D. W. Bird, Grant Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to USGENWEB by Greggory E. Davies
120 Ted Price Lane
Winnfield, LA  71483




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D. W. Bird

D. W. Bird is a native of Louisiana, and for a number of years
was identified with the railroad and oil business, and since 1919
has been one of the prominent business men of Shreveport.

He was born at Montgomery, in Grant Parish, in 1883, son of James
Wesley and Ophelia Geren Bird.  After completing his education,
he took up railroading, beginning in the freight traffic
department of the Rock Island Lines at Alexandria, Louisiana. 
Subsequently he was with the Gulf Coast Lines at Baton Rouge, and
as traffic representative of the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway was
stationed at Little Rock, and later at Oklahoma City.  While at
Oklahoma City he left the railroad service to engage in the oil
business, and as a successful oil operator his activities
extended to Louisiana and Arkansas.  

Mr. Bird was first located at Shreveport from 1908 to 1910, and
then after a period of nearly a decade he returned to the city in
1919 to make it his permanent home.  For four years until 1924 he
was a gravel contractor, supplying gravel for railroad ballast,
road building, and other purposes.  

Mr. Bird organized in June, 1924, and became president of the
National Demountable Battery Company, capitalized at $ 150,000,
with a plant for the manufacture of an improved battery, invented
by William Knoblock, vice president of the company.  The promises
to be one of the important industries of Shreveport.

Mr. Bird is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner.  He married Miss
Clara Green of El Dorado, Arkansas.


(The above was extracted from "A History of Louisiana" by Henry
E. Chambers, 1925.  Submitted to USGENWEB by Greggory Ellis Davies,
Winnfield, Winn Parish, La.)