Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Ponchatoula, Louisiana
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==History== The city of Ponchatoula was founded when the railroad from Jackson, Mississippi to New Orleans was constructed through this area in the 1850s. The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad Company hired an experienced civil engineer, James B. Clarke (ca. 1809–1861) to survey the projected railroad route, establish railroad depot sites, buy timber for bridges and railroad ties, and do the other tasks necessary to construct the railroad. Finding that there was an unclaimed section of land north of the Manchac swamp, Clarke located a railroad depot near the first dry land after leaving the swamp. Mr. Clarke purchased this one square mile section of land from the state of Louisiana in two installments in December 1852 and January 1853. He surveyed this land and laid out a town in 1853 using the familiar grid system with streets running east–west named for native trees, and north–south streets numbered one through nine. He called his new development "Ponchatoula" after the Ponchatoula River located a couple of miles west of the new settlement. Ponchatoula is a Choctaw word meaning "hanging hair" referring to the beautiful Spanish moss which drapes many of the local trees. James Clarke began selling town lots, and soon several stores and dozens of homes were built nearby. Ponchatoula grew as new settlers moved here to be near the railroad line, "a new avenue of commerce." The small town was incorporated by the Louisiana legislature in February 1861. A few months after the incorporation of the town, the Civil War began with serious consequences for the community. Because Ponchatoula was located on the vital railroad line, military engagements happened here in September 1862 and March 1863. During the war, stores and some homes were looted, the train depot burned, and livestock killed and stolen. When the war ended, the railroad line was repaired, a new train depot constructed, and tranquility returned to the little piney woods community. Through the following decades the town's population slowly grew with lumbering and agriculture being the primary local industries. Around 1900, the strawberry industry began to florish and Ponchatoula became an important shipping point for strawberries and vegetables. Hundreds of refrigerated railroad cars left Ponchatoula each spring loaded with strawberries for the northern markets. The Ponchatoula community changed completely in 1921 when two large cypress lumbering companies located at the south edge of town. Hundreds of mill workers and their families arrived and the economy prospered with the increased population. The 1920s saw the construction of a new city hall and fire station, a new high school, a modern theater, improved street and municipal services, and dozens of new businesses. The prosperity of the 1920s ebbed as the hard times of the Depression arrived with the closing of the two lumber mills in 1929, and continued through the 1930s mirroring the national economic crisis. Ponchatoula's economy was aided during the Depression by the flourishing strawberry industry and the reopening of a cypress lumber company on one of the former mill sites. During World War II, Ponchatoula stepped up and actively supported the war effort. Hundreds of local men and women entered the armed forces, war bond drives and several scrap drives were held, along with other war related activities. A scrap drive led by the local school children yielded a vast amount of iron needed to produce the weapons of war. The community's outstanding contribution to the war effort was recognized when the Navy launched an oil tanker named the ''USS Ponchatoula'', which served in the Pacific. This vessel was scrapped after the war, but a new and much larger oil tanker was built in the 1950s and also named the ''USS Ponchatoula''. The new vessel served with distinction for many years. Ponchatoula continued to grow in the post war years and the economy became more diversified and less connected to the strawberry and lumbering industries. In recent years Ponchatoula has become a tourist destination with a quaint historic district, and was designated as "America's Antique City." The community hosts the well-known Strawberry Festival, which attracts many thousands of visitors every April.<ref> Annual Report of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad Company, 1860. ''DeBow's Review'', James D. B. DeBow editor, Dec. 1849, Feb. 1850, Jan. 1851, Apr. 1852, Nov. 1852, Aug. 1853, July 1855. ''The Daily Picayune'' (New Orleans), 16 Sept. 1852, 22 Sept. 1852, 23 Dec. 1852, 14 July 1853. Tangipahoa Parish Deed Book: Livingston Number One. City of Ponchatoula: Minute Book 1. Ponchatoula, Louisiana: A Community History, James M. Perrin, 2020. </ref> ===Early 20th century=== [[Image:Ponchatoula 1912 Bank.jpg|left|thumb|The Ponchatoula bank in the year 1912]] The train depot which was destroyed during the Civil War was rebuilt in 1895 as the area began to recover from the Civil War. At the turn of the 20th century Ponchatoula began to transform from the lumber industry into a commercial farming community. The main street began filling up with beautiful brick buildings as shops, banks and restaurants were built to accommodate the growing population. The main crop grown by the local farmers was the [[strawberry]]. Many of the families who were major farmers during this era, which lasted about eighty years, have their last names engraved on a large [[commemorative plaque|plaque]] in front of city hall. [[Image:Ponchatoula Louisiana 1912 Peoples Drug Store.jpg|thumb|The Peoples Drug Store in the year 1912]]
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Ponchatoula, Louisiana
(section)
Add topic