Minden is a small city in Webster Parish, Louisiana. It is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport (Wikipedia, 2019). In 1835, Charles Veeder built an inn on a hilltop a few miles from Bayou Dorcheat. By 1837, he had laid out a town in the shape of a parallelogram. He named the settlement Minden, after the home of his ancestors in Germany. The little town soon became the largest in Claiborne Parish. Veeder left Minden in 1849 for the California Gold Rush, but the community he left behind thrived. The early economic life of Minden centered around commerce on Bayou Dorcheat. Three separate landings extending for more than a mile along the Bayou served the Minden community, and the city served as a shipping point for goods from much of the interior of North Louisiana. Reconstruction after the Civil War marked a trying time for Minden. At one point town voters wrote in the name of a local bull, rather than vote for a Carpetbagger candidate for mayor. However, in February 1871, one of Veeder’s goals for his town was achieved when the new parish of Webster was created. Minden became the parish seat and has held that distinction until today (Minden, n.d.).
Citation
City of Minden. (No date). History. Retrieved from mindenusa.com.
Wikipedia. (2019, Nov. 21). Minden, Louisiana. Retrieved from enwikipedia.org.
How it all Began 