Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a small city in the northwestern portion of Louisiana and the seat of government of Webster Parish. Its 2010 population was 13,082. The city is located some twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport.
Minden was founded in 1836 by Charles H. Veeder, a native of Schenectady, New York, who named it for the city of Minden in Germany. Webster Parish, established in 1871 as a breakaway from Claiborne Parish, is named for U.S. Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.
For nearly forty years prior to 1871, Minden was the site of a communal colony known as "Germantown". The colony was headed by a woman known as Countess Leon. A museum commemorating this experience operates northeast of the city.
Minden was the early residence of former Governor Robert F. Kennon, a Democrat who served from 1952 to 1956 and lost a comeback bid in 1963. Prior to his governorship, Kennon was a district and circuit court judge.
Republican former U.S. Representative John Fleming of Louisiana's 4th Congressional District is a Minden former physician and businessman who joined the Donald Trump national administration in 2017. He was born in Mississippi. The state senator from Bossier and Webster parishes is the Republican Ryan Gatti of Bossier City. The state representative for Webster Parish is Democrat Gene Reynolds, a retired educator from Dubberly, a village south of Minden.
The Caney Lakes Recreation Area is located north of Minden. The city is the home of Louisiana Missionary Baptist Institute and Seminary and a branch of Louisiana Technical College, formerly know as the Northwest Louisiana School of Vocational Education.
Notable people
- Wallace Holly Adams, Minden native who in 1912 helped to select the site of Jennings as the seat of government for Jefferson Davis Parish; attorney and businessman
- Ronnie Broughton, Webster Parish School Board member; state chairman of the Constitution Party
- L. L. Clover, clergyman
- Allen Ross Culpepper, Vietnam War hero
- John Fleming, former U.S. representative and coroner; serves in the Department of Health and Human Servioces in the Trump administration
- Ray Germany, basketball player and coach
- O. H. Haynes, Sr., sheriff
- Cleone Hodges college professor in North Carolina; daughter of Sheriff Haynes
- Bill Ichter, clergyman
- Robert F. Kennon, governor from 1952 to 1956
- A. M. Leary, mayor from 1903 to 1905
- Joshua Barrett Madden, Iraq War hero
- Charles Maple, journalist and chamber of commerce official
- Schuyler Marvin, district attorney
- Leland Mims, police jury president
- A. T. Powers, clergyman
- Gene Reynolds, state representative
- Jimmy G. Tharpe, clergyman
- Lynn Kyle Watkins, judge
