The hat shop mentioned by Carolyn Sale McDaniel was actually located on Main (Front) Street. I think it was named Minden Millinary. The sisters were Della Craton and Emmie Craton Garrison, mother of Richard Garrison and Jamie Garrison. They were the sisters of my step grandmother, Annie Craton Gleason. Della was never married and lived with Annie in the Gleason home until Annie died, then she moved in with the Garrisons. I used to hang out in their shop as a kid to listen to all the latest gossip.
Judy Gleason Claassen (1954)
 

MINDEN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
as recalled by Keith O'Kelley



My initial association with Minden Presbyterian Church came on Christmas Eve in 1927 at the arrival of Santa Claus at the Christmas Pageant.  The importance of the moment was punctuated by the plaintive voice of my six year old sister admonishing Santa to please remember that she had a new brother who had arrived that very day.  Thus began my association with the church of which my father, the Rev. W. Frank O'Kelley, D.D. was the pastor.

My father arrived in Louisiana in 1910, having served as a school principal and graduate of Union Theological Seminary.  His uncle was Dr. Jasper K. Smith, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport who had prevailed on him to come to this area from his home in Georgia to accept the pastorate of Dunlap Memorial Presbyterian Church in Shreveport.  He remained in that position until 1920 when he accepted the call to the pastorate of Minden Presbyterian Church.  My understanding is that the church building was a frame structure located on the present property slightly south of the current brick building.  The manse was a large rambling home located just around the corner of North Broadway and Homer Road.  I was preceded in the family by two sisters, Margery, previously referred to, and Frances.  Shortly after my birth, a new manse was constructed next door and facing on North Broadway, which my mother referred to as "the perfect home".  She carefully maintained a "guest room" which we children were allowed to enter only with close supervision.  This was always kept in perfect order for visiting preachers and other church related persons who often came through town unannounced.  Commercial hotel space was virtually non-existent, and besides, our accommodations were without charge.  During the years of the Great Depression, there was little money floating around.  We seemed to have an endless procession of "hobos" asking for a handout.  My mother would never deny any of them food which seemed to enhance her reputation in that community.

Someone had donated a small tract of land located near the Minden Natatorium to Red River Presbytery.  The land had little useful value at the time, but a local farmer (a Mr. Bridwell, I think) asked for permission to plant a garden on the land.  My father took his request to Presbytery and permission was granted.  One afternoon, Mr. Bridwell appeared at our back door with a two-mule team wagon load of sweet potatoes in appreciation for the use of the land.  My father tried to explain that he was not the landlord, just the messenger, but Mr. Bridwell insisted.  There were several hundred pounds unloaded on our back porch.  I do not recall disliking sweet potatoes prior to that time, but with my mother's conservative nature, we had sweet potatoes three meals every day for several months in every form anyone had ever heard of.  That was over 65 years ago, and to this day neither of my sisters nor I can look at sweet potatoes with any degree of affection, and we still think that the acceptance by my father was improper -- at least for our appetites.

I was very fortunate in many ways to be raised as a 'preacher's kid' even though it was not thoroughly appreciated at the time.  Some of my father's rules were prohibition of appearance of something bad rather than evil itself.  Examples included the fact that playing cards were prohibited in our home.  We could not play Bridge, but Rook was O.K.  My father agreed that there was no sin in a deck of cards, but it gave appearance of impropriety.  It took some of our best legal skills to get him to allow the use of dice to play Monopoly.  It was O.K. to ride bicycle on Sunday, but roller skating was 'too noisy' for the Sabbath.  In spite of some of these seemingly ridiculous rules, we had a lot of fun.  We took summer vacations to interesting places all over the country.  We traveled on dusty, gravel roads with luggage strapped to running board, covering 200 miles or less and three or more flat tires per day.  We had some rigid rules under which I chaffed, but in retrospect they served me very well.

Members of Minden Presbyterian Church served as extended family.  In those days we had Sunday School, Sunday morning services, Young People's Meeting on Sunday afternoon, Sunday night services and Prayer Meeting on Wednesday evenings and it was expected that I attend all - no excuses.  It is probably accurate to suggest that I complied with this requirement with less than total enthusiasm.  I felt that often there were other areas of my nurture that had a higher priority than these, but my father's persuasive powers prevailed.  I recall regular church suppers where the ladies exhibited their prize recipes.  Some of these were quite delicious, but the advance billing on others exceeded the reality.  Many of the local businessmen accorded me privileges hiring me to do odd jobs probably just because I was Dr. O'Kelley's son.  Times were much simpler then.  At a recent class reunion, one of my school friends recalled that even those in our age group who were known as 'bad actors' were really only mischievous by today's standards, and many of those characters have turned out to be outstanding citizens.

My father left Minden in 1943 to assume the pastorate of Colonial Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.  Being of just the right age for the military draft, I began to look for alternatives and found that I could enlist in U. S. Naval Air Corps flight training program provided I had parental consent.  My father felt that airplanes just may not be here to stay, and that a call to military service should be met by appearing complete with rifle and boots.  I was rescued from service in the infantry by a Minden native, Mr. McIntyre Leary.  Mr. Leary was a nephew of a Presbyterian minister who my father knew, but more importantly he was in charge of officer procurement for the Navy for this area.  He persuaded my father to agree to grant permission for me to enter that program.  I will be eternally grateful for Mr. Leary's efforts on my behalf.

Many good things have come my way from the household and surroundings into which I was born, and I can only hope that others could be as fortunate.
 

BAPTISMS PERFORMED BY DR. O'KELLEY IN MINDEN

Picture forty-four

'll bet the picture of the children was taken outside the Presbyterian Church at
Bible School.  I think the boy second from left is Richard Hackett, Class of
1953.  The one next to him on the end may be Dickie Taylor, class of 1952.
The little boy in the middle with the very light hair looks like *Jimmy White, Class
of 1955 to me.  These are guesses, so check if someone else agrees with my
opinion.  If we knew which families attended the Presbyterian church we could
probably figure them out.  I know Claire Drake attended there as a child. Perhaps
she could identify them.