The sign welcoming visitors to the Town of Plain Dealing.
The sign in Jessica Hemingway's office in the Bossier Chamber of Commerce tells the story: "Plain Dealing, Louisiana: The Only Town with the Golden Rule Name."
"It really does tell the story of Plain Dealing," the chamber's vice president said.
In a way, the sign answers the question posed by reader Megan Smith, who asks, "How did Plain Dealing get its name?"
The Alexandria resident remembers passing a sign pointing to the town while traveling through Bossier Parish. She's been curious about the name ever since.
As indicated by the Chamber of Commerce's sign, the town's name is based on honesty and integrity.
A mural on the side of Kelly Pharmacy in downtown Plain Dealing depicts the town's early days.
"As the story goes, Plain Dealing originally got its name from Plain Dealing Plantation, which was settled in 1839 by George Gilmer," Hemingway said. "A newspaper article in this area said the name Plain Dealing is typical of the character of the owner of the plantation. And really, the people of the town felt the name was also typical of the character of the people who lived there. So, the name stuck obviously. And I would say, in general, it's a sentiment that has carried over."
The newspaper was the Bossier Banner, which published a letter by G.E. Gilmer in 1937 stating that ”The name Plain Dealing is typical of the character of the (plantation’s) founder. It is said of him that he never traded or bartered, but he sold the products of his farms and bought his needs in the regular channel of trade.”
An excerpt of that letter can be found in the Bossier Chamber of Commerce's blog, BeBossier.com, which documents Bossier Parish's history.
Early Plain Dealing High School. The town occupies 1 square mile in Bossier Parish.
Hemingway put together the blog post for Plain Dealing, sourcing it from the local publication, “The First 100 Years: A History of Plain Dealing 1890-1990,” produced by the Town of Plain Dealing’s Centennial Committee.
The blog not only documents the town's history but offers interesting anecdotes along the way. Though the story begins with Gilmer's plantation, Plain Dealing wasn't incorporated until the railroad showed up on the scene.
"S.J. Zeigler, a prominent businessman, came to Bossier Parish around 1870 when he married a descendant of the Gilmers who had inherited the Plain Dealing property," BeBossier.com states.
Zeigler realized a town was needed to serve the Bossier area when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway proposed to build a branch line from Lewisville, Arkansas, to Shreveport. He selected the Plain Dealing site.
The community was temporarily known as Guernshein at the time, named for a prominent railroad company stockholder. Lots for the town were sold on July 25, 1888. Its name changed to Plain Dealing, and the town was chartered on April 24, 1890, with a population of less than 100.
A sign in the Bossier Chamber of Commerce pays homage to the origins of Plain Dealing's name. It states, "Plain Dealing, Louisiana: The only town with the Golden Rule name."
"Today, Plain Dealing has a population of 900 inside the town limits, which covers one square mile," Hemingway said. "The ZIP code they're in has a population of about 4,000, but the town itself has 900."
The town also is home to Plain Dealing High School, whose mascot is the lion and serves students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.
"The town has a decently intact main street, and it has two independently owned pharmacies that are only a block away from each other," Hemingway said. "It also has a bank."
Finding Plain Dealing on a map is easy. It's located near the northwesternmost corner of Louisiana, about 30 miles north of Shreveport.
According to Bossier Historian Cliff Cardin, as quoted in the BeBossier.com blog, the town was a powerful influence in Bossier Parish from the 1890s to the 1930s.
Early photo of First State Bank in Plain Dealing. Today, Citizens National Bank is located in the town.
“It was close enough to the railroads and far away enough from Shreveport, and Bossier City hadn’t reached its potential yet," he said. "Plain Dealing was a fairly new creation because all the other small towns around it — like, Fillmore and Rocky Mount — weren’t close enough to the railroad.”
Cardin also discussed an interesting legend connected to the town involving Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
Their getaway driver, Henry Methvin, had a brother who lived in Plain Dealing, and it was rumored that the town was a hideout for the famous robber couple.
Cardin said there's a possibility to the legend but not likely.
“I don’t believe it’s true because we know they had a really good hideout on Caddo Lake,” he said.
Bonnie and Clyde met their demise in 1934 not far down the road in Gibsland, only a year after Texas robber Charlie Frazier robbed the town's only bank.
An early photo of Kelly Pharmacy in downtown Plain Dealing.
Frazier got into two shootouts with local authorities, escaped before being caught. His legend continues at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, which, it's said, built its first prison cellblock to house him after he staged a brutal escape.
Just a couple of miles outside the town of Plain Dealing was Glover’s Tavern. Today, the site is commemorated by a historical marker that tells the story of Jim Bowie's stop there on his way to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
One other Plain Dealing tidbit revolves around the epic divorce of the oldest son of the Gilmer family. According to BeBossier.com, the divorce required an act of the Louisiana Legislature to untangle the Plain Dealing Plantation property.
James B. Gilmer, son of the plantation founder, married Pauline DeGraffenreid Pickett, widow of James Belton Pickett, one of the founders of Shreveport. The couple’s home, Orchard Place, near present-day Collinsburg, was one of the showplaces of north Louisiana.
"Unfortunately in recent years, the population and business activity in Plain Dealing has been declining," Hemingway said. "However, we're seeing a sawmill that's set to open within the next year right outside the town limits."
Hemingway said other opportunities coupled with the growth of Bossier City and Benton, moving north in Bossier parish means potential growth of Plain Dealing.
As growth returns, do the people of Plain Dealing still live up to the town's name?
"Oh yes," Hemingway said. "They're still Plain Dealing, and they live up to the town's reputation for honesty and integrity. They're family."
For more information, visit bebossier.com/2018/06/do-you-know-the-history-of-plain-dealing.