North Louisiana Historical Association

06/21/2026

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06/15/2026

Brief history of the Mansfield Female College

Jacquelyn Tripp Reporter NEWS Northwest Louisiana was Home to One of the First Colleges for Women Jacquelyn Tripp April 13, 2024. Mansfield Female College was founded by the Methodist Church in the 1850s in Mansfield, La., less than a decade after the town of Mansfield was established. Its first stu...

06/09/2026

Lieutenant Benjamin Hodgson   by Wesley Harris In the turbulent years after the Civil War, north Louisiana often seemed only a spark away from open war. Reconstruction brought federal troops, …

05/28/2026

1848 North Louisiana map. Claiborne Parish has been reduced in size with the creation of Bossier Parish. Claiborne once stretched all the way to the Red River. Lincoln, Red River, and Webster have not been created yet. Carroll Parish has yet to be divided into East and West. What other differences do you see as compared to today's map?

05/27/2026

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05/18/2026

(Bayou Pierre was a water route around the infamous Great Raft blocking the Red River in the early 1800s. Bayou Pierre served as an instrumental workaround for the blocked Red River, directly contributing to Shreveport's birth and early commerce.)

THE BAYOU PIERRE SETTLEMENTS
By Robert C. Vogel
[Vogel was a lifelong historic preservationist, holding a M.A. in historical geography from the Univ. of Minnesota. He passed away in 2024.]

From North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, Spring 1976.

Bayou Pierre in northwestern Louisiana was the site of several early settlements--Indian, French, and Spanish. A careful inspection of a recent map of Louisiana leads to the discovery that there are actually three different streams named Bayou Pierre. Two of these are small, unimportant streams that do not flow outside the boundaries of Natchitoches Parish. The third Bayou Pierre is really not a bayou at all, but the western channel of Red River.

This river channel, or "chute," as it is sometimes called, leaves Red River within the city limits of Shreveport and follows a southeasterly course more or less parallel to the main channel, rejoining the Red a few miles above Grand Ecore after forming a long, narrow island almost one hundred miles in length. The island is low and flat, part of the fertile Red River alluvial plain. To the west the terrain is broken and hilly with an extensive mixed forest interspersed with numerous upland prairies. The dominant topographic feature here is a long, high ridge that rises in Sabine Parish and extends northwestward across De Soto Parish, reaching its terminus near Keatchie village. This formation, known locally as the Dolet Hills, separates the tributaries of the Red River from those waters which flow into the Sabine River. Along their eastern flank, the Dolet Hills abut on the floodplain of Bayou Pierre River, forming the western boundary of the Red River bottomlands.

During colonial times, Bayou Pierre and its adjacent lakes, bayous, and swamps were appreciably larger and more extensive than today. Most of the alterations in the Bayou Pierre river system can be attributed directly to the effects of the Great Raft on Red River's main channel. Large accumulations of debris were carried downriver by the spring floods and formed log jams or "rafts." These rafts severely inhibited navigation on the river and were not finally removed until 1873.

In the eighteenth century, the Louisiana Indian trade was focused on the tribes of the Caddo and Wichita Confederacies, who were then inhabiting the region around the big bend of Red River near what is now the Arkansas-Texas border. Red River, la Rivière Rouge, was, therefore, the main thoroughfare for the Natchitoches coureurs de bois trading with the northern nations. In St. Denis' day, large portions of the river above Campti were blocked by rafts; in order to avoid the arduous task of portaging around these obstructions, the coureurs de bois applied their pirogues and bateaux to one or another of the numerous small bayous and lakes which circumnavigated the blocked sections of the river. The western by-pass route via Bayou Pierre remained in use for more than a century and a half--steamboats found the Bayou Pierre "chute" navigable all the way from Grand Ecore to Coates' Bluff.

The early French inhabitants of the country came to know this western branch of the river by the name la Rivière Cannisniere; some time later they adopted the more descriptive appellation, la Rivière des Prelles--"river of rushes." The older name, Cannisniere, (preserved in Cannisnia Lake) is particularly interesting for the historical geographer because it is the French form of Canis or Cannechy, the Caddo name for the Lipan Apache Indians of central Texas. The Lipan Apache were the arch-enemies of the Indians living along Red River and intermittent warfare between the two groups continued long after the coming of the white man. Subsequently, droves of Lipan Apache slaves were brought downriver and sold to the plantations around Natchitoches. The traffic in Indian slaves was a lucrative side-line for many of the Louisiana traders until 1769, when the Spaniards abolished Indian slavery in their dominions.

The French erected trading posts and depots along the Cannisniere route and carried on trade with the local Indians, a docile Caddoan tribe called the Yatasi. Around 1780 many well-known traders from Natchitoches and the Adaize district migrated north and settled in the hills along la Rivière Cannisniere. The Spanish commandant at Presidio Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Nacogdoches, whose jurisdiction then extended all the way to Red River, granted large tracts of land to Andres Valentine, Jean Adle and Pierre Dolet; others, like Paul Bouet Laffitte and Marcel de Soto, purchased their ranchos from the Indians or settled lands originally owned by their ancestors.

The French called the settlements north and northwest of Natchitoches Bayou Pierre, not out of respect to young Pierre Laffitte, as legend has it, but because Bayou aux Pierres flowed through it. The French "pierres" should be rendered "stones" in English--consequently, Bayou aux Pierres was "Bayou at the stones." (Much of the gravel in the streams flowing down out of the Dolet Hills is chert, a low grade of flint; the Louisiana-French archaism for flint is pierre.) Old maps show this Bayou Pierre (Stony Creek) flowing into the Bayou Pierre branch of Red River just south of Smithport Lake, about fifty miles upstream from Natchitoches. This stream is the present-day Buffalo Bayou.

05/10/2026

ALABAMA METHODIST CHURCH: A NORTH LOUISIANA LANDMARK

by John T. Baldwin, Jr.

North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, Summer 1976
pages 159-160

In December, 1849, after a long journey by covered wagon from Shelby County, Alabama, a weary group of travelers reached the Union-Claiborne Parish line in North Louisiana. There they began to acquire homesteads in the area now known as Weldon, Louisiana. One of their first acts was the founding of a church, the Alabama Methodist Church. Church services were held in the members' homes at first, but, with the coming of summer, a brush arbor was built to house the congregation. This gave way before long to a log structure of heavy mortised timbers with wooden pins, built by Henry White Harper, his brother John Harper, J. W. Bevil, and others. Camp meetings attended by people from miles around were held annually on the church grounds. Tent structures and a large arbor were erected on the site now known as the Alabama Camp Grounds, for the use of passing travelers as well as those attending the camp meetings. The church buildings and grounds served for almost a half a century.

The year 1895 was extremely dry, and the crops were poor in the Weldon area. The descendants of the farmers who settled the area chose this time to erect a new church. Construction began in the fall of the year. R. P. Powell, the pastor of Alabama Methodist Church, and J. H. Harper served as the leading carpenters. Among those who contributed their labor to the building were J. M. Andrews, A. C. Harper, G. W. Harper, I. T. Roach, A. J. Roach, T. K. Phillips, T. N. Bailey, J. C. Bailey, W. N. Ferguson, Bill Johnson, H. J. Tanner, J. M. Akin, J. M. Butler, J. W. Jones, T. W. St. John, J. C. Foust, J. H. Ozley, and W. B. Lowery. Using edge-sawn heart pine from the abundant forests and hand-riven cypress shingles from giant trees along Corney Bayou, these men finished the new structure in good time. The Alabama Methodist Church was housed in the new, debt-free building by Christmas of 1895.

Still standing today, the Alabama Methodist Church is the best example of simple church architecture of the late nineteenth century in eleven North Louisiana parishes. The floor plan is 36 by 57 feet plus a foyer seven and one half feet square. Situated in Union Parish on the Claiborne Parish line, the site contains three acres, more or less. Exterior walls of the building are of white-painted weather boarding. Car siding slants diagonally along a slanted portion of the ceiling to form an unusual design on the interior walls. The interior surfaces, originally given a hard oil finish, are now varnished. In 1928, the cypress roof shingles were replaced with sheet metal. The only structural change made in the building was the partitioning off of two rooms for the church school. The original hand-made pews, benches, and other furniture are still in the sanctuary. Vandals made away with the bell and pulpit chairs, however, so the podium and altar stands have been removed for safekeeping.

The Alabama Methodist Church is one of the few historical landmarks in north central Louisiana. The building has not been in use as a church since the 1960's. The church cemetery, however, is still in use by the community. The earliest legible tombstone is that of an eleven year old boy, John N. Kidd, who died October 5, 1852. The Louisiana Annual Conference, Ruston District, of the United Methodist Church held title to the church property and was planning to dispose of it before being approached by a group of citizens interested in preserving the building. The Bernice Bicentennial Committee, chaired by Mrs. A. C. Moore, adopted preservation of the church building as a project. Transfer of title to the corporation has been completed, and a contingency grant received. Plans call for restoration and use of the facility as a museum. For these plans to succeed, contributions are needed. They may be sent to Guy M. McDonald, Treasurer, Alabama Methodist Church Corporation, Bank of Bernice, Bernice, Louisiana, 71222.

¹Information in this article is drawn from an application for acceptance of the Alabama Methodist Church building by the National Register of Historic Places. Bibliographical references include the Alabama Methodist Church History, Louisiana Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church; interviews with Mrs. Irene Davidson and Mr. Seth Tanner, both of Bernice, Louisiana, and a map, ASCS office, Farmerville, Louisiana. See the sketch of the Alabama Methodist Church on the front cover.