The Historic Grand Cane Association

P.O. Box 295
Grand Cane, LA 71032
(318) 858-0080

Downtown Grand Cane

The Historic Grand Cane Association was chartered in 1997 as a non-profit corporation to actively promote the appreciation, protection and appropriate development of the Village of Grand Cane's historic buildings, culture and landscape. To fulfill its purposes, the Historic Grand Cane Association will raise funds, obtain public support, and engage in all activities that promote education as to the history and culture of the Village of Grand Cane.

Membership is open to any individual who in interested in supporting the purposes of the organization. Annual Membership Dues are $10.00 per individual, payable at any time during the year. The Membership Drive is conducted annually during the month of April.

The Annual Meeting is held each year in June and is open to all members.

Board of Directors and Officers are elected on a rotating basis (4 members each year) at the Annual Meeting. The twelve-member Board elects officers annually and conducts day-to-day business for the Association.

Current Board Members are:

—Development of the Village Park, located behind the Historic Business District. The Historic Association maintains a memorial brick walkway where individuals may be honored with an engraved brick in the entrance walkway. Memorial bricks are $20.00 each. The Historic Association hosts a variety of activities in the park for the entertainment of local citizens and to attract tourists to our area.

—Christmas decorations for the Village of Grand Cane are purchased and installed by the Historic Association in conjunction with the Annual Christmas Tour of Homes held annually in December. Visitors are treated to tours of a few of the most interesting and gracious homes in the small town and surrounding area.

Prior to the incorporation of the Village of Grand Cane in 1899, the settlement of four families (Thomas Abington, Isreal Rogers, Wright Hobgood, and John Wagner) influenced the development of the area around two wagon trails that intersected in the sparsely populated area known as the Grand Cane Territory.

In 1881, Amanda Hobgood (widow of Wright Hobgood) deeded land to the New Orleans & Pacific Railway and had the Village of Grand Cane laid out in lots and streets. By 1899, the Village of Grand Cane was incorporated and the first Mayor was E.R. Forston. The first Village Councilmen were Paul E. Allen, Lodwrick Monroe Cook, and Dr. J.B. Johns. The population soon grew to almost 500. As the Village developed, spurred by the railway and the two crossroads (LA Hwys 171 and 3015), a vigorous business community developed which included seven stores (Tidwell, Ricks Bros., Hicks & Richardson, Peyton, Hoell, Cook & Douglas, and George Parker), a dentist (Dr. Platt), bank, post office, blacksmith shop, livery stable, two hotels (Allen & Jackson), four doctors (Drs. Broadway, Leopold, Bannaman & Curtis), three drug stores (Edwards, Leopold & Allen), telephone office, newspaper, restaurant, two cotton gins, and various distinguished residential homes. The community was also enhanced by the first accredited public high school in the State of Louisiana, and a Presbyterian, Methodist, and two Baptist churches.

The Village continued to thrive until the Great Depression of 1929. The downward spiral continued with the demise of the Texas & Pacific Railway in the late 1950's. The steady decline of the agricultural industry, the lack of new businesses, the loss of the public school, and a general movement away from the rural area saw the end of the Village as a center for trade. The Village of Grand Cane, like so many small towns left behind by progress, simply went to sleep until 1993, when the Village used funds from a Rural Development Grant from the State of Louisiana to purchase the Hicks & Richardson Building.

This action spurred the passage of a preservation ordinance, creating the Grand Cane Preservation Commission, which resulted in the subsequent listing on the National Register of Historic Places of several buildings in the Historic District (Platt, Old Post Office, Cook & Douglas, Hicks & Richardson, and Ricks Bros). These buildings joined the Village Hall and the Grand Cane Methodist Church that had obtained earlier listings. Historic Preservation has opened the door for new economic use of the old buildings.

Today, the Historic Village of Grand Cane is strongly supported by members of the Historic Grand Cane Association, the Elected Officials of the Village, and a host of supporters, whose common goal is to keep alive the presence of yesterday as a constant reminder of the importance of preserving our unique past for future generations.

Louisiana's Oldest Public High School

May, 1967 was a sad time for the little town of Grand Cane. The state's oldest public high school closed its doors for the last time. Grand Cane High School, located in the center of a tree studded campus just off U.S. Hwy. 171, was founded in 1885. The school's faculty is composed of nine teachers, with an enrollment of 96.

The school's history began as the early community grew, the settlers became aware that every child should have an opportunity for an education, and in the early 1880's a parish school board was set up. In 1884, George Williamson, one of the pioneers of Shreveport and for whom a museum is named at Northwestern State College, applied for a school in Grand Cane, and his request was granted. He then established the school in a one-room building. More rooms were added the nest year.

In those days, a teacher applied to the board, took a test, and if he passed, a school was "let out" to him. Williamson and his wife both passed the test and received authorization to teach. They first taught geometry, rhetoric, and composition. Each received a salary of between $15 and $25 per month. In October of 1885, the school board raised Williamson's salary to $40.00 and accredited the school as the first public high school in the state.

NEAR GRAND CANE, LA

The small community of Hazelwood grew up around a stagecoach line near the middle of DeSoto Parish in Louisiana, running just Northeast of the Village of Grand Cane.  In 1850 the Hazelwood Baptist Church was founded by Abraham Wyche Jackson, and the Old Hazelwood Cemetery would become the last remaining record of the existence of Hazelwood community.  For years, the cemetery (located on private land) remained either unknown and/or forgotten.  It was left to the ravages of time, the elements and neglect.  Most headstones are broken, all are in need of cleaning, the once graceful iron fence is rusted and no longer standing in many places.  Today, that is all about to change.  A few descendents of those families buried in the old cemetery have made contact and developed a plan to save and restore this sacred ground.  The cemetery is historically important to this area because it is a record of the life and death of these early settlers in DeSoto Parish and indicates participation in the Mexican and Civil Wars.

The cemetery has been cleaned so that the headstones are visible, individuals and groups have worked to clean the headstones and locate those broken into pieces.  Plans are to fill in the graves where needed, reset the headstones, clean all of the headstones and install a new fence around the entire area, and provide for continued maintenance.

A listing of family names on the headstones in the Old Hazelwood Cemetery include:  Abington, Bell, Best, Booles, Burford, Cowley, Davidson, Dubose, Durham, Goodwin, Harris, Jackson, Mosley, Peyton, Ricks, Ridgeway, Ross, Sample, Tomkies, Wharton, Williams, and Wofford.  Libby Alcorn and Angela Wilburn would like to hear from other descendents of these families. They have also set up a fund for this project, and donations may be sent to: 

Old Hazelwood Cemetery
care of Capital One Bank
P. O. Box 84
Grand Cane, LA 71032

This site Created, Hosted, & Maintained by DeSoto DataBase, LLC.
Copyright © 2000-2005, DeSoto DataBase, LLC. All rights reserved.