Date: 5-11-23 Name: Jitahadi Kahey Address: Shreveport, LA Race: Black Sex: Male Age: 71 Charge: Residential Contracting Fraud
Date: 5-13-23 Name: Danny W Browning Address: Dodson, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 62 Charge: Criminal Damage to Property
Date: 5-13-23 Name: Danny W Browning Address: Dodson, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 62 Charge: Driving under suspension, Failure to report accident, Illegally armmed, Possession of CDS with Intent (x39), Possession of Counterfiet Bills (x14), Possession of Legend Drug, Reckless Driving (caused accident)
Date: 5-15-23 Name: Nathan Wayne Folden Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 19 Charge: Simple Burglary of Inhabited Dwelling, Theft
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Date: 5-14-23 Name: Miranda Fountain Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 25 Charge: Disturbing the peace (violent and tumultuous manner)
Date: 5-17-23 Name: Caleb Box Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 20 Charge: Simple Battery (attempted), Simple Burglary (x2), Criminal trespassing, Identity theft
Date: 5-17-23 Name: Timothy B Smith Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 27 Charge: Direct contempt of court
Date: 5-17-23 Name: Detravias Holmes Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Male Age: 27 Charge: Direct contempt of court
Date: 5-19-23 Name: James Monk Address: Pineville, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 35 Charge: Domestic Abuse Battery
Date: 5-22-23 Name: Kelsey Rachal Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 34 Charge: Direct contempt of court
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation or arrested and charged with a crime have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The Winn Parish Police Jury took action May 15 to keep local traffic moving despite major bridge damage in two locations. One of the bridges is on Hwy 84 East at Tullos, while the other is on the Bethlehem Road (1232).
Relating to the Tullos bridge closure, road superintendent Perry Holmes reported that the road crew is doing additional work on the Albritton Road to help alleviate that problem by allowing local traffic to travel by an alternate route. This will not be available to heavy commercial traffic. He added that the state has performed a load-rated test on a bridge on the Coldwater Road and posted a weight limit of 35 for two-axel vehicles and 44 tons for commercial vehicles.
The jury also awarded a roadway construction bid along the Douglas Garrett Road and the Joe Frazier Road in the amount of $695,988 to Regional Construction LLC. The roads experienced extensive damage as traffic has for several years bypassed a damaged and now a one-lane bridge on the Bethlehem Road. The problem could worsen when the bridge is closed for replacement, a project that could take another three years. Jury president Josh McAllister made numerous trips to Baton Rouge to advocate the issue and jurors thanked the representatives and senators who secured the funding.
The jury also agreed to grant the Winn Parish Assessor’s Office $68,000 to purchase a Geographic Information System (GIS) from Spatial Net Inc. This was the least expensive of three bids considered at a previous meeting when action was tabled for study. The accepted bid from Spatial Net Inc. also includes an annual upgrade fee of $2,000 which Assessor Lawrence Desadier says that office can fund. Two other bids were around $400,000 and $143,000, with higher annual fees.
If the parish has GIS capability, connecting local data to online maps, then industries, businesses, real estate, individuals, hunting clubs and more can track all property data online without having to travel to the local courthouse to pore over records there. Winn is one of only four state parishes that lack GIS technology.
“This is not a knee-jerk reaction,” said juror Tammy Griffin. She said the jury tabled action in order to study the issue. The possibility of seeking a grant through Kisatchie Delta was discussed but even if a grant could be secured, it would be several years before the funding would be available. Spatial Net bid should have Winn online with GIS by year’s end.
The jury also adopted 2023 ad valorem millage rates totaling 22.37 mills. They are General Alimony 3.94, Health Unit 3.24, Library 5.03, Library 3.03, Road District #1 1.99 and Road District #2 5.12.
(Bob Holeman conducted this series of interviews with local World War II in 2011-12. Most of those 34 American heroes have passed away in the decade since).
Seeking to put some distance from an oppressive home environment in Arkansas in the early 1900s, Arch Cornelius Riggs Sr. took a fancy to a site down a wagon road not far from Packton and homesteaded 160 acres.
Virgin timber abounded. “Daddy worked in the woods,” said A.C. Riggs, who lives on a portion of that 160 acres that he now owns. He points to the tree line that marks the Winn Parish line and describes the proximate historic Old Harrisonburg Road. “He made crossties and lumber. He also grew cotton and corn and stuff. Growing up, we worked in the field, too, helping him.”
The Riggs family was one, like so many during World War II, that sent several sons off in defense of our nation. “My oldest brother, Clyde, was one of the first around here to be called up. But he never got further than Texas where he served through the war.
“Next was my brother Oliver, who we called ‘Blue.’ When he was 17, Mom (Bessie Guin Riggs) and Dad signed for him and he headed for the Navy. But he was drafted into the Marines. He was shipped to the Pacific where he was involved in the invasions, including Tarawa and Saipan. He came home but didn’t live too long afterwards.”
But this account is of the younger A.C. Riggs, born Dec. 20, 1926. He attended Georgetown school in grades 1 through 9 and finished out his final two years at Selma, graduating in 1944. “On Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, the principal called us all into the auditorium. He told us we were at war. At the time, I thought it didn’t concern me. It was across the ocean and I was just in high school. But it did concern me. It took two years of my life.”
Riggs said he wasn’t in a hurry to register but when he turned 18 in December of his graduating year, “Miss Kidd sent me my draft notice. In February, I came up to Fort Humbug to be examined. It was a big, old building. We had to pull off all our clothes. We ran around all day without a stitch on and probably saw a dozen different doctors, physical and mental. I was a country boy who’d worked in the field all his life so there was nothing wrong with me.”
Asked about his choice of services, Riggs picked the Army. Like young enlistees at that phase of the war, he thought he’d be participating in the final invasion of Japan. But it wouldn’t be.
“I was on a ship on the way to Japan when the Japs decided they’d had enough. I’ll tell you right now, we were some happy soldiers. I’d stood on the deck, watching as the Golden Gate disappeared on the horizon. I wondered if I’d ever see it again.
“And even if the country of Japan had surrendered, there were still soldiers out there, hiding in caves in the Philippines and places, who wouldn’t surrender. And our own ship had to zigzag across the Pacific because there was a captain of a Japanese submarine who refused to surrender.
“When we got to Okinawa, we got into a typhoon, like a hurricane. They said the seas were 35 feet high, with waves breaking over the deck. That ship rolled and rocked. We had long tables in the mess and you sat down with a tray. When the ship would rock, your tray would slide one way. When it rolled, your tray would come back and you’d take another bite.”
They reached the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines where they spent the next month dealing with Japanese POWs. “We were ashore. By the time we got there, they’d gotten all of those that had been hiding in the caves. But the Japanese had been brutal to the locals while they’d been there, killing folks just because they could.
“One morning, there was a bunch of Filipinos ganged up. I watched and they had a long net out in the water, with boys and girls pulling it in. It was full of little fish. Those little kids took handsful of those fish and put them into their mouths, still flopping around, and ate them. They were starving. The Filipinos were gentle people.”
Riggs described the housing of the local people. They were huts, set up on stilts. The family lived inside, with the livestock beneath. He said that when the family’s water buffalo, (beast of burden and milk producer) was put out in the field, they’d place a small child on its back, just behind its massive horns. “Out in the blistering sun. That was to keep anyone from stealing the buffalo, I suppose.”
After their time there, the soldiers moved on to Korea. This was well before the outbreak of the Korean War (1950) but the region was tense. “It had been taken over by the Japs in 1935 and many of the Koreans had been converted to soldiers. They were a whole lot like the Japs, though maybe not so cruel. But they’d still beat their prisoners to a bloody pulp. We walked guard 24 hours a day and I tell you it wasn’t an empty rifle we carried. If we ever went to town, we went in groups. They didn’t fool with us and I only had to pull a gun on one of them.
“When we went on in to Korea, in Pusan, it was wintertime. There was no place to stay and we had to sleep on the ground. It was wet but frozen as hard as a rock. We were there for a couple of weeks. Then we moved to Chonju in central Korea. That’s where we built our own Quonset huts.”
Once the soldiers accumulated enough honor points to get out of service, they were shipped out of central Korea to a site near Seoul. There they’d stay for another month before berth could be arranged on a ship (“if you could call it that,” quipped Riggs). The corporal headed home on a Liberty Ship on a voyage that lasted 35 days. On Dec. 25, 1946, he was discharged. “It was a good Christmas present.”
Over his two years of service, all his food had been canned or dehydrated. His only fresh meat came from one low-flying goose he shot with his rifle.
Riggs caught a train home from Washington state but when he arrived, there were no jobs to be found for the late-returning soldiers. For a time, a government program helped with $20 per month. He had no interest in the GI Bill. Then he got a job in the oil field and found a successful career there for the next 45 years.
Growing up, Riggs lived about a mile down the road from Inez Hennegan. “I’d seen her many times before, a little girl with long hair in pigtails. But she was younger and caught a different bus. To make a long story short, she came home with one of my sisters one day after I returned. I guess you could say I noticed she’d grown up, she wasn’t a little girl any more. She was 15 or 16. We dated 2 or 3 years before we got married.”
That was Feb. 15, 1949. “I didn’t make a lot of money back them. I wanted to get married but didn’t have the $3 for a license. Maybe I had a dollar. I called Inez and she sent me the other $2. We were married in Mansfield.”
The couple has three daughters and a son. They also have 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
An 8th-grade Winn Parish student has been named to the 31-member Legislative Youth Advisory Council that will interact with the Louisiana Legislature over the next 12 months.
In an effort to foster a better understanding of civic participation among the state’s young people, the legislature in 2007 approved Act 118. The goal is to open lines of communication between youth and lawmakers on issues important to those young citizens, issues ranging from education and employment to safe environments and poverty to underage drinking and drug abuse.
Among the 31 Louisiana students selected to serve on the upcoming council is Joe Lewis IV, 14, an 8th-grade student at Winnfield Middle School. He is the son of Joe Lewis III and Tenisha Phillips and the grandson of Paula Lewis. He will be one of three students representing Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District. Three students have been selected from each of the state’s six congressional districts, with the balance of the council selected at-large. A total of 236 applicants who will be in grades 9 through 12 sought the posts.
Members of the Louisiana Legislative Youth Advisory Council will gather at the Capitol in Baton Rouge in July for a two-day seminar, then return for one-day Saturday meetings every other month, said Lewis. “I consider it the honor of a lifetime to give back to Louisiana, and I will do everything in my ability to serve effectively.”
This project is overseen by the Louisiana Commission on Civic Education.
The problem with making homemade ice cream when you were a kid is it seemed to take forever to freeze.
For-EVVV-er.
I scream, you scream, we all scream if the homemade ice cream won’t freeze.
It was like waiting for school to let out or Christmas morning to come. Though the object is the polar opposite, waiting on ice cream to freeze is the same metaphorically as waiting for the watched pot to boil.
“Is it ready yet?”
But some things are worth waiting on: A woman. Game 7. That first autumn day.
And homemade ice cream. The best things just won’t be rushed.
Seems like when we were kids that making homemade ice cream was about as common as shucking corn. On our back porch were muddy boots, a mop and broom, emergency dog food in case scraps were in short supply, a deep freeze filled with stuff in white packing paper and clear quart bags, and a gradually rotting wooden ice cream tub and briny crank handle contraption. Always in the bottom of the tub was the white rock salt residue that never quite came out.
Never did I know as a child what the rock salt was for, only that you “needed it” to “make the ice cream freeze.” That’s what the grownups said. Grownups took a lot of time not explaining stuff to us back then.
“But why?” a little person would say.
“Because I said so,” a big person would say.
It was a simpler time.
Naturally, we just assumed the salt kept the ice cream from contracting rickets.
I have since learned (off the streets) that the salt combines in some chemical way with the ice to lower the temperature a bit below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, thus assuring that the mixture inside the Magic Silver Tube, surrounded by ice, freezes.
It’s one of those science deals.
A couple of weeks ago at the beach, my high school friend J.C. Penney (the four-time Louisiana state 4-H Good Grooming Champ back in the day, which is another column for another time) ran out of salt and out of luck while attempting a homemade batch. He bought salt the next morning and added it to the ice. Less than 20 minutes of churning later, the ice cream was tight as Dick’s hat band and cold as a penguin’s nose. Sweet.
Folks don’t seem to make homemade ice cream as much today as they used to. And that’s a shame. Making homemade ice cream taught us some handy life lessons that today’s kids miss out on.
True, food folk have figured out how to make Food You Buy At The Store better. Preservatives and whatnot. Cake mixes are about as good from the box now as the ones you can make from scratch. What I’m saying here is that if you’ve eaten Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, I can pretty much rest my case.
But in the days before electric churns, making homemade ice cream taught you patience and safety. The first thing our dads had us boys do was sit on the top of the freezer while they hand churned. This took a calendar day and you couldn’t feel your frozen butt until Tuesday.
The next growing-up step was to sit on the churn and turn it at the same time. This required dexterity and skill, because you haven’t lived until you’ve been churning and accidentally hit yourself in a delicate area. Some things you can feel, even frozen. I scream, you scream…
As folks are getting out and about and into their normal routines following the COVID shutdown, First Presbyterian Church in Winnfield has resumed its Health & Wellness program from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. Prior participants may refer to this as their old “Exercise Class” but instructor Bolton Phillips says the
current program is focused on body wellness rather that weight-centered exercise. “This is a seated, low- to-no-impact program designed to get energy moving in the body. When you’re saying to yourself, ‘I
can’t do what I used to do.’ More flexibility.” Targeted groups could be senior adults, those with limited mobility, those who have had surgery or simply persons wanting a good routine of health for the body. Class fee is $30 per month. To register or make inquiries, call 318-294-7796 or just come by the Presbyterian Church between 8:30 and 9:30 on class days.
“Winn Parish is certified as a ‘Work Ready Community,” says Ms. Mindy Goodman, sites coordinator for Area 60 of the Louisiana Workforce Development [LWD] authority. Goodman provided the members of Winnfield’s Rotary club on May 17, 2023, with information on programs and services available to local citizens through LWD Area 60’s WIOA. WIOA stands for the Workforce Innovative Opportunities Act passed in 2014, which provides federal grants to states for training and assisting underprivileged, underserved and low-income youth and adults in obtaining well-paying employment. Area 60 includes Avoyelles, Concordia, Catahoula, Grant, LaSalle and Winn Parishes.
Attaining the status of a certified Work Ready Community means that Winn Parish has shown it has job candidates “in the pipeline” with high-demand skills as measured according to the National Career Readiness Certificate. It also shows that local employers care about hiring the best and brightest your region has to offer. This is demonstrated by potential employees’ successful performance on three Work Keys assessments which measure skills critical to success on the job, such as literacy, math, reading graphics. Undergoing these assessments is now free of charge to the person being tested.
The goal of the WIOA program is to put people to work. Ms. Goodman coordinates and supervises the offices in each of the six parishes. Her office is in Jena, but she spends most of her time on the road from one office to the next. The local representative is Charles Mixon, who is housed in the office of the Louisiana Workforce Commission at 101 West Boundary, Suite 101.
The WIOA program has multiple parts designed to get people to work. One is to assist persons with preparing a resume, completing an application for a job, helping get an interview set, calling the employer on behalf of the applicant. The office also holds job fairs for employers.
Another part of the program is assisting the prospective employees in overcoming barriers to their employment by getting education and/or training, helping the individual overcome barriers to employment. WIOA will assist a person in getting a driver’s license, getting training, completing education, getting a HISET diploma. A person receives assistance with whatever they need in terms of education or training to enable him or her to get a job. Applicants are assigned a case manager who assists them with everything. The case manager works with the local educational institutions to assist the applicant in obtaining the necessary knowledge and skills to go to work.
The office serves youth from age 16 through 24 who are not in school as well as any adult who is a citizen of the United States in a low-income situation in completing their education, getting training and finding a job. They just have to contact the office on West Boundary to take advantage of the available help, and then they can attend school, participate in job training, apply for jobs and go to work.
WIOC helps the dislocated worker who loses a job for reasons beyond his control, the displaced homemaker whose spouse leaves her without resources, spouses whose military reserve partners are called to active duty and must enter the workforce. The office works closely with all area Technical Colleges to get clients admitted to their programs and provide students with all the gear and supplies needed to take the programs. It also works with all high schools in the region to help students complete their high school diploma requirements. It gets students tutoring and helps them complete the HISET to get a diploma, obtain literacy training and remove other barriers to employment. The office has even sent clients to diesel truck driving school, after which they have immediately gone to work. It also provides financial literacy education for the clients to learn how to successfully manage their earnings and balance them with their spending.
The WIOA case manager follows the client from the day of signing up for the program until the day of entry into the work force. It even assists in some instances with employment-based training by paying one-half of the employee’s wages for the first six months on the job.
Each area is assessed on the success of the program by four measurements: the percentage of clients gaining credentials; the percentage of clients gaining measurable skills; the percentage of clients remaining employed in the second quarter after gaining employment; and the percentage of clients remaining employed in the fourth quarter after gaining employment. The office is supervised by the LaSalle Community Action Association, the board which sets the goals for Area 60.
Once all audience questions were answered and announcements made, the meeting was adjourned with the Rotary motto, “Service above Self!”
Rotarian Debra Hubbard, LWD sites coordinator Mindy Goodman and LWD board member Lowell Hubbard at Rotary May 17 (2023).
Ronald Hughes was a novice California attorney whose first trial was approaching quickly. He was defending a woman named Leslie Van Houten in a multiple murder trial. Three other defendants had their own attorneys. Ronald needed a good suit for the trial. In May of 1970, Hollywood movie studio MGM decided to auction off movie props, many from the golden age of Hollywood, which they figured they would not need for future films. The props had been kept in climate-controlled storage for decades. Ronald watched as noteworthy items brought high prices and probably questioned whether he would be able to afford anything at all. Finally, the lone item he had been waiting for was on the auction block. It was a man’s suit worn by Spencer Tracy in the 1960 film Inherit the Wind. The auctioneer opened the bids on the suit and the room fell silent. As the auctioneer peered around the room, only one person in the audience seemed interested. Ronald bid $5.00 on the suit and won it. Ronald was uninterested that the suit was worn in a film, he was interested because the suit was cheap and in his size.
On July 15, 1970, the trial for which Ronald bought the $5 suit began. The trial was fraught with disruptions from members of Leslie’s family, many of whom were eventually banned from the courtroom. Due to Ronald’s flamboyant courtroom demeanor, his long hair, long beard, the admission of his squalid living conditions (Ronald lived in a garage with holes in the roof and slept on a mattress on the floor), admission that he wore a $5 suit he purchased at an auction, and his admission to having used hallucinogenic drugs in the past, the press nicknamed him the “Hippie Lawyer.” The trial dragged on for months. Finally, on November 16, 1970, after 23 weeks of presenting evidence, the State of California rested its case against Leslie. It was time for the defense attorneys to present their evidence.
On November 19, the defense attorneys filed motions for the acquittal of the defendants on the grounds that the state had not presented sufficient evidence to convict them. The state had presented more than 250 individual pieces of evidence, 73 photographs of the victims, and eyewitness testimony. The judge rejected the motions for acquittal. To everyone’s surprise, each of the defendant’s attorneys, including Ronald, stood in turn, and said, “the defense rests.” The attorneys rested their case without calling a single witness in their defense. Leslie and other members of her family yelled that they wanted to testify. The prosecution and defense agreed to recess over the week of Thanksgiving to give both sides a chance to prepare closing arguments. The trial was set to resume on Monday, November 30.
When the trial resumed on that Monday morning, Ronald failed to show up. After waiting an hour, the trial continued without Ronald. He had been late before because he lacked proper transportation and was once arrested for outstanding traffic tickets. When he failed to appear for court the following day, the judge ordered deputies to use all possible means to find Ronald and bring him to court. The trial continued without him. Deputies learned that Ronald had hitchhiked to the Los Padres National Forest for a Thanksgiving week camping trip. Search parties scoured the area but found no trace of Ronald. The defendants, including Ronald’s client Leslie, were eventually convicted of murder. On March 29, the jury returned death penalty verdicts against Leslie and the other defendants. On the same day, two trout fishermen found Ronald’s body in a knee-deep creek. His head was wedged between two large rocks. Conspiracy theorists and even some of Leslie’s family members concluded that the father of the family had Ronald killed although a cause of death was never determined. Investigators speculated that Ronald drowned during a rainstorm which caused flash flooding. However, the possibility that members of Leslie’s family had killed Ronald was not beyond the realm of belief. You see, the family who disrupted the courtroom proceedings was referred to as the Manson family. The father of the family was Charles Manson.
Sources:
1. The Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1970, p.4. 2. The Sacramento Bee, November 17, 1970, p.6. 3. Santa Cruz Sentinel, November 18, 1970, p.7. 4. The Peninsula Times Tribune, November 19, 1970, p.1. 5. Concord Transcript, November 30, 1970, p.2. 6. The Hanford Sentinel, December 2, 1970, p.1. 7. The Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1971, p.3. 8. The Sacramento Bee, April 1, 1971, p.77. 9. https://www.hollywood-memorabilia.com/mgm-auction-1970-costumes-props/
Paul Travis Russell May 18, 1954 — May 21, 2023 Black Lake – A time of remembrance for Paul Russell will be held on Friday, May 26 from 4-9 pm at the Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home. A eulogy service will be held at 7 pm in the funeral home chapel.
Delphine Jackson September 12, 1963 – May 17, 2023 Arrangements TBA
Mary Demery July 4, 1949 – May 13, 2023 Service: Wednesday, May 24 at 2 pm at Kingdom Hall, located at 1645 Breazeale Springs St. in Natchitoches
Ethel M Sarpy November 20, 1934 – May 19, 2023 Arrangments TBA
Joshua M Howard March 24, 1980 – May 20, 2023 Service: Saturday, May 27 at 11 am at St. Paul Baptist Church in Bermuda
The Winnfield City Council acted at its May 9 meeting on its longstanding policy of property condemnation by setting a 60-day timeframe for four property owners to take action on sites while tabling action on a fifth as that situation is reviewed.
The first, Timothy Blakely, spoke on his own behalf, explaining that they had purchased two adjacent properties with the intent of tearing down one to provide additional land space for the second. However, he said he is a disabled veteran and his wife is also disabled so the work progress is slow as they are doing it themselves. Their home is on Allen Street and the demolition project is adjacent on South St. John Street. The council agreed to another 60 days.
Attorney Jonathan McDow represented the next three cases, those being properties of Julius Camp, David D. and Kathy M. Brown and Reba Teresa Thomas Miller. He gave a report for each and presented paperwork to city attorney Herman Castete. The city attorney gave a brief summary of the process to council members, showing the start-to-finish time from condemnation to clearance is not as quick as might seem expected. The council also allowed 60 more days on these.
McDow also reported on the fifth property, that belonging to Constance Meadore. He said the property owner had not yet replied to his inquiries. Members voted to table action while the matter is reviewed.
In other business, the council agreed to dissolve the city’s contract with Chad Parker and to further review a proposal from Institute for Building Technology & Safety (IBTS) as a provider of building and electrical service inspections. Speaking for IBTS, Joseph Migues told the council that Parker had cited too few inspection orders to continue his service.
Migues said he was in Natchitoches one day when a Winnfield call came in and he completed that inspection the same day. Similarly, he’d conducted 17 or 18 inspections in a timely fashion. The company conducts a full range of inspection services, including new construction, renovation and code inspections.
The council also approved Ordinance 2 of 2023 which takes into the city limits the property of the Winnfield Animal Clinic on Hwy 167 north. The target is to bring in all properties on both sides of the highway up to the Hwy 156 (Calvin Road) intersection. This will allow the city access to available grant funds for sewer line extensions for those properties.
Winnfield City Council took action at a short meeting May 9 with three of five members. From left are Teresa Phillips (Dist. 5). Mayor Gerald Hamms. Ada Hall (Dist. 2), Erikia Breda (District 1), city clerk Katina Smith and city attorney Herman Castete. Absent were Chiquita Caldwell (Dist. 3) and Matt Miller (Distr. 4).
Rotarian Bob Holeman, left, interviewed Mickey Simmons on the history of Dodson
Dodson, the town some may consider just a “speed trap half way between Winnfield and Jonesboro on Highway 167,” actually has quite a history, evidenced at Winnfield Rotary Club’s meeting May 10, 2023. Long-time Rotarian and Dodson native, Mickey Simmons, was interviewed about historical Dodson and its “heyday” by Rotarian Bob Holeman.
Simmons related that Dodson began as a community about 1860, a little before the beginning of the Civil War, when a man named Reeks settled there. The railroad which was run through the area a few years later resulted in growth of the population around the depot to serve those who brought agricultural products to be transported to other markets by train. The name originally planned for the community was Lena, but It was discovered another Lena, Louisiana, already existed. It was then named Dodson, after the last name of the engineer who ran the train. However, Dodson was not formally a municipality until 1901.
In comparison, Winnfield was established as a municipality and the parish seat in 1852. Thus, the old tale that Dodson was considered for the parish seat cannot be true, although there may have been some discussion of moving the parish seat to Dodson when it was thriving and had a population between 2000 and 2500.
Two rather unusual things about Dodson noted by Simmons are that it has no cemetery, and it is home to the only “mountain” in Winn Parish called Doc Cole’s Mountain. located west of the railroad tracks but within the city limits.
What is seen today as one proceeds on Highway 167 through Dodson is not what made up the community of Dodson in earlier days. Most of the businesses, stores, offices, homes and streets which made up Dodson lay east of what is now Hwy 167. At the same time, Gansville was a thriving community, as was Winona. The three spread out so they almost ran into one another. Both Dodson and Gansville hosted a fair and horse races in their heyday. In fact, Gansville was the location of the first Milam & Sons business, and the Milam family then bought property in the Dodson community.
The “town” buildings of Dodson in the earliest days included a medical building, as Dodson had four doctors at one time. Many children, including Mr. Simmons and his brother Harry, were born in the clinic building in Dodson. In addition to a municipal building, there were stores and a café, the home of Dodson State Bank, and an office for the Dodson Times, the local newspaper which printed its last edition in about 1928.
Just south of this area, Mr. Jones and Mr. Milam developed a residential neighborhood, the Jones and Milam addition, where the first brick building in town, the Dodson School, was built. The first principal of Dodson’s school was Charlie Shell, a great uncle of Jan Shell Beville, who always wore a black suit, a black shirt and a black bowtie, and was never seen without a tie. The school remains in that same location today, although the original school building was destroyed in 1939 or 1940 by a gas explosion related to new heaters that had been recently installed in the school. One of Simmons’ childhood friends lived in the neighborhood, and said that, when he and his family heard the explosion, his father said, “the Japs have attacked! Go get my shotgun!”
Mr. Jones, the grandfather of Kenneth Hightower, had a store in town which was thriving even before the advent of the railroad. He moved his store to the area of the railroad depot, and it became even more prosperous. Thus, when he and Mr. Milam developed Jones and Milam addition to the town, he built the huge ramshackle house one can now see from the highway.
The town came into its own when the Louisiana Lumber Company discovered Dodson and its stands of timber and brought its sawmill to town. This is when it peaked in population and industry. Once it had cut all the marketable timber, however, the company left town and moved on to other forested locations. Almost at once, the town died, its population dwindling from 2000 to about 400 at the time Simmons was a boy growing up in Dodson.
Eventually, the businesses in “downtown Dodson” were no more, and the buildings were left uninhabited. A man who was planning to build a house in Winnfield purchased the buildings which made up the downtown and tore them down to salvage the brick during Mr. Simmons’s boyhood. Although he managed to move the salvaged brick to his lot in Winnfield, when he discovered how much the labor to erect the house would cost, he gave up on the scheme and let the brick sit where it was. It seems some of it may still be left here in Winnfield somewhere.
Despite the small number of people still there, Simmons was able to name many who grew up in Dodson and went on to become very successful in the wider world. Two brothers with whom he played as a child became professional athletes. One played pro football with the San Diego team, then the New York Jets, and finally the Detroit Lions. After his football career, he worked for Ford Motor Company in Detroit until retirement. His brother was drafted by and played for the Baltimore Orioles, but hurt his shoulder and left the game. He was later recruited by New York City’s community college system to teach physical education for many years. This friend was inducted into the Grambling Athletic Hall of Fame. There was a Stovall family in Dodson, two of whom played on LSU’s undefeated 1908 football team. The famous Jerry Stovall, who played pro ball for the St. Louis Cardinals and was head football coach at LSU, was a member of this same Dodson family.
Dr. Paul Peters came from Dodson. Another Dodson native went into the U. S. Air Force after completing a degree at Tech, helped design a famous weapon system, and then helped design the first computer made by IBM. A son of Dr. Tolbert who practiced medicine in Dodson for many years followed his father into medicine and became the first board-certified pediatrician in Monroe.
When asked about the “Great Dodson Train Wreck,” Simmons related the following story: “Around about Big Creek where the mill is, there was a train derailment once upon a time. Three boxcars full of cargo, two with Gold Medal flour and one with evaporated milk, overturned and lay in place overnight. A local guy was hired as watchman, and when the company officials showed up the next morning, they found only two cases of milk and one of flour left in the cars.” The Rotary meeting was adjourned, as customary, with its motto, “Service above Self!”
Date: 5-7-23 Name: Delois Williams Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 42 Charge: Theft (by fraud), Direct contempt of court
Date: 5-9-23 Name: Martin Roberts Sr Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 43 Charge: Direct contempt of court
Date: 5-10-23 Name: Courtland Turner Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Male Age: 21 Charge: Simple Battery (surrendered)
Date: 5-14-23 Name: Miranda Fountain Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 25 Charge: Disturbing the peace
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation or arrested and charged with a crime have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Date: 5-7-23 Name: Jennifer A Ponds Address: Tullos, LA Race: White Sex: Female Age: 45 Charge: Theft, Direct contempt of court
Date: 5-7-23 Name: Martin Roberts Sr Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 44 Charge: Failure to appear (Lasalle Parish)
Date: 5-10-23 Name: Courtland Turner Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Male Age: 21 Charge: Direct contempt of court
Date: 5-10-23 Name: Tanisha K Washington Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 43 Charge: Intent to distribute, Possession of schedule 2, Possession of paraphernalia, False information
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
