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Vivian
In 1895 Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Gulf
Railroad Company, which later became Kansas City
Southern, laid its tracks from Shreveport north to
Texarkana. Until then the area was known as Terrapin
Neck, as it was a thin stretch of land bordered by lakes
and bayous.
1
The Arkansas Townsite Company bought land from
plantation owner Samuel Posey, and established a town
directly between the communities of Myrtis and Ananias
(Oil
City) along the newly
laid railroad tracks.
2
When the railroad came through the area, the town’s
named changed to Vivian after the daughter of the
president of the railroad, and the community was born in
1898. The settlers most likely came from Monterrey, a
community five miles southwest of Vivian.
3
Early settler Dr. James G. McLemore, doctor and
pharmacist for the town, served as the town’s first
mayor. Known for his civic work, McLemore organized the
first council and passed the first ordinance that
restricted drinking in public places. He also built the
first two-story home in the community.
4
The
post office began in about 1898 with Steven D. Pitts
serving as its first postmaster.In its early days the
town grew cotton and raised cattle. Near the railroad
tracks were livestock pens and a ramp used to load them
onto the trains. 5
The
town boomed with its early growth stemming from the
railroad and the oil at the Caddo-Pine Island Field and
eventually at the Rodessa Field.
6
The
early jail was built of two-by-fours stacked atop one
another and bolted together to form a
sixteen-square-foot structure. An iron jail was built
later.
7
Early
settler Reuben Harrison, who had fled Alabama because he
got in trouble with the law, sent word to his family in
Alabama that land here was inexpensive and great for
farming and lumbering. His family joined him in 1846.
Two years later he was killed in a dispute over a
rooster fight in Monterey, but his brothers, Richard
Kirkland Harrison and Dr. John R. R. Harrison, prospered
in the area. John was probably the first doctor in the
area and owned nearly 4,000 acres of land southeast of
Vivian.
8
James
Calvin Harrell, a member of the Masonic Lodge at
Monterey, had married Reuben’s sister, Francis, and had
developed a 1,300-acre plantation near what was then
Terrapin Neck. In about 1850 together with John and
Richard Harrison, James funded the construction of the
first school in the area, as well as the salaries of the
teachers.
9
Farmers and lumbermen were the most prominent settlers,
but that changed in 1904 with the discovery of oil and
natural gas. The first well was drilled south of Vivian
at present-day Oil City.
10
By 1906 Vivian was organized into a village,
and Dr. McLemore applied for a charter that was issued
on February 12, 1912.
11
Vivian State Bank was established. The first volunteer
fire department, which still operates today, began in
about 1912 with three carts used to transport water;
these were maneuvered by two men pulling the cart from
the front and two pushing from the back.
12
Vivian
was the first of the small communities of North Caddo
Parish to pave its roads. Mobility was further
simplified in 1918 when the road from Shreveport to
Texarkana was paved. The community was also the first to
have a high quality public water and sewage system. It
had one of the first sanitary public swimming pools
built by a municipality.
13
The
Kansas City Southern depot still stands at 100 N. W.
Front Street. Covering the one-story brown-red brick
building is a red tile roof. Formerly segregated
waiting rooms are found inside on each side of the
ticket office. The 1920’s Arts and Crafts style depot
now serves as a museum with railroad and oil
memorabilia.
14
The
Louisiana Red Bud Festival is held in Vivian on the
third Saturday in March each year.
15
Cumberland Presbyterian Church was the only church in
Vivian for a long time, although it was used by several
denominations.
16
The first church was Castle Springs Baptist Church,
which was located about ¼ mile from the present Walker
Hill Baptist Church on Wasson Road (Sand Valley Road.)
17
Parson Lawrence D.
Ivins, one of the earliest preachers in Vivian, served
as the deacon of Walnut Hill Baptist Church. He was
ordained a preacher in 1878 and was active until his
death in 1912.
18
Today the town is home to several denominations.
The population boom in the 1890’s
necessitated the construction of a school. The first
one-room school was built on Louisiana Avenue, and a Mr.
Proctor served as the first schoolmaster.
19
Vivian Elementary and Middle School remain in operation,
but Vivian High School was demolished in 1972.
20
North Caddo High School is located here as well.
References
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