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Downtown Ladonia
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, April 2008 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
The area was settled around 1840 by James MacFarland and Daniel Davis.
James H. Cole, is credited with platting the town around 1855. The
community had been known as McCownville but in 1857 the name was changed
– supposedly to honor La Donna Millsay, a Tennessean singer who entertained
the town.
The name La Donna was submitted to the postal authorities for a post
office – and when it opened in 1858 – no one was sure of who was responsible
of the slight change in spelling. In 1887 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa
Fe Railroad arrived and the town grew to a respectable population
of 350 (more or less). Ladonia became a shipping point for cotton,
corn, and grain crops. In the 1890s the population grew to an estimated
1,500 people – and 2,000 by the end of that decade. In the throes
of the Great Depression the population fell to 1,199 and never recovered
. By the 1970s it was down to just over 800 residents. By 1990 it
reported a population of 658. and for the 2000 census it had risen
to 667. |
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Former
Presbyterian Church - now Heritage Hall
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson |
United
Methodist Church in downtown Ladonia
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, April 2008 |
Ladonia
City Hall
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, April 2008 |
Ladonia
Volunteer Department & Pumper
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, April 2008 |
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