D. W. Bird; Grant, then Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to USGENWEB by Mike Miller



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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, Louisiana, 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.  This 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.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 242, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by The American
Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.