Kinder, LA

Kinder is an Allen Parish town on the edge of Louisiana’s Cajun Prairie, named for Jim Kinder, a Mississippi native who came to the area around 1885. Kinder opened a small store for families in the surrounding country, and the store’s name became the town’s name. The area also carries the history of the Koasati, now recognized as the Coushatta, whose Louisiana communities are tied to Allen Parish. Kinder is western Louisiana with a straightforward beginning: a storekeeper, a prairie settlement, and a name that stuck.