Kinder, Louisiana

James A. Kinder, a Union soldier, settled here after the Civil War, homesteading 138.77 acres where Highways 165 and 190 now meet and running a store. In 1892 Jabez Bunting Watkins, builder of the Watkins, Kansas City and Gulf Railroad, bought the land and had surveyor John W. Rhorer lay out a company town. Philetus Philbrick, a former University of Iowa instructor who came south as a railroad surveyor, had his brother Franklin open the area's first school, teaching without pay. Kinder was proclaimed a village in 1903 and a town on March 4, 1911.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Coushatta Powwow and Koasati Heritage Day — 4.7 mi
  The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana's annual powwow and its free Koasati Heritage Day, held at the tribe's resort in Kinder.
• Louisiana Oil and Gas Park — 20 mi
  The roadside park at Jennings where Louisiana's oil industry began in 1901, with a replica derrick, a pioneers' plaque and Gator Chateau.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 25 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Sam Houston Jones State Park — 27 mi
  A 1,087-acre park on the West Fork of the Calcasieu with longleaf pine, cypress-tupelo swamp, five trails, cabins and kayak rentals.

More markers nearby

• Great Louisiana Maneuvers' Blue Army Headquarters — steps away
• The Coushatta People — 2.9 mi
• St. Paul Baptist Church — 4.6 mi
• Elton Bible Conference — 9.2 mi