Editing Bossier City, Louisiana (section)

===19th century===
In the 1830s, the area of Bossier City was the plantation Elysian Grove, which was purchased by James Cane and his second wife Mary Doal Cilley Bennett Cane.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=On the road: History of Bossier City|url=https://www.ksla.com/story/19011630/on-the-road-history-of-bossier-city|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-19|website=KSLA|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715025824/http://www.ksla.com:80/story/19011630/on-the-road-history-of-bossier-city |archive-date=July 15, 2012 }}</ref>

Cane had come to the area with his first wife Rebecca Bennett, and her brother, William Bennett, and his wife Mary Doal (née Cille)y Bennett. They ran a trading post across the river on what was then [[Caddo|Caddo Indian]] territory, a portion called "Bennett's Bluff". The trading post partners became a one-seventh partner in the new Shreve Town, which eventually developed as Shreveport.

Like most plantations, Elysian Grove had frontage on the Red River for access to transportation for shipping cotton and other commodities. The [[Texas Trail]] crossed the Red River at this point. The trading post on the west side operated a ferry between what would become Shreveport and Bossier City. The plantation loading and unloading dock was later recorded as "Cane's Landing" in the old ferry log books.<ref>{{cite book|last1=LSUS Special Archives|title=Ferry Log Book}}</ref> For a very short time, Cane's Landing was known as Cane City.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=City History {{!}} Bossier City, LA|url=https://www.bossiercity.org/281/City-History|access-date=2021-08-19|website=www.bossiercity.org}}</ref>

The Canes and Bennetts were among the earliest European-American ettlers in the area. Mary D. C. Bennett gave birth to the first white baby of the area, William Smith Bennett Jr. He died at an early age.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveportla.gov/index.aspx?NID=618|title=Shreveport, LA – Official Website – History of Shreveport|work=ShreveportLa.gov|access-date=December 28, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bossiercity.org/Bossier-City-History/|title=History|work=BossierCity.org|access-date=December 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206222741/http://bossiercity.org/Bossier-City-History/|archive-date=February 6, 2015|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In 1843, a section of land east of the Red River was divided from the Great Natchitoches District and Claiborne Parish areas and was called Bossier Parish. It was named in honor of [[Pierre Bossier|Pierre Evariste John Baptiste Bossier]], a former [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]] general, who became a [[cotton]] planter in Bossier Parish.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Carr|first=Jessica|date=2018-04-27|title=5 Fascinating Facts about the History of Bossier Parish|url=http://bebossier.com/2018/04/fascinating-facts-about-the-history-of-bossier/|access-date=2021-08-19|website=Be Bossier|language=en-US}}</ref> Of ethnic French descent, he was one of the first European settlers in the area after most of the Native Americans had been forcibly [[Indian Removal|removed]] by the federal government.

In the 1840s, the [[Great Western Migration]] of Americans and immigrants from the East and Upper South began. The parish grew in population. Many early settlers passed through the region on their way to the [[Western United States|Western U.S]]. By 1850, more than 200 wagons a week passed through Bossier City, with many travelers from the Upper South intending to settle in Texas.<ref name=":2" /> Some of these settlers stayed in Louisiana, attracted by the fertile soil and river valley. In 1850, the [[United States census|U.S. census]] listed the population of Bossier City (?) at 6,962.