Coushatta City, Louisiana is a small town on the eastern bank of the Red River, in Louisiana. It is an incorporated town and the market for a large agricultural area. The area was settled around the 1850s, when the Jones brothers set up a store and warehouse on Coushatta Point. They controlled trade until 1871, when the river swept along the eastern bank, forming the channel that runs through Coushatta.
Mr. Smith arrived in the United States in 1828 and spent two years in St. Louis. He eventually moved to the county of Bed River Parish, where he set up a mercantile store called Springville. The town was named after his name, after the man who set up the store. Today, the town is home to H. C. Stringfellow, a retired engineer who helped build the local cotton mill.
In 1872, the Coushatta act was passed by the state legislature. This bill allowed the town to be exempted from parish taxes. The first mayor was George A. King, and the town's first church building was built by the Baptist society in Spring Hill. The Baptist Church was completed by Contractor Zoder in the fall of 1880. The Methodist Episcopal Church was completed on October 2, 1880, and is the first church building in Coushatta.
The first riots occurred in 1874, when two negroes were killed while sneaking around a planter's home. The planters had been threatened by the negroes, who had recently held a ball in Coushatta. Reports proclaimed that the negroes were planning to kill the Whites in the area. However, the riots never lasted very long, and the planters were freed on bail.