Historic Shreveport-Bossier

exchange of trade goods between the Indians and
commercial firms, was called a “factor” and the
district in which he served was a “factory.” The
term carried forward into the cotton trade as well.
The cotton factor was the middleman who
arranged contracts to deliver cotton to national
and international markets, sometimes buying
cotton on speculation, and often lending
production money to farmers and planters in
return for a fixed-price sale of a future crop.]
Indian agent Jehiel Brooks inserted another
reservation in the cession treaty in favor of
Francois Grappe, and then Brooks bought the
land for $6,000. The Caddoans repudiated this
provision, and Shreve wrote to President
Jackson in their behalf. He also pointed out that
the government stood to lose $150,000 on the
value of the land, because Brooks could subdivide
it and sell it for many times what he paid
for it. A government investigation landed the
matter in court (United States v. Jehiel Brooks),
but the court upheld Brooks’ claim to the land.
As soon as the cession treaty was signed in
1835, planters and farmers, business dealers,
and land speculators from the eastern states
began to move into the Red River Valley. One of
the speculators was Angus McNeill, lately of
Natchez, Mississippi, who heard about the
Caddo cession when he passed through
Natchitoches on his way to Texas. McNeill
decided to buy some of the Caddo lands to sell
for profit. He found the Edwards Reserve very
attractive, since it carried the right of location.
Larkin Edwards wanted to stay where he had
settled, at Cedar Bluffs on the east side of the
river, so he accepted McNeill’s offer of $5,000
for his reserve.
Shortly thereafter, in May of 1836, McNeill
met with Captain Shreve, Bushrod Jenkins,
Thomas Taylor Williamson, and James Belton
Pickett, to draw up a plan for a riverport town
on a site to be selected with the Edwards
Reserve. There in Jenkins’ log house on
Anderson Island, the five men formed the
Shreve Town Company as a commercial proprietorship,
and agreed to invest in a town on the
Upper Bluffs near the confluence of Cross Bayou
and Red River. Three days later, on May 27,
1836, they met at the Bennett and Cane Store on
the bluffs to sign the agreement. At that time,
the Bennett and Cane partnership and Thomas
Sturges Sprague, a friend of McNeill’s, were
invited to invest in the Shreve Town Company.
Thus, the Shreve Town Company proprietors
each had a one-seventh interest in the venture.
Less than a year later, on February 7, 1838, the
state granted authority to change the name of
the town to Shreveport.
McNeill, as president, had charge of selling
the town lots. Williamson was legal advisor, and
Jenkins served as treasurer. Shreve paid for
surveying and drawing the maps and for
building a steam sawmill on the waterfront. The
original town site was roughly a square bounded
by Silver Lake, Common Street, Cross Bayou,
and Red River. Sixteen streets were laid out,
with blocks and lots designated for commercial
buildings, a steam sawmill, public buildings, a
courthouse square, and residences. The main
street was Texas, with parallel streets of Fannin,
Travis, Milam, and Crockett, all named in honor
of heroes of the Texas Revolution. Edwards,
McNeill (also spelled McNeil), and Caddo
Streets honored the principals in the sale of the
Reserve. Marshall Street may have been named
for Chief Justice John Marshall, who handed
down the decision that favored Shreve in his
legal battle with the Fulton-Livingston
steamboat monopoly on the Mississippi River.
The town planners named other streets
Commerce, Market, Cotton, Lake, Louisiana,
Common, and Spring.
Shreveport did not establish a municipal
government until it was officially chartered by
the state legislature on March 20, 1839. In the
elections held the following May, five trustees
were elected: John O. Sewall, W. W. George, T. P.
Hotchkiss, S. B. Hunter, and John R. Smith
(replacing Charles Sewall, who refused to
serve). The trustees had the power to levy and
collect taxes up to $1,000 per year. The trustees
appointed the city’s first officials: John O.
Sewall, mayor; John R. Smith, tax assessor; P. S.
Hansborough, constable and tax collector; A. B.
Sterritt, surveyor; S. C Wilson, treasurer; and
Angus McNeill, justice of the peace. The first
ordinances of the new town established a ferry
at the foot of Caddo Street to connect the west
and east banks of the river, levied license fees on
wagons and carts, and approved removal of
trees and stumps from Commerce Street to
improve access to the riverfront.
12 ✦ HISTORIC SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER