W. M. D. Gaar Winn Parish, LA Contributed by Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** TIPS FOR SEARCHING RECORDS ON THE INTERNET Netscape & Ms Explorer users: If searching for a particular surname, locality or date while going through the records in the archives or anywhere....try these few steps: 1. Go to the top of the report you are searching. 2. Click on EDIT at the top of your screen. 3. Next click on FINDin the edit menu. 4. When the square pops up, enter what you are looking for in the FIND WHAT ___________blank. 5. Click on DIRECTION __DOWN. 6. And last click on FIND NEXT and continue to click on FIND NEXT until you reach the end of the report.This should highlight the item that you indicated in "find what" every place it appears in the report. You must continue to click on FIND NEXT till you reach the end of the report to see all of the locations of the item indicated. William Michael David Gaar President of Hudson Training School, Hudson, La. Mr. Gaar is one of the hustling busy men who has been strictly in the swim in Winn Parish growth. The Gaars came from German in 1732 to Georgia. William R. Gaar was the father our subject and was born and reared in Georgia, near Atlanta, born May 15, 1838. He came to Winn Parish early and was a lifelong citizen and farmer and mill man. Aug. 15, 1861, he married Francis Caldwell. She was born in Mississippi and came to Louisiana in girlhood. They had four children. Mr. Gaar died February 19, 1904. Our subject was born in Winn Parish Apr. 1st 1863 and was educated in the common schools. Fifteen years ago he began preaching in the M. P. Church, and later conceived an ambition to build a high grade school in his own neighborhood, and began to establish Hudson Training School, and Sept., 1896, the doors were thrown open for students. The college is co-educational and undenominational and already has an excellent faculty with a literary course, a business college course, stenography and typewriting and music. They also have a class in theology. Mr. Gaar has spent $ 20,000 already and the end is not in sight. We have an engraving of one building in this issue, and other one even better is now nearing completion and a commodious brick is contemplated. One hundred pupils are enrolled already this session. The growth of this institution is phenomenal. It is located about nine miles northeast from Winnfield, but is approached by rail from Dodson. Mr. Gaar is a man of affairs. He owns farms, a store, saw mills, shingle mill and is sole proprietor of the college and is making things move around him as few men have the opportunity or capacity to do. He is however, a typical Winn Parish product. He is a Mason. He owns 5,000 acres of land and says about our future that it has no equal. Motto: "To develop my section spiritually and financially, and to enlist our young people in what is best for them." (The above article was copied from The Guardian newspaper, Vol. XXVII, No. 8-9, published September-October, 1907 at Winnfield, LA., and is now on file at the Watson Memorial Library, Cammie Henry Archives, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA., and was submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, LA.)