The Early History of Red Land

Jerome Bonaparte Mading's gravestone
at Salem Cemetery

According to the late local historian Dale Jennings, “The name ‘Red Land,’ was first appropriated by the planter Jerome Bonaparte Mading in establishing Bossier Parish’s first post office in November 1846. The post office was on his property four miles northwest of the future site of Red Land, which would not receive its own post office until 1879.” The village began around 1859, and the name, ‘Red Land,’ came from the region’s reddish soil, colored by the high iron ore content.

Salem Baptist Church

The first church in Bossier Parish was established about two miles southwest of Red Land by H.M. Hargis. He began meetings in 1842 and constituted Salem Baptist Church in November 1844 with its first pastor, Moses S. McDonald. Its first church building was a log structure built in 1848 and located on the common grounds of Salem Cemetery. The church later relocated to Red Land.

In the 1850s, the Louisiana State Legislature sanctioned male and female “seminary” schools at several locations in Bossier Parish. These private institutions were an alternative to an unsatisfactory public school system or individual private tutoring. Red Land’s civic leaders applied for and received approval for such a school.

Red Land Seminary's new building 1959

The 1859 supporters of the Red Land Seminary, some being the old church families, were instrumental
in establishing the town of Red Land. Those early families included Roden, Covington, Allen, Boggs, Mading, Winham, Leggett, Martin, Campbell, Barnett, Dixon, Swindle, McWillie, Cavett, Curry Kirkland, and Wallace.

As lauded in the newspaper, the favorable location for the seminary must have been equally appealing as the location for a village. The establishment of the school apparently provided the impetus for the founding of Red Land at the boundary of Martin Martin’s tract and the seminary tract of land.

That same year Doctor John Scott established his practice on Martin Martin’s land. Martin granted Dr. Scott building privileges without rent to construct a medical building and out-buildings. Martin also donated a piece of land to the mercantile partnership of Campbell & Cavett. The general store of brothers-in-law John B. Campbell and Moses C. Cavett was just east of Dr. Scott’s office and across from the school.

The Red Land Masonic Lodge #145, organized in 1857, had its lodge hall above the store. However, it is unknown when the mercantile partnership was formed or when the store was built. In 1865 Campbell and Cavett sold their Red Land holdings, including the store, to Martha Ann Edens Swindle and her husband, John Jones Swindle. Other stores include two grocery stores, one owned by Thomas W. Power and another by George Washington Phelps.

According to Jennings, “It was said that during the early part of the 1880s, the women of Red Land strongly objected to the grocery stores selling alcohol on Sundays, calling them, ‘saloons.’ They evidently doubled as drinking places. (None of the census reports between 1860 and 1880 show Red Land to have had an innkeeper, saloon keeper or a bartender). In 1884, a delegation from the church was said to have approached the grocery store proprietors and asked them to close on Sundays. They refused, resulting in a November 1884 local option election for or against the overall sale of ‘intoxicating liquors’ in Ward 4. The prohibitionists won by a vote of 61 to 41.”

Red Land was never impressive in size but provided the basic needs of its isolated farming community. However, Red Land never acquired a hotel or other such commercial enterprises not being on a railway, waterway, or major roadway. With the construction of the railroads through Bossier Parish in the 1880s, the overwhelming advantage went to towns that became shipping and receiving points on the railway. Red Land declined fast, hastened by the fire of 1890, which destroyed what was said to have been its last store.

The following is the report from the Bossier Banner, 10 April 1890:

“Fire At Red Land. —The large two story building at Red Land, Bossier parish, owned by J. J. Swindle, and occupied as a general store by Henry J. Boggs, was destroyed by fire Monday night about 11 o’clock. The cause of the fire is yet unkown. The hall of Red Land Lodge, No. 148, F. and A.M., was in this building and was a total loss, including all the furniture and records since its institution, about thirty years ago. The Red Land post office was also destroyed, including all supplies and records since 1879.”

By: Amy Robertson