Charles Hans Veeder founded
Minden, Louisiana in 1836. Mr. Veeder a German-American
born in New York State came to Louisiana and built an
establishment called The Rock Inn on a hilltop a few
miles from Bayou Dorcheat and the town of Overton.
Legend has it that the Inn was built on a salt lick that
was the best deer hunting site in the area. By 1837
Veeder had laid out a town in the shape of a
parallelogram and divided the area into lots. He named
this settlement after the home of his ancestors--
Minden. Veeder left Minden to join the gold rush in
1849. He died in Bakersfield, California in 1875. The
original parish seat for Claiborne parish was the
Overton Community. A saw mill and grist mill was
established at the junction of Cooley Creek and Bayou
Dorcheat. Over the next few years commercial traffic and
Overton grew. The economic life of Minden centered
around commerce on Bayou Dorcheat. Three separate
landings on the bayou served the Minden community, and
the city served as a shipping point for goods from much
of the interior of North Louisiana. Before the War
Between the States, warehouses and commercial buildings
extended from more than a mile along the East bank of
Bayou Dorcheat. In 1848 after being hit by two Yellow
Fever epidemics, Overton lost the title as Claiborne
Parish seat to the town of Athens. By the mid-1850
Overton would become a ghost town. It was not until
February 1871 when the new parish of Webster was formed
with Minden the Parish seat as it is today. Charles
Veeder probably never knew that his town was finally
named the parish seat. A goal he had strived for, for
many years.
