Bio: James Arthur McCann; Smith Co., TX., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000





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James Arthur McCann, owner of the Jones-McCann Company, distributors, is one
of the enterprising business men of Shreveport, whose efforts in the
development of the automobile tire and accessory trade have been productive of
lasting benefit.  He is also very zealous in behalf of civic improvement, and,
a musician of merit, he is prominent as well in musical circles. He was born
at Troop, Smith County, Texas, in 1889, a son of T. E. and Callie E.
(Rountree) McCann.  The father is deceased, but the mother survives and is
residing at Marshall, Texas.  She is widely known as a musician, as was her
husband, and the two met while they were students of the Boston Conservatory
of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, from which both were graduated.  He was a
native of Boston.

In 1898 the McCann family came to Shreveport, and it was in this city that
young McCann attended the grade and high schools.  He studied law in the
University of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, but on account of eye trouble he was
compelled to discontinue his studies.  Leaving the university in 1909, he
became associated with the Cable Piano Company, with headquarters at New
Orleans.  Subsequently he returned to Shreveport and associated himself with
Hutchinson Brothers as manager of their piano department and in 1918 went into
the automobile tire and accessory business, founding his present company, of
which he is now sole owner.  This is one of the most prosperous concerns of
its kind in Louisiana, and its excellent location on Louisiana Street, at the
intersection of Crockett, in the very heart of the business district, is a
strong factor in the continued expansion of trade.  He is general distributor
for the General Tire Company of Akron, Ohio.

Mr. McCann is a Scottish-Rite and K. C. C. H. and Shriner Mason.  Like his
parents, he is musical, possessing a fine basso and being expert in playing
the violin and clarionet.  For a long period he has been the director of the
famous quartette of the First Baptist Church of Shreveport, of which he is
basso; and he is also leader of the orchestra of El Karubah Temple, Shrine,
and he plays the clarionet in~ the Shrine Band.  As chairman of the music
committee of the Scottish Rite bodies he also is well known to the music
loving people of Shreveport, and few men are more popular socially than he.

Married to Miss Chloe E. Reidenhach, he and his wife have one son.  James
Arthur McCann, Jr.  It is but seldom that one so talented musically is able to
achieve business success, but Mr. McCann is thus favored, and his company
promises to handle the greater part of the tire and accessories trade in this
region, for he knows how to get and hold it.  His methods arc so thorough and
his service so prompt that customers return to one whom they can trust, and
whose personality commands their esteem and liking.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 210-211, by Henry E. Chambers. 
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York,
1925.