Towns & Cities: Gaars Mill, 1938, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483


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From: March 17, 1938 Winn Parish Enterprise

Gaars Mill Community History Dates From 1857

by Mrs. Velma Womack

The Gaars Mill Community dates back to 1857 when Michael Adam Gaar started out
in search for a more suitable place to live.  Mr. Gaar and his wife with five
boys and two girls left Georgia in an ox wagon.  He ended his toilsome journey
for a year near Ruston.  Due to unsatisfactory conditions he moved the
following year to the plantation now owned by B. E. Gaar.

During the following summer, after his crop was laid by, he build a one-horse
grist mill and cotton gin.  It was from this that the present Gaars Mill got
its name.

The small family that settled here soon attracted the attention of others. 
Among these were Smiths, Faith, Dark, Burnett, Kelly, and Jones.  Following
their arrival a post office was built.  Later it was disposed of when rural
routes were established throughout the country.

The next year two one-room schools were erected about four miles apart.  The
buildings were constructed of the tall pines which surrounded the community. 
In one of these quaint buildings Miss Caroline Gaar taught and Dr. Horace
Caldwell in the other.

In 1872 Mr. Gaar substituted a steam saw mill and a gin for the crude one-
horse gin.  These have been substituted for new modern equipment and other
buildings added to the community.  Two stores and filling stations are now in
the community owned and operated by J. W. Gaar and Lewis Womack.

After the sawmill was erected the people organized and contributed their time
and labor to the building of a new schoolhouse.  In a few years more rooms
were added making this a two story building.  When the men of the community
began to use the upper part of this building for a Masonic and Woodman Hall,
another building was erected.  This became the high school in 1921, with Mr.
D. E. Sikes, the parish superintendent, as its first principal.  In 1934 a
Home Economics Cottage was added under the guidance of Miss Elga Sikes.

This community now supports and sponsors two churches: a Methodist Protestant
Church which was organized in 1859 known as New Hope, and a Baptist Church,
organized several years later, known as Harmony Grove.

During the year 1937 a Tri-Parish Library was founded through the aid of the
W. P. A.  Although it is an experimental project, it has become such an asset
to the community that the people feel as though the community would not be
complete without it.