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100 unusual facts about Louisiana


Ahmed Orabi

A suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana was named Arabi, a corruption of "Orabi" in solidarity with his revolt against the British occupation.

Allons à Lafayette

The song deals with a man asking his partner to go to Lafayette, Louisiana and change her name to something more scandalous, Mrs. Mischievous Comeaux.

Amy Berman Jackson

Jackson represented nine term Representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, William J. Jefferson in his corruption trial in 2009.

Avalon Rare Metals

The Nechalacho Project is planned to consist of facilities at three separate sites: an underground mine and concentrator at Thor Lake, a hydrometallurgical plant at the Pine Point Mine site and a rare earth refinery to be located in Geismar, Louisiana.

Ben Earl Looney

Looney was born in the Yellow Pine community, located south of Sibley, Louisiana, to Julian A. Looney (1871–1958) and the former Mollie McKinney (1872–1932).

Billy the Exterminator

The show follows the professional life of Billy Bretherton, an expert in the field of pest control and the proprietor of Vexcon Animal and Pest Control in Benton, Louisiana, which serves the Shreveport-Bossier metropolitan area.

Blair Barbier

Blair Matthew Barbier (born February 13, 1978 in Marrero, Louisiana) is a former professional baseball player for the Chicago Cubs organization, former baseball standout for Louisiana State University and former volunteer assistant baseball coach with LSU for the 2007 season.

Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Ralph T. Troy, the mayor of Monroe, Louisiana, from 1972 to 1976, later relocated to North Carolina and resided in Blowing Rock.

Bobby Kimball

Robert Troy Kimball was born in Orange, Texas, and was raised in nearby Vinton, Louisiana, as Vinton did not have a hospital (thus, he was born across the state line).

Breaux Brothers

His father, August Breaux, later moved to north of Egan, Louisiana where he farmed.

Carriker's round-eared bat

It was discovered by and named for the well known Dr. Robert Carriker of Lafayette, Louisiana.

Carroll Parish, Louisiana

It was divided in 1877 into East Carroll Parish and West Carroll Parish.

Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois

His term saw a great expansion in the number of western forts with the leadership of people like La Vérendrye, and the linkage of Canadian and Louisiana colonies.

Chevrolet S-10 Blazer

The S-series SUVs, so named because they were based on the Chevrolet S-10 and GMC S-15 pickup trucks, were produced in Pontiac, Michigan; Linden, New Jersey; Moraine, Ohio; Shreveport, Louisiana; and São Paulo, Brazil (the Brazilian version is based on the second-generation S-series; even though production ceased in the U.S., new Blazers are locally produced in Brazil with their own sheetmetal stampings).

Clif Richardson

Clifton Russell Richardson (born 1943), known as Clif Richardson, is a retired businessman from Greenwell Springs, Louisiana, and a Republican former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 65 in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Colt, Arkansas

L. Clover - Missionary Baptist pastor of New Prospect congregation in Colt prior to 1948; founder in 1952 of Louisiana Missionary Baptist Institute and Seminary in Minden, Louisiana.

Cornelius C. Duson

Among Curley Duson's accomplishments, he was instrumental in founding three towns in SW Louisiana; Eunice, Crowley and Mamou.

Countess Leon

They soon established their proclaimed "New Jerusalem" at Grand Ecore north of Natchitoches.

Daniel Patterson

On September 16, 1814, Patterson raided the base of the pirate Jean Laffite at Barataria, Louisiana, capturing six schooners and other small craft.

Danny Wimprine

Born the son of Barbara and Ronnie Wimprine, Danny attented John Curtis Christian High School in River Ridge, Louisiana.

Ed Gossett

Born in a sawmill camp known as Yellow Pine, near Many, Sabine Parish, Louisiana, Gossett moved to Texas in 1908 with his parents, who settled on a farm near Henrietta, Clay County.

ENVIRON

In the United States, the firm has worked with the Marathon Petroleum Company at its major gulf coast refinery in Garyville, Louisiana, to develop VOC BioTreat™, a patent-pending biotreatment solution to reduce volatile organic compound emissions at oil and chemical refineries.

GEO 600

The three instruments (LIGO's instruments are located near Livingston, Louisiana and on the Hanford Site, Washington in the U.S.) will collect data for more than a year, with breaks for tuning and updates.

Gerald Mason

After his release in 1957, then aged 23, he hitchhiked his way to California, stopping in Shreveport, Louisiana where he purchased a revolver using an alias.

Givers

Givers was formed in 2008 in Lafayette, Louisiana by Tiffany Lamson, Taylor Guarisco, Kirby Campbell, Josh LeBlanc, William Henderson, and Nick Stephan.

Glenn Ezell

Glenn Wayne Ezell (born October 29, 1944, at Kentwood, Louisiana) is an American former front-office executive in Major League Baseball, as well as a former MLB coach and minor league catcher and manager.

Graves B. Erskine

Graves Erskine was born in Columbia, Louisiana, on June 28, 1897, where he graduated from high school at age 15 as class valedictorian.

Graydon K. Kitchens, Jr.

After college, Kitchens, Sr., taught school for a year in Summerfield in Claiborne Parish.

Herbert William Christenberry

He served as chief judge from 1949 to 1967, and continued on the court thereafter until his death, in Kentwood, Louisiana.

Innis High School

Innis High School was a high school located in the village of Innis in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States, at 6450 Louisiana Highway 1.

Isuzu i-Series

It was built at the same plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, which produces the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, which were in turn developed off the cab and chassis of the Thai-built Isuzu D-Max by GM, Isuzu, and GM do Brasil.

Jimmie Noone

Noone was born in Cut Off, Louisiana, and started playing guitar in his home town; at the age of 15, he switched to the clarinet and moved to New Orleans, where he studied with Lorenzo Tio and with the young Sidney Bechet, who was only 13 at the time.

Jimmy G. Shoalmire

In 1969, he completed the dissertation entitled "Carpetbagger Extraordinary: Marshall Harvey Twitchell, 1840-1905", a study of Marshall H. Twitchell, the Louisiana Republican state senator from Bienville and Red River parishes.

Joe Raymond Peace

His father, Joe Peace, Sr. (1920–1992), a native of Magnolia, Arkansas, was a successful high school football coach from 1948–1975 at Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish.

Joseph Lapira

Lapira graduated from St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

KBXS

KBXS-CA, a low-power television station (channel 50) licensed to serve Shreveport, Louisiana, United States

King Solomon Hill

After much speculation and controversy, he is recognized to have been Joe Holmes (1897, McComb, Mississippi – 1949, Sibley, Louisiana), a self-taught guitarist from Mississippi.

One informant lived in a section of Sibley, Louisiana known as Yellow Pine, within which there is a community formerly known as King Solomon Hill centred on an actual hill on which stood King Solomon Hill Baptist Church.

KLAX-TV

KLAX was launched on March 3, 1983 originally operating as an independent station, owned by the late Don Lyons and his wife, the former Rebecca Payton (1937-2012), a native of Saline in Bienville Parish.

Kulmoris Joiner

Previously, he was the Director of Football Operations for the Grambling State Tigers located in Grambling, Louisiana and he held that position for three seasons, from 2005 until 2007.

Landmark Land Company

The modern development company, which controls properties in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean, was started in 1971 when the current CEO Gerald G. Barton took control of Godchaux Sugar Company, a bankrupt Louisiana corporation established in 1865.

Leonnatus Anteas

The three-year-old colt made his next start in the September 15 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, Louisiana, finishing fourth.

Long family

Floyd W. Smith, Jr. (1932-2010), Mayor of Pineville, Louisiana 1966–1970, second cousin of Speedy O. Long.

Louis Cataldie

Dr. Cataldie was also involved in running both the Find Family National Call Center, AKA the Family Assistance Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as well as the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team morgue in Carville, Louisiana.

Louisiana Highway 101

It proceeds north and crosses from Calcasieu Parish into Jefferson Davis Parish.

Louisiana Highway 101 (LA 101) is a state highway located in Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis Parishes.

Louisiana Highway 114

From the west, LA 114 begins at an intersection with LA 1 in western Avoyelles Parish.

Louisiana Highway 182

From the northwest, LA 182 begins at an intersection with LA 29 in an area of northern St. Landry Parish known as Whiteville.

LA 182 also begins to parallel Bayou Teche out of New Iberia, through Jeanerette, and into St. Mary Parish.

Louisiana Highway 3193

Louisiana Highway 3193 (LA 3193) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves St. James Parish.

Louisiana Highway 3214

Louisiana Highway 3214 (LA 3214) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves St. James Parish.

Louisiana Highway 3274

Louisiana Highway 3274 (LA 3274) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves St. James Parish.

Louisiana Highway 454

Louisiana Highway 454 (LA 454) is a state highway in Rapides and Avoyelles Parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana.

The western end of the highway is at Cedar Grove and the eastern end is at Effie.

Louisiana Highway 696

Louisiana Highway 696 (LA 696) is a state highway that serves Vermilion parish.

Louisiana Highway 699

Louisiana Highway 699 (LA 699) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves Vermilion parish, extending from LA 92 and intersecting with LA 35.

Louisiana Highway 700

Louisiana Highway 700 is a state highway that serves Vermilion and Lafayette parishes.

Louisiana Highway 720

The highway begins at the Acadia Parish county line, and goes east-west for a short time until it turns south and combines with LA 719.

Louisiana Highway 761

Louisiana Highway 761 is a state highway that serves St. Landry parish.

Louisiana Highway 88

From the west, LA 88 begins at an intersection with LA 89 located at a point in northwestern Iberia Parish known as Lozes.

Louisiana, Missouri

The latter enters Louisiana from Illinois via the Champ Clark Bridge, named for a former US Speaker of the House from nearby Bowling Green.

Louisiana's 3rd congressional district

Louisiana gained its 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts in 1823 as part of the 18th United States Congress.

Major League Baseball blackout policy

For example, all of Texas, including the Houston metropolitan area as well as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as well as the entire state of Louisiana, is within both the Astros' and Rangers' blackout areas.

Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center

In 2008, MBP partnered with Terrebonne General Medical Center and Cancer Care Specialists in Houma, creating MBP's fourth location—Mary Bird Perkins at TGMC.

In 2009, in partnership with St. Elizabeth Hospital, MBP opened a fifth location in Gonzales.

Michael B Shepherd

Michael B. Shepherd (born 1977) is the John and Allie Fogleman Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana as well as professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at the Caskey School of Divinity.

Nathaniel P. Banks

However, he did not immediately attempt the capture of Port Hudson, Louisiana, the main Confederate stronghold below Vicksburg, because the garrison was reported to be large.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Webster Parish, Louisiana

This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States.

Nicky Savoie

Nicky John Savoie (born on September 21, 1973 in Cut Off, Louisiana) is a former American football tight end who has a one year career in the National Football League.

Nolacon

Nolacon is the name given to two Worldcons held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Olin Clyde Robison

A native of Anacoco, Louisiana, Robison studied at Baylor University and Southwestern Theological Seminary, and received a D. Phil.

Patrick J. Campbell

In 1983, Campbell initiated a boycott of the Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, accusing the company of failing to pay fair wages to 1,500 lumber workers represented by the union.

Pharr, Texas

In 1900 Henry N. Pharr for a number of years was a director of the State National Bank of New Iberia, Louisiana, and was a former president of the Louisiana - Rio Grande Sugar Company and the Louisiana - Rio

Richard Cleveland Drew

R. C. Drew was educated at the former Homer College in Homer, the seat of Claiborne Parish.

Robert Hilburn

Born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and lived until he was 5 mostly on his grandfather’s cotton plantation in nearby Campti.

Royd Anderson

It was unveiled in a solemn ceremony on October 17, 2009 at the East Bank Bridge Park in Destrehan, Louisiana.

Share Our Wealth

Any Presidential ambitions which Long might have had were cut short when he was shot by an assassin on September 8, 1935, in Baton Rouge; he died two days later on September 10, 1935.

Sherman Q. Mack

In 1990, Mack graduated from Holden High School in Holden in Livingston Parish.

Ship Shoal Light

A second order Fresnel lens was provided; during the Civil War Confederate forces raided the tower and carried away the lens and lantern glass, eventually removing them to St. Martinville, but they were recovered at the end of the war.

Shoji Tabuchi

There is a scholarship in his name at a Branson school music department and a community center in Oak Grove, Louisiana, named in his honor.

Shreve City, Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreve City is the area of Shreveport located between the Shreveport-Barksdale bridge and East Kings highway.

Shreveport Journal

A Webster Parish native reared in Shreveport, Tiner graduated with a journalism degree from Louisiana Tech University.

Simon W. Tudor

Simon Woodson Tudor (November 5, 1887—May 10, 1956) was a prominent educator, businessman, church and civic leader, and philanthropist in the central Louisiana city of Pineville in the first half of the twentieth century.

Sowers, Texas

Hinton and Alcorn later participated in the fatal ambush that halted Barrow and Parker's spree on May 23, 1934 near Gibsland, Louisiana.

St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office

Landry Parish Sheriff's Office (SLPSO) is the primary law enforcement agency of St. Landry Parish.

Stephanie Patton

After living in New York City, she returned to Louisiana in 2001 and currently lives and works in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Taovaya people

In 1811 their chief, Awahakei, died during a visit to Americans in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Teddy Edwards

Due to illness in the family, he went back to Jackson and ventured to Alexandria, Louisiana.

The Long, Hot Summer

Filmed in Clinton, Louisiana, the film's cast was composed mostly of former Actors Studio students, whom Ritt met while he was an assistant teacher to Elia Kazan.

This Week in Louisiana Agriculture

This Week in Louisiana Agriculture, or TWILA, is an agricultural television program produced by the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Thomas Mayne Reid

In 1841 he found work as a clerk for a provision dealer in either Natchez, Mississippi or Natchitoches, Louisiana (the latter place seems more likely).

Tom Colten

He favored (though he could not vote in the primary at the time) John Willard "Jack" Montgomery, a Springhill native and Minden lawyer who was challenging two-term State Senator Harold Montgomery of Doyline, also in Webster Parish.

Tony Canzoneri

Tony Canzoneri (November 6, 1908 – December 9, 1959 in Slidell, Louisiana) was an American professional boxer.

Tweety Carter

Tweety Carter had one of the greatest high school careers in the history of the sport while attending Reserve Christian School in Reserve, Louisiana.

U.S. Bancorp Tower

During the 1980s and 1990s, the top floors held the headquarters of Louisiana-Pacific.

USS LSM-216

Following the war, LSM-216 was decommissioned on 2 May 1946 at Calcasieu River, Lake Charles, Louisiana.

West Florida

The capital of the Republic of West Florida was St. Francisville in present-day Louisiana, on a bluff along the Mississippi River.

The Republic of West Florida Historical Museum is located in Jackson run by the Republic of West Florida Historical Association.

Willis Reed

Reed showed athletic ability at an early age and played basketball at West Side High School in Lillie.

WRCL

Based on the WRCL model are WZPW in Peoria, Illinois and KHXT in Lafayette, Louisiana (WZPW was later traded to Cumulus Media in 2012 as part of 65-station swap Townsquare made with Cumulus).


2003 NCAA Division I-A football season

On January 9, 2004, Ted Waitt, CEO of Gateway Computers offered the NCAA $31 million for a national championship game between USC and Louisiana State.

Adam Smith University

John Bear states that Adam Smith University has been located in Hawaii, Louisiana, Montana, and South Dakota in the past.

Alexander Slidell Mackenzie

He was the brother of U.S. Senator John Slidell of Louisiana, who was later involved in the American Civil War's "Trent Affair."

Archbishop Rummel

Archbishop Rummel High School, Roman Catholic secondary school Metairie, Louisiana

Army of Central Kentucky

The Department No. 2 (Western Department) was created on June 25, 1861, under the command of Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, and had military jurisdiction and control over parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Baton Rouge Community College

Along with former Senator John Breaux and Congresswoman Corrine Brown, former President Bill Clinton visited the college on February 8, 2008 to campaign for his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the Louisiana 2008 Democratic primary,

Bennett Joshua Davlin

Davlin graduated from the Episcopal School of Acadiana in Cade, Louisiana and attributed his independent thinking to the amazing teachers at that institution.

Betty Sue Hagerman

Hagerman succeeded Karen Elliot in 1981 and recorded an overall record of 40-36 in three seasons as head coach of the Lady Tigers, including the Louisiana AIAW Championship in 1981.

Bobby Badon

In 2007, he defeated the Republican candidate, Raymond "La La" Lalonde, a former Democratic member of the Louisiana House.

Charles Gayarré

Charles Étienne Arthur Gayarré (January 9, 1805 – February 11, 1895) was an American historian, attorney and politician born to a French Creole planter's family in New Orleans, Louisiana.

D. L. Dykes, Jr.

Dykes was born in Pleasant Hill in Sabine Parish in northwestern Louisiana to David L. Dykes, Sr. (1883–1964) and the former Ruby Perley (1896–1944).

Danziger Bridge shootings

Jim Letten, the U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, vowed his office would take "as much time and resources as necessary" to resolve the case.

Edward Young Clarke

Edward Young Clarke was an advertising executive from Louisiana and the Imperial Wizard pro tempore of the Ku Klux Klan who devised the "kluxing" system of payments to the hierarchy within the Klan.

Ellen Bryan Moore

Her father was the warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary until he was dismissed in a dispute with then Governor Huey P. Long, Jr. Moore spent her early years growing up at the manager's residence when the penitentiary was in Baton Rouge, instead of the present site at rural Angola in West Feliciana Parish near St. Francisville.

Eugene P. Watson

He was a member of the American Library Association, the Modern Language Association, the Bibliographical Society of America, the Louisiana Historical Association, the Louisiana Chess Association, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Beta Phi Mu, Phi Kappa Rho, and Kappa Delta Pi.

Foster Campbell

Ron Gomez, a member of the Louisiana House from Lafayette and at the time a Democrat prior to later switching parties, describes Campbell, when he was a state senator, as "always having some populist, usually anti-business legislation moving through the process. Persistent is his middle name.".

Howard Mitcham

James Howard Mitcham (1917 in Winona, Mississippi – August 22, 1996 in Hyannis, Massachusetts) was an American artist, poet, and cook best known for his books on Louisiana's Creole and Cajun cuisines and that of New England, with an emphasis on seafood.

James P. Pope

Born in Jonesboro, Louisiana, Pope graduated from Louisiana Industrial Institute (now Louisiana Tech University) in 1906 and from the University of Chicago Law School in 1909.

James Patrick Major

In 1864, he fought at both Mansfield and Pleasant Hill in De Soto Parish and with General Hamilton P. Bee at Monett's Ferry in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.

Jamie Wilson

Wilson represented Louisiana in the Miss America 2007 pageant broadcast live from the Theatre for the Performing Arts on the Las Vegas Strip on 29 January 2007 but did not win any preliminary awards or place in the final competition.

Jeff MacDonald

Geoff Macdonald, former head women’s tennis coach at Louisiana State University

John Liddell

St. John Richardson Liddell (1815–1870), Louisiana planter and Confederate general

Kickstand

A "smaller, more convenient" kickstand was developed by Joseph Paul Treen, the father of former Louisiana Governor, Dave Treen.

Kinder, Louisiana

In 1903, Louisiana Gov. William Heard issued a proclamation declaring the site the Village of Kinder.

KLWB

KLWB-FM, a radio station (103.7 FM) licensed to Opelousas, Louisiana, United States

KXOR

KXOR-FM, a radio station (106.3 FM) licensed to Thibodaux, Louisiana, United States

Linus Parker

Rev. Parker served the following appointments, all in Louisiana: Lake Providence (1849), Shreveport (1850–51), Felicity Street, New Orleans (1852–54), Carondelet Street, New Orleans (1855–57), Presiding Elder of the New Orleans District (1858), Felicity Street again (1859–61), Shreveport again (1862–63), the Caldo Circuit (1864–65), and Felicity Street a third time (1866–69).

Louisiana Culinary Institute

The Mayor of Baton Rouge, Mayor-President Kip Holden, declared March 20, 2009 to be "Louisiana Culinary Institute Day," and awarded members of the team the titles of "Honorary Mayor-Presidents" of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish.

Louisiana Highway 102

Louisiana Highway 102 (LA 102) is a state highway located in Jefferson Davis Parish.

Louisiana Highway 110

Longville, at the height of the logging boom, was the site of one of the largest sawmills in Louisiana founded by Robert A. Long.

Margaret Hayes

Hayes played opposite Keith Andes in the role of Dorothy Maguire Grevemberg, wife of crusading Louisiana State Police superintendent Francis Grevemberg, in the film Damn Citizen (1958).

Melinda Schwegmann

Mrs. Schwegmann is a past president of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Michael Talbot

Michael Kirk Talbot (born 1969), member of Louisiana House of Representatives

Paleontology in Washington, D.C.

It lived in the Washington, D.C. area about 110 million years ago, when the area resembled modern southern Louisiana.

Quartiere

The English word "quarter" to mean a neighbourhood (e.g. the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana) is derived from the cognate old French word "quartier".

Richard Zussman

In the summer of 2008, Zussman worked in Washington, D.C. as a television reporter for KTAL in Shreveport, Louisiana covering the Senate race between John Kennedy and incumbent Mary Landrieu.

Robert D. Bullard

Over the 1980s Bullard widened his study of environmental racism to the whole American South, focusing on communities in Houston, in Dallas, Texas, Alsen, Louisiana, Institute, West Virginia, and Emelle, Alabama.

Robert Snyder

Robert C. Snyder (1919–2011), professor of English at Louisiana Tech University

Saint Valerie

Valeria of Milan, often known as St Valerie, venerated in Thibodaux, Louisiana

Sigi Lemmerer

Originally from Wörschach, Austria, Sigi Lemmerer has lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and given concert tours through Europe, the USA, and Asia.

Statewide opinion polling for the Republican Party presidential primaries, April 2012

Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Jeb Bush of Florida, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and John Thune of South Dakota all succeeded in leading polls in their home states at some point in 2011, although only Pawlenty actually launched a campaign.

Thomas Stevenson Drew

One of Drew's brothers, Richard Maxwell Drew, held several public offices in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, including that of state representative from 1848 until his death in 1850 at the age of twenty-eight.

Tommy Wright

Thomas D. "Tommy" Wright (born 1956), former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives

Tropical Storm Debra

1978's Tropical Storm Debra, a short-lived tropical storm that caused minimal damages in Louisiana

University of Louisiana System

The large Finance & Facilities Planning Division was headed by Nick Bruno, Vice President for Business & Finance, for five years from 2005 to 2010, whereupon Bruno was selected to serve as president of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Virginia deGravelles

Early in 1964, the deGravelles supported Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., an oilman from Shreveport in Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, for the governorship.

W. Matt Lowe

Matt Lowe (January 1, 1872–March 4, 1955) was a merchant and public official in the city of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.