Bio: John B. Atkins; Canton, MS., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Date: 1999-2000 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** John B. Atkins. It seldom happens that in the history of such a rich and prosperous community as Shreveport one name assumes so much significance in constructive activity, vision and influence as that of the late John B. Atkins, founder of many industrial enterprises and notable citizen and philanthropist, who died at his home in Shreveport October 28, 1923, at the age of fifty-nine. He was born at Ganton, Mississippi, February 18, 1864, son of Joseph W. Atkins. His father was a Mississippi farmer and planter and for twenty years probate judge of Neshoba County. In his family were fourteen children, including John B. and J. W. Atkins, whose careers were closely associated in the upbuilding of Shreveport. John B. Atkins in 1886, at the age of twenty-two, established a plantation store at Lake End, fifty miles from Shreveport, on the Texas & Pacific Railway. By 1903 the business had expanded into a chain of ten stores situated along the Red River, doing an annual business of one million dollars. Mr. Atkins became president of the merchandise corporation, which owned thirty thousand acres of land in the Red River Valley, ten stores, thirteen cotton gins, an oil mill, two steamboats, and an immense outlet of other equipment used in agricultural and mercantile enterprise. The company produced between 15,000 and 17,000 bales of cotton annually. Then came the boll weevil and low prices for cotton, and the overflowing of the Red River caused entire crops to be destroyed. By 1909, when Mr. Atkins came to Shreveport, he had suffered reverses that left him a minimum of capital and made necessary a new start. In Shreveport he organized a company to build a six-inch pipe line to the Caddo gas fields, obtaining a franchise to supply Shreveport and Bossier City, a franchise under which the Southwestern Gas and Electric Company is still operating. This enterprise resulted in a great reduction in price to consumers on domestic and manufacturing fuel. Mr. Atkins and his brother, J. W. Atkins, then launched a subdivision of 260 acres, today one of the most beautiful in the United States, and formed a company and built an electric car line to make the property accessible. From this land forty acres was reserved as a site for Centenary College, and the brothers were instrumental in securing the removal of Centenary College to Shreveport and the beginning of a greater era in its history as an educational institution. Mr. Atkins was founder of the Cedar Grove factory addition, on a site of nine hundred acres, and before his death this had become an industrial community of nearly live thousand population and seventeen factories. One of these industries was the Caddo Central Oil Refinery, and Mr. Atkins was vice president of the Shreveport Producing and Refining Company and president of the Shreveport-El Dorado Pipe Line Company. He was the builder of two fortunes, and throughout his life the spirit that guided him in the use of wealth was that of a wise philanthropist. He made the instruments and returns of business a source of betterment to the community rather than for his personal gain. He was a man of splendid character and a sincere. Christian, being for many years a steward of the First Methodist Episcopal Church and a leader in prohibition movements. He was a member of the Masonic order for many years. John B. Atkins married in 1889 Alma Foster, of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. She survives him, and there are two sons, J. B. Atkins, Jr., and Joseph Atkins, both of Shreveport, and two daughters, Mrs. 0.J. Dykes and Mrs. D. P. Hamilton, of Shreveport. NOTE: The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the subject with his/her autograph. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 271-272, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.