Offices are as follows: Plain Dealing, Benton, Princeton, Haughton, Shreveport (Industrial), Bossier City, Barksdale AFB, Bossier City (Plantation Station), and Elm Grove. So, with the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, as well as the 250th anniversary of the United States, look back on one of the United States’ oldest institutions. It has sought to connect the nation, and our parish, throughout their storied histories.

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: 

• Bossier Parish Rural Mail Carriers - BPL HC (1997.054.054)
• Plain Dealing Post Office and Mail Wagons - BPL HC (1997.062.167)
• BPL Benton Branch - Originally the Benton Post Office - BPL HC (0000.001.009)

Article by: Jonah Daigle

Bossier Gains New Business Advocate After World War II

In the late 1940s, as the Town of Bossier City grew in population – it would officially become a city in 1951 due to this growth – Bossier civic leaders felt there was a need for an organization to help promote the town. If it was to continue prospering, Bossier needed a new advocate. Enter the Bossier Chamber of Commerce.

Calls for the formation of the chamber began in earnest in April 1947. Local realtor and civic leader Arthur Ray Teague spoke before representatives from clubs such as the Lions, Optimists, Kiwanis, Home Demonstration and others, making the case. An article in The Shreveport Journal of April 30, 1947, states, “Teague pointed out that … a town the size of Bossier not only needed a chamber of commerce, but had reached the stage of wanting it also.” According to the article, his proposal was met with “a great deal of enthusiasm.”

Meetings were held to further the cause and a membership drive was started. Advice came from the Shreveport and Vivian Chambers of Commerce. The Planters Press newspaper published an editorial on June 12 stating that the paper was “one hundred percent plus for the local chamber of commerce proposal,” and praised efforts to make it happen. “The spirit with which essential preliminary work is being done is indicative of the community’s praiseworthy ambition to grow larger, to prosper more and to build soundly for the future general progress of Bossier City and surrounding territory,” the editorial says.

The goal of the membership drive was to raise $12,000 to fund chamber operations. According to The Shreveport Times of June 18, 1947, the first week of the membership drive saw approximately 50 individuals and businesses join, raising just over $2,000. Although The Planters Press states the number of members increased to 180 by about mid-August, the amount raised totaled only $8,000, but that was enough to move forward with electing a board of directors, choosing officers and finding a chamber manager.

Former Shreveport resident Larry Maihles was selected to lead the chamber as its first manager. His previous experience included stints with the Shreveport and Haynesville Chambers of Commerce, followed by service in the Pacific during World War II, and then as assistant manager of the chamber in San Diego, California. He resigned the position on the west coast for the move to Bossier. Headquarters for his new job was on the second floor of the Bossier Bank and Trust company building. And there was little time for relaxing.

Within just a few weeks of Maihles’ hiring, the chamber established a program called “Build a Better Bossier” that led to many new initiatives benefitting the area. Chamber members submitted suggestions to help with the program, generating 23 projects that dealt with everything from legislation and taxation to fire prevention. The Planters Press has a complete listing of the projects in its December 11, 1947 issue. A chamber-sponsored radio show was also created, airing once each week on station KRMD. Sam Peters Jr., chairman of the chamber’s publicity and advertising committee, was quoted in a November 6 Planters Press article as saying that the show was meant “to keep the people informed on chamber of commerce projects and activities and developments in Bossier City and Bossier Parish.”

From these auspicious beginnings, the Bossier Chamber of Commerce grew and has for 78 years continued to help build a better Bossier. The importance of that record of service isn’t lost on current chamber President and CEO Lisa Johnson, who has been with the organization since 2004. “As we look back through our history, it is critically important to understand where we came from and how key initiatives began,” she said. “I am honored to learn from the legacy of those who came before us and to carry their vision forward. The Bossier Chamber has long been a catalyst in shaping Bossier Parish and its municipalities, and today, we continue that work with purpose and pride.”

If you have any photos, documents 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 Monday through Friday 9-6. 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: 

• Arthur Ray Teague/History Center collection
• Chamber advertisement/The Planters Press, Jan 27, 1949

Article by: Kevin Flowers

SAM ZEIGLER JR: BUILDING UP THE NAVY FOR SEA AND AIR. PART 2, AIR

Bossier’s almost-native son Samuel J. “Sam” Zeigler Jr.’s extraordinary naval career allowed him to be at the helm for critical developments in the now-200-year-old military service. In last week’s part I, Samuel J. Zeigler, Jr., “Sea,” we followed him from north Bossier Parish and Shreveport to LSU and the United States Naval Academy where he was among the top graduates in 1912. We saw him next complete graduate training and serve as a naval architect and engineer plus gain a graduate business degree at Harvard. He served in leadership posts in stateside shipyards in the midst of the transition to steel-hulled ships, and during WWI, he served overseas in Brest, France.

In late 1921, Zeigler’s focus turned to aviation, when he was sent to the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, in the same basic location as the shipyard where he’d served. In late 1925, he was sent to the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department in Washington DC as its third-highest ranking official, according to the editor of the Bossier Banner-Progress. The establishment of this bureau in 1921 is considered by naval aviation historian Barrett Tillman as first on his list of the most pivotal events in US naval aviation history.

When the 1920’s began, aviation had barely had even a chance to prove itself to be practical under at-sea operating conditions. By the end of that decade, however, under the new Bureau of Aeronautics, patrol squadrons and seaplane tenders were performing escorting functions, aircraft were assigned to battleships and cruisers and proving themselves in maneuvers (fleet wars), and three aircraft carriers were fully operational. The first of these carriers was the experimental USS Langley (CV 1). The next two were the first combat-capable carriers, the USS Lexington and the USS Saratoga, and Sam J. Zeigler Jr. had served as a commander on both of them, prior to WWII.

Of course, any rapid growth tends to be accompanied by growing pains, and this decade of rapid development of aircraft, aircraft carriers, naval aviators and new administrative divisions happened along with much push and pull between service branches, public and private sectors, politicians, the press and public opinion. To try to sort it out, President Calvin Coolidge convened the President’s Aircraft Board, also known as the Morrow Board, to make recommendations regarding the aviation industry and military aviation and to guide legislative measures. Board members listened to testimony from numerous camps, but vowed that half or more of it came from “flyers” themselves. At the end of November 1925, the Morrow Board submitted a report to President Coolidge, which was followed by another aviation report of the Lampert Aircraft Committee.

The reports got copious amounts of coverage in the American press, and Lt. Commander Zeigler, while conceding that all publicity has at least a chance at being good publicity, particularly for such a nascent program, was not pleased with the impressions being fed to the general public about naval aviation. He lamented that it left the impression that” the Navy is at sea in the air.” He wrote in an article titled “The Naval Aircraft Factory” in the January 1926 Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute that “an account of the Naval Aircraft Factory, its purpose, origin, and accomplishments,” may help refute that charge.

The Naval Aircraft Factory began in 1917 to solve the aircraft supply problem that faced the Navy Department when the US entered WWI. The private sector could barely meet the much larger requirements for aeronautical material of the Army’s Air Corps, and therefore had little use for business with the new Navy division. The Navy Department, decided that it was necessary to build an aircraft factory of its own. Zeigler pointed out that “The Naval Aircraft Factory is, in reality, a vast experimental station. Its purpose, as clearly set forth by the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, is the ‘development and manufacture of experimental aircraft and aircraft accessories…” He argued that at no point does this purpose make it a competitor of civilian aeronautic plants.

Sam Zeigler Jr, ultimately did three tours of duty at the Naval Aircraft Factory, interspersed with positions as Engineer Officer for Aircraft (as a Commander in the Carrier Division ONE, US Fleet), and General Inspector of Naval Aircraft out of San Diego. He became Manager of the Naval Aircraft Factory in August 1943, when he was also designated Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Material Center in Philadelphia. The following year, Zeigler became the Bureau of Aeronautics Representative at Philadelphia and received a Commendation Ribbon from the Secretary of the Navy that praised Zeigler’s direction and inspection abilities with the effect that products of the aircraft plants “gave extraordinary and reliable performance during the war.” He stayed in Philadelphia until his retirement in 1947.

Zeigler continued to make trips to Shreveport and the Plain Dealing area for visits every now and then, since he always considered it home. The proud local newspapers reported on many of these visits. Sam Zeigler Jr. and his wife Fannie Marburg Zeigler had two sons, both of whom also joined the US Navy. Zeigler passed away on October 24, 1975.

If you have World War I or II (or beyond) family photos or stories to share, please visit or contact us at the History Center. We will scan them and return the originals if that is your preference. Don’t forget about our World War Tuesday coffee and discussion group on a variety of World War II topics held the second Tuesday of each month from 10:30 – noon. The next meeting will be on Tues. January 13th. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA, 71111. 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: 

• Portrait of Samuel J. Zeigler, Jr. Modern Biographical Files in the Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC.
• Aerial view of the U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). Note: the flying boat in front of the hangar on the right seems to be a Consolidated P2Y which would date this photo in the 1930s. U.S. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Aeronautics photo, National Archives and Records Administration.
• U.S. Navy N3N trainers awaiting engines and other parts at Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), 28 June 1937. U.S. Department of the Navy photo, National Archives and Records Administration.
• Navy 250 logo, “Learn About Naval History in your State.”

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

SAM ZEIGLER JR: BUILDING UP THE NAVY FOR SEA AND AIR. PART 1, SEA

On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate its 250th, or semiquincentennial, birthday. A branch of the United States military, however, has already sailed past that milestone. On October 13, 2025, the U.S. Navy hit the big 2-5-0. That date commemorates when the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1775, and authorized a purchase of two merchant ships to convert to warships for its fight against the Naval superpower, Great Britian.

Samuel Jacob Zeigler, Jr., or Sam Zeigler, as he was known, was born in Bordeaux, South Carolina on July 29, 1889, to Samuel J. Zeigler Sr. and Howelle Zeigler. Samuel J. Zeigler Sr. was also born in South Carolina but had already made a name for himself, forming corporations and hundreds of acres of real estate deals, in the young city of Shreveport and the communities of north Bossier Parish. Samuel J. Zeigler Sr., in fact, is considered the “father” of the north Bossier town of Plain Dealing, developing it alongside the Cotton Belt Railroad. His first wife, Sallie Vance Zeigler, with whom he’d had five children, only two survived childhood, died in 1886. S.J. Zeigler returned to South Carolina for a time and married Howelle there in 1887. When Sam Jr. was a year old, the family returned to north Louisiana, where Sam’s sister Pola was born. Like his father’s landholdings and businesses, young Sam’s life straddled both parishes of Caddo and Bossier, and much of his time was spent in Vanceville and Plain Dealing.

On December 21, 1907, the Shreveport Journal reported that Sam Zeigler had been appointed as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The paper reporter Sam had been a student at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge for two years, where he received preliminary military training and was a champion marksman. The paper praised Sam as “well qualified, both physically and intellectually” to withstand the academy’s rigid entrance requirements.

Sam Zeigler’s Navy career began at the United States Naval Academy (USNA) with a fore-deck view of historical change. His matriculation in 1908 coincided with the final years of the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1901- 1909), one of the era’s foremost naval strategists. Roosevelt’s goal was to expand and modernize the U.S. Navy with no less an aim than to see America galvanized as a world power.

The naval academy, which opened in 1845, had also been growing into its own, taking on the look and traditions that are well-known today. The famous USNA fight song and unofficial Navy anthem, “Anchors Away,” had recently been composed by the academy’s music and choir director. “The New Naval Academy,” a major construction plan to replace the inadequate and already-aging physical plant was nearing completion. In the five years leading up to Zeigler’s arrival on campus, new buildings were opening up annually. In addition, new ships, and even the first modern submarine, were arriving in the same timeframe. In 1911, the first naval aerodrome was established at Annapolis and experimental flights began at the school.

At Sam Zeigler’s graduation in 1912, when he was fourth in his class of 156, his class tossed their hats in the air - the very first Academy graduates to perform the now famous tradition. After his graduation, Ensign Zeigler had some time for vacation, visiting folks back in Louisiana. The Bossier Banner-Progress reported this visit on July 25, 1912, and quoted a Shreveport newspaper to inform readers, “The grade of ensign corresponds to the rank of lieutenant commissioned in the regular military service of the United States. At his graduation, Ensign Zeigler scored in the highest orders of merit. He is a product of Shreveport. His record, which is very creditable, is an index of his future promotion. It is to be hoped that he will in time reach the rank of admiral.”

Sam was assigned to the USS Minnesota of the Atlanta Fleet, based out of Norfolk, Virginia. In 1912, the ship operated in the Caribbean, then patrolled the Mexican coast between 1913 and 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. In January 1914, Sam Zeigler transferred to temporary duty at the navy yard in Philadelphia and was ordered to the Postgraduate School for Naval architecture in Annapolis. By summer of 1915, he was appointed Assistant Naval Constructor. Continuing in Naval architecture, he was sent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge and earned an M.S. degree in 1916. Taking advantage of his Cambridge location, Zeigler also completed a two-year business course at Harvard and reported for duty in the Boston Navy Yard’s hull division.

The Boston Navy Yard, which began in 1880, was one of the Navy’s first ship-building yards. When Sam Zeigler arrived, the shipyard was in the midst of the “New Navy’s” switch from wooden to steel-hulled battleships and was on the cusp of gearing up for the Great War, later known as WWI, that was raging in Europe. In August 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had declared the United States would continue its neutral position, and the Navy’s job was to protect that neutrality by stationing destroyers at the Boston Navy Yard. But following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May 1915, Wilson advocated for U.S. military preparedness to protect American interests and called upon Congress to authorize construction of over 150 warships. On April 6, 1917, following unrestrained German submarine warfare that sunk several American ships and claimed American lives, the U. S. declared war on Germany.

The Boston Navy yard was teeming with repairs on an endless supply of damaged warships and support vessels, as well as outfitting and commissioning a steady stream of private ships for use in warfare. Zeigler’s skill directing this kind of work was eventually needed in the Navy’s ship repairs department in Brest, France. The U.S. Navy’s primary role in the Great War was troop transportation. The sheer numbers of “fresh” American troops continually arriving to fight the increasingly war-weary Germans made the ships carrying them targets of German attacks. The Navy’s ultimate success in moving these troops became a main reason that Germany signed an armistice agreement on November 11, 1918, cutting short Zeigler’s time in France.

Watch this column for a continuation of the story of the Naval career of Shreveport-Bossier’s Samuel J. Zeigler, Jr. and its window into U.S. Naval History, including Naval aviation and WWII. If you have World War I or II family photos or stories to share, please visit or contact us at the History Center. We will scan them and return the originals if that is your preference. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA, 71111. 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: 

• Navy 250 logo
• Portrait of Samuel J. Zeigler, Jr. Modern Biographical Files in the Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC
• Boston Navy Yard in 1916, Boston National Historic Park photo

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Bossier Parish Police Jury – Now and Then

 In Bossier Parish, the highest local authority is the Bossier Parish Police Jury (BPPJ), administrating the parish from the Parish Courthouse in Benton. For many people, local government has become something abstract and nebulous, lost in the sea of attention paid towards national affairs. However, local governments, like the BPPJ, will affect you more in your day-to-day life than anything on the national scale. In Louisiana, Police Juries hold similar authority to County Commissions in other states. Originally founded via a state legislative act in 1811, the powers of police juries were expanded to function as proper legislative-executive bodies after the granting of statehood to Louisiana. Parishes were divided into wards, with each ward electing a juror to that parish’s police jury as their local representative. Functionally, police juries are granted broad local powers by the Louisiana state constitution. Some of these powers include the levying of taxes and enacting/enforcing local ordinances and regulations. When it comes time to elect police jurors, the elections are held during odd years under an open primary system, ensuring that police jury races are not lost in the excitement surrounding larger national elections. Police juries elect a president and vice-president from amongst themselves, tasked with leading the body.

      

                              

The current twelve members of the BPPJ are President Glenn Benton, Vice-President Tom Salzer, Lynn Beaty, Phillip Rodgers, John Ed Jordon, Julianna Parks, Chris Marsiglia, Jimmy Cochran, Doug Rimmer, Pam Glorioso, Julian Darby, and Keith Sutton. The BPPJ is also joined by an administrative staff that works with the Police Jury to see to the implementation of the body’s agenda, advising the police jury as needed. The BPPJ administrative division is made up of the Parish Administrator, who is tasked with running the day-to-day organization of the Police Jury, the Parish Secretary, tasked with record keeping for the Police Jury and assisting with the agenda in a variety of ways, and the Parish Treasurer, who is tasked with managing the budget and assets of the BPPJ. There are a further twelve divisions under the BPPJ umbrella, all of which exist to ensure that the Parish government can serve the public. While some parishes, such as Caddo Parish, have moved away from the police jury system, Bossier Parish has maintained the BPPJ as its legislative-executive body.

The Bossier Parish Police Jury began with the parish in 1843. When the jurors first met on June 19, 1843, they did so in a small cabin located at what is today the Bayou Bodcau Reservoir, the Long/Durden house. While there is some confusion as to who was the first BPPJ president, the names of the jurors are known: William Crowley, William Burns, Isaac Lay, B. J. Williams, Joseph Graham, John C. Scott, Andrew J. Lampton, and J. A. W. Lowey. According to Parish Historian Clif Cardin’s 1993 book, “Bossier Parish History The first 150 years, 1843-1993,” William Crowley was the first police jury President. However, according to “History of Shreveport and Shreveport Builders, Volume Two,” which contains a section specifically about Bossier Parish, it was William Burns who first presided over the Jury. The eagle-eyed among you will notice there are only eight jurors, compared to the twelve of today. When the parish was initially founded, the population was obviously much lower than it is today, and as the parish grew, so too did the need for more members. Regardless, it was there at that little cabin that these first jurors would select the new parish seat of ‘Freedonia’, which would later become known as Bellevue. The initial courthouse, not the cabin where the police jury first met, was built sometime before 1845 as a wood structure, before being replaced with a brick courthouse in 1853. The parish would remain there until the late 1880s, when the vote was held to move the parish seat to the current home in Benton.

Today, located on Highway 157 in Bellevue, there is a historical marker commemorating the first Bossier Parish Police Jury meeting and the then town of Freedonia. While the seat and building may have changed, the Bossier Parish Police Jury has led Bossier Parish for over 182 years, here’s to 182 more.

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: 

• 1853 Map of Bossier Parish (BPL-HC Record 1997.008.001)
• Only known full photo of 2nd Bellevue Courthouse (BPL-HC Record 0000.004.114)
• Police Juror Henry Mitchell in-front of the Durden House during restorations (The Shreveport Times, Nov. 30, 1998, photo by Mathew Minnard)
• 1st Police Jury Meeting Historical Marker (The Bossier Press, May 06, 1964, photo by Bill McFarland)

Article by: Jonah Daigle