Ida

Jonathan Robert and Laura Virginia Chandler were the first settlers in the community of Ida, arriving in 1878.  Local lore holds that the town was named for their daughter who had died. 1 The town was originally known as Spoonful.  Various stories are tacked to this name: the alcohol was so watered down that there was only a spoonful of whiskey in every bottle, the glasses were so small they only held a spoonful of whiskey, and so forth. 2

Wallace was a community located on the state line, and the Texarkana, Shreveport, and Natchez Railroad line wanted to extend the line to Shreveport, beginning at this small community. Just south of Wallace was Jonathan Chandler’s property. He sold eight-and-one-half-acres of land to the railroad for the right-of-way through his property. 3 Construction of the railroad began in 1897 and the last spike was driven two years later. The first train, loaded with cotton, ran on November 1, 1899. The Texas, Shreveport, and Natchez Railroad ran a train from Shreveport to Texarkana twice a day. 4 A depot was built in 1905, and W. C. Johns served as the first agent. 5 Johns served until 1915 when he moved to Belcher and served as agent again once he returned to town in 1918. He continued to serve the Ida railroad until the 1950’s.6

With the oncoming of the railroad, there was a move to relocate the nearest post office to this fledgling community. Chandler operated a store in the area, and the post office at Bain, Arkansas was moved to his store in May of 1897. Emily Proctor had served as the postmaster at Bain and continued this position in Ida. Chandler, James Spratt, J. H. Peace, L. C. Cochran, W. C. Reynolds, Clara Holman, Mary Helen, Vada Slay Clements, Ruby C. Thomas, Clifford P. Childress, Larry Chandler, and Eudine S. Wynn also served as postmaster. 7 Later the post office was moved to W. C. Reynolds’s store, but a new building was erected at Virginia and Magnolia Streets in 1923. The old Ida State Bank building was remodeled into the post office in the 1960’s, and a new building was built in 1984. 8

The town had several stores and saloons.  A revival held at the Munnerlyn Chapel in 1886 affected the saloon business when two saloon owners were inspired by the revival and closed their saloons.  Chisholm Saloon then held a monopoly in the town. Then Chisholm was killed by a Rodessa man, and then there were no saloons. 9

            William Burney Means and James Taylor Means arrived in Ida from Gloster, Louisiana at the turn-of-the-century.  James opened a hardware store, while William developed a plantation.  Both were instrumental in community affairs as they gave land for the first public school, for streets, and for the Methodist Church and parsonage.  James was also a Caddo School Board member, and his daughter, Gladys Means Lloyd, later served as principal of Ida School.  Delle Bronner Means, James’s wife, lent her name to the local library, a branch of the Shreve Memorial Library.  The Means family gave the land, the site of James’s family home and hotel, to the city for the construction of the Civic Center. 10

The Ida State Bank was built in 1918, but years later it was moved to Gilliam where it was combined with the Gilliam Bank under the name of Caddo Trust and Savings Bank. D. B. Keith served as the first cashier. 11

The town had a pumping station, kept up by Standard Oil Company, which handled the oil from the fields of Oklahoma to those in Baton Rouge. 12  Construction began in October of 1909, and oil was pumped from here to the next station at Shreveport.  By 1923 the station had eleven units. The pump station closed in the 1950’s. 13

            With the 1930’s oil boom nine miles away in Rodessa, Ida was filled with gamblers, bootleggers, thieves, and prostitutes who moved to the area. Lots in Ida sold for $350 in the mid-1930’s. 14 The west side of town saw the construction of a dance hall, where prostitutes could be found every payday, having arrived by train from Shreveport. The dance hall, combined with Ida’s liquor stores, transformed the town into a rough place on Saturday nights. With the waning of the boom in the 1940’s, the dance hall saw its final days. It was later converted into apartments. 15 After the apartments were abandoned, it was rumored that they were haunted. 16

            The town was incorporated in 1967 with Sid Dean being elected as mayor. In 1971 a new town hall and a library were built next to Carroway’s Store. 17 The town hall shares a twenty-five- by sixty-foot building with the town library. 18

METHODIST CHURCH

            The Munnerlyn family built a small log building in 1877 to house the small Methodist congregation. Shortly afterward the church moved to a temporary building near the present site. 19 The Ida United Methodist Church was built in 1904. 20  The bell tower was removed in 1941, although the bell remained in place, and a new steeple was added in 1997. 21 The first pews were formed of blocks of wood turned on their ends, but later on the congregation replaced these with benches made of wooden slats. Electricity was installed in the 1920s to replace the coal oil lamps. 22 The church also served as a school until the Ida School was completed. 23

BAPTIST CHURCHES

             John McClung led this congregation, which dates back to 1883. A one-room church was built and named for a church in Atlanta, Georgia. The church also served as the first schoolhouse, but it burned at the turn-of-the-century. In about 1922 the congregation realized that they needed a larger structure. Some liked the location but some wanted it to be closer to town. The church split and formed Ida Baptist Church in 1923. 24

IDA SCHOOL

             Irene McFarland taught the first school in Ida at Bethsaida Baptist Church between 1896 and 1898 under T. W. Goodson, who served as principal in 1898. When the church burned, the school was moved into a smaller structure located downtown, and D. W. Proctor took over as principal from 1899 until early 1901. In 1905 the first school was built on land, now owned by the Petty family, which was donated by James Taylor Means and William Burney Means. The new structure had an auditorium and two classrooms on the lower floor and four additional classrooms on the upper floor.  Stella Bonner served as the principal from 1905 until 1906. In 1909 D. F. Osteen and Lee N. Bush were principals, and Crit Petty took over in the fall of that year and directed the school until 1913. Line Creek School closed, so students from the Munnerlyn Territory were taken to Ida School by a mule-drawn covered wagon. Petty owned a lot located next to the school, which is where
the mules were kept and watered. This was the first school bus in the
area.  In 1911 basketball, the first sport at the school, was organized with boys’ and girls’ teams. Home economics was added to the school in 1923, four years after it became a four-year high school. A new classroom was built in 1928, and a new brick building was constructed in 1936.  A high school gym was added two years later. 25 In 1955 high school students were transferred to the new North Caddo High School in Vivian, and in 1969 the Ida school closed with the middle school children then traveling to the school at Hosston. 26

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Parish of Caddo 2004©