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

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 (http://www.state.lib.la.us)

Article by: Pam Carlsile

Min Horowitz: Boss in Toyland

 With Labor Day approaching and the last weekend’s celebration of Women’s Equality Day, which commemorates the anniversary of American women winning the right to vote, this is a good time to introduce readers to Mrs. Min Frumer Horowitz. She was a Bossier City business owner, national business leader, international business ambassador, and philanthropist at a time when in most of these roles were filled by men.

Born in 1920 in Shreveport, Min Horowitz was the executive VP and treasurer of Gym-Dandy, the company she started with her husband Isadore. She was the first woman elected president of the Toy Manufacturers of America, which also made her the first woman ever elected to the presidency of a national manufacturers' association. Additionally, she served as the first woman chairman of the mercantile division of the United Fund of Shreveport.

Gym-Dandy had its beginnings in the 1930s when young Isadore Horowitz began making steel swing-sets for neighborhood children. Mr. Horowitz worked with his father in the oil-field steel supply business, so he had a ready supply of steel pipe. The first swings he gave away free of charge. In 1941, Mr. Horowitz and his wife decided to sell their swing-sets commercially. Eventually they invented their trademark name “Gym-Dandy,” which incorporated their daughter’s nickname of “Andy.” Wooden components of the playsets, like swing seats, were manufactured in Webster Parish.

In summer of 1956, they opened a new factory in Bossier City on Hamilton Road for their popular playground equipment. The new factory, Universal Manufacturing Company, was under the management of Isadore Horowitz and J. Roy Parker. Built at a cost of a million dollars, the factory occupied 32,000 square feet, and employed about 75 workers. By 1965, the company’s buildings totaled 240,000 square feet and by the next year they had added 40,000 more feet. The plant complex covered over 30 acres. This plant was very important economically for Bossier City. In 1970, Gym Dandy became a subsidiary of Gabriel toy company.

The glamourous and outgoing Mrs. Horowitz loved traveling the world for business (once she forced herself to get over a fear of flying) and could be found frequently in local and national media outlets of the day. She was a guest of the “Breakfast Club” radio program from Chicago in 1960, when she was in Chicago for the International Home Furnishings Market. She was also asked to be on the popular game show, “To Tell the Truth,” filming in New York City in August 1967. The June 1967 issue of “Southern Living Magazine” featured her in their “Singular Southerner” spotlight with the title, “Mrs. Min Horowitz, No Babe in Toyland, She.” She was a judge for the Louisiana State Junior Miss pageant, relieved that none of them had ever even laid eyes on a “hippie” and that they were dressed to the 9’s, while emphasizing that their grade point average was of the utmost importance.

In 1966, Mrs. Horowitz was interviewed by the “Shreveport Times’” reporter, Maggie Martin. When Ms. Martin inquired how she was accepted by the male members of her industry she said she’s never found men reluctant to accept her: “Oh, at first they might have been surprised to see a woman in the position, but as soon as they realized that I knew what I was doing, there have been no problems.” At the time her sons were 8 and 16 and she a grown daughter. Of her frequent travels, that once had her at a luncheon engagement in New York, a dinner in Los Angeles and an appointment in Montreal the next morning, she said her family thinks “this is just the normal of way of life.” And it’s the life she preferred, especially since she had the good fortune of having housekeepers to assist. Mrs. Horowitz noted, “It is the quality of time spend with your family, not the quantity.”

She even was a visitor to the White House for the Commission on Children in 1970, a national meeting called each decade by the President of the United States to assess the status of American children. She participated in the conference’s forum, “The Child and Leisure Time,” one of 24 forums scheduled exploring a wide range of issues affecting children. Mrs. Horowitz stated, “as a businesswoman, mother and grandmother, I’m deeply honored to take part in this conference.”

Mrs. Horowitz found time to give back to her community as a member of the board of the directors of the Louisiana Cancer Society, chair of their house-to-house fund drives, past president of the Quota Club of Bossier City, member of the National Committee on the Council of Jewish Federations Welfare Funds, organization chairman of the Foreign Trade Club of Shreveport and chairman of the Women’s Division of the Shreveport Jewish Federation. She managed to wind down with her hobbies of bridge and trap shooting.

By 1980, Min Horowitz was a business consultant in Dallas. She passed away in 1994 in Carlsbad, California where she was living near her grown children. Back in Bossier, a Gym Dandy “Surrey with a Fringe on Top” was put on display in the Bossier Community Center on Barksdale Boulevard in her memory. Now that surrey is part of the History Center collection, donated by late Bossier City Mayor George Dement. It serves as an object of interest to our visitors young and old alike. Please stop by the History Center to see it.

Also, please join us for our next Read and React with History series on the book, “Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull” facilitated by historian and Benton High School history teacher Rusty Beckham, who is back by popular demand. Come by the History Center to register and check out a copy of the book. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, 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

Photos:  Image 1) -Mrs. Min Horowitz prior to departing for the 400-year-old Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany. She was receiving the key to the city of Shreveport from Shreveport Mayor Clyde E. Fant that she would present it to Nuremberg Lord Mayor Urschlechter on Mayor Fant’s behalf. ”Shreveport Journal” photo from Feb. 2, 1967.

Image 2) 1954 illustration of Gym-Dandy factory in Bossier City, La.-Gym-Dandy advertisement C. 1960

Article by: Pam Carlisle

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