Plain Dealing, Louisiana

Plain Dealing is a town in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 893 in 2020. It is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Prior to 1839, the United States government forcibly removed the Caddo Nation of Native Americans—longtime local inhabitants who had first settled the area over 1,000 years before Europeans' 16th-century arrival in mainland North America—from the area of Northern Louisiana that included the parcel that would later become the town of Plain Dealing.

In 1839, George Oglethorpe Gilmer and his son, James Blair Gilmer, bought 5,000 acres of this land—now described as a "vast, unsettled wilderness"—from the United States government, calling a portion of this acreage "Plain Dealing" after the family's Virginia plantation. The "Plain Dealing" name became official when the town was formally chartered on April 24, 1890.

Notable points of more recent history include the following:
* Plain Dealing recorded the state's hottest temperature ever, , on August 10, 1936 (see "Climate" section below).
* The ''Plain Dealing Post'' newspaper was established in the 1980s by publisher Danny D. Scott of nearby Springhill.
* The Bossier Parish minimum security prison is located in Plain Dealing.

Geography

Plain Dealing is south of the Arkansas border and north of Shreveport.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which , or 0.26%, is water.

Climate

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 893 people, 424 households, and 192 families residing in the town.

Notable people

* William Benton Boggs (1854–1922), first mayor of Plain Dealing in 1890; member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1892 to 1900, and the Louisiana State Senate from 1908 to 1916
* Mollie Burdett Banks Curry Gray (1862–1958), a Plain Dealing resident, was a great-great-grand-niece of George Washington. When she died in 1958 in Shreveport, she was listed as the oldest descendant of President Washington.
*Robert Houston Curry, first husband of Mollie Gray, was from 1888 to 1892 a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Bossier Parish.
* John J. Doles (1895–1970), a business man and politician, member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1952 to 1956, and president of the Louisiana Bankers Association from 1956 to 1957
* John J. Doles, Jr. (1923–2004), Plain Dealing banker and civic leader
* Ryan Gatti (born 1974), state senator from Bossier City since 2016; owns a tree farm near Plain Dealing
*Booker T (born 1965), American professional wrestler and promoter.
* A. P. Tugwell (1889–1976), born in Plain Dealing; the longest-serving Louisiana state treasurer
* Joseph David "Joe" Waggonner, Jr. (1918–2007), a former congressman; born in Plain Dealing and interred at Plain Dealing Cemetery.
* W. E. "Willie" Waggonner (1905–1976), sheriff of Bossier Parish from 1948 until his death in office; brother of Joe Waggonner

Gallery

Image:Revised Plain Dealing, LA, sign IMG 5163.JPG, Plain Dealing corporate limits sign
Image:Downtown Plain Dealing, LA IMG 5164.JPG, Downtown Plain Dealing
Image:Revised gazebo pix in Plain Dealing, LA IMG 5165.JPG, Gazebo in downtown Plain Dealing
Image:First Baptist Church, Plain Dealing, LA IMG 5166.JPG, Plain Dealing Baptist Church of Plain Dealing
Image:First United Methodist Church, Plain Dealing, LA IMG 6332.jpg, First United Methodist Church of Plain Dealing
Image:Plain Dealing Cemetery IMG 1462.JPG, The Plain Dealing Cemetery contains the graves of former U.S. Representative Joe D. Waggonner and Waggonner's older brother, former Bossier Parish Sheriff Willie E. Waggonner.

References

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Towns in Louisiana
Towns in Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Towns in Shreveport – Bossier City metropolitan area
1890 establishments in Louisiana