Ponchatoula Benevolent Association, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Jul. 2005
Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives.

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THE PONCHATOULA BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION

In the Ponchatoula Enterprise, 27 Apr 2005

BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian


Before the advent of modern social welfare legislation creating Social Security, 
Medicare, Medicaid, Aid-to-Dependent Children, Unemployment Compensation, and other 
similar programs, the people in the United States had to depend on themselves, 
their families and their communities for assistance in times of need.  During the 
nineteenth century numerous mutual aid, benevolent societies, and similar 
associations were formed to assist members with insurance benefits in case of need, 
and to fulfill civic and social functions in their communities.  

Such an organization in this community was the Ponchatoula Benevolent Association, 
which was incorporated in August 1888.  Although the membership benefits such as 
insurance and death benefits of the Association are not clear, it is certain that 
the organization was dedicated to improving the community.  One of the 
Association's main goals as stated in their charter was to erect a public hall for 
entertainment activities and for use as a public school.  Spurring this move was 
the fact that the Masonic Lodge hall on West Pine Street in Ponchatoula, which had 
been used as a center for social activities for a generation, was said to be a 
"dilapidated condition."  Within a few months the Lodge membership moved to Hammond 
and their old building was sold.  The Ponchatoula public school was also in poor 
condition with the little wooden schoolhouse being in very poor condition.

The Ponchatoula Benevolent Association offered two hundred shares of stock at five 
dollars per share and expected to produce a capital fund of a thousand dollars.  
The initial five directors of the Association elected in August 1888 were: William 
Akers, Millard F. Tucker, Samuel Rheams, Eugene M. Settoon, and John E. Young.  
Other members of the Association were: Charles D. Abels, William Wittie Akers, Ed 
Tucker, John F. Carroll, John Downey, Sylvant L. Bjorkgren, Stanford S. Simms, John 
Mason, Thomas S. Akers, James W. Tucker, Thomas M. Akers, Fred J. Tennent, George 
Muller, John Hano, W. H. Kemp, Daniel T. Settoon, and E. J. White.

In September 1888, the Association purchased Lot 16 in Square 40 in Ponchatoula 
from the town's administration for $14.  The town had purchased the lot three years 
earlier with plans to build a jail and possibly other town buildings on the site.  
After the town's small wooden jail burned (perhaps by former or prospective 
occupants), the town decided to sell the lot.  Lot Sixteen ran two hundred feet on 
West Pine Street in the area where, Stafford Furniture, Tangi Finance, and the Six 
Fortune restaurant are currently located.

After a few months of ownership of Lot Sixteen, the Association decided to sell 
that property and find another site for its hall.  Perhaps the association of Lot 
Sixteen as "the jail lot" deterred the Association from building there, or perhaps 
the site did not meet their design plans.  The Association sold the lot to Jacob R. 
Abels 4 Feb. 1889 for sixteen dollars.  The week before selling the lot on West 
Pine Street the Association purchased Lot Eight in Square 41 from Ponchatoula 
merchant James Tucker for $150.  Lot Eight in this Square is where Lloyd Ballard & 
Sons now have their service station and garage, and stretches 200 feet along West 
Oak Street.  The Association erected a large two story frame building on the corner 
of Lot Eight and used it as a school house and for their meetings and other public 
functions.  In 1890, the old "wreck of a school" in Ponchatoula was torn down 
indicating that the public school had probably relocated to the hall some time in 
late 1889 or early 1890.

The subsequent history of the Ponchatoula Benevolent Association is unclear.  
Another civic and fraternal organization, the Knights of Pythias, is though to 
have succeeded the Benevolent Association in its functions and operated from the 
same public hall.  The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization founded in 
1864 in Washington, D. C., founded on the principles of friendship, charity and 
benevolence.  The Knights of Pythias has about 40,000 members in the United States 
and Canada today, but the organization was much larger in the past, for example 
numbering 700,000 members in 1909.

In 1895, Professor Fussell and Mrs. Nellie Diendorf are recorded as teaching school 
in the Knight of Pythias Hall on the same lot of ground previously purchased by the 
Benevolent Association.  The hall remained in use for many years.  A 1903 fire 
insurance map of Ponchatoula show the hall as being a rectangular two story frame 
structure facing Railroad Avenue with a steeple at its southeast corner.  The 
building is labeled "Town hall and school."  A similar 1908 map shows the same 
building and is labeled "Town hall."  

By the 1920's, Ponchatoula had constructed a modern brick municipal building on the 
corner of West Hickory Street and Northwest Railroad Avenue with room for social 
functions on the second floor, and the community had previously completed a 
beautiful two story brick schoolhouse in 1913.   The old Knights of Pythias Hall 
was no longer needed as a school or town hall.  A 1925 map of the town shows a two 
story frame building of similar design as the Knights of Pythias Hall, but without 
the steeple of the previous building.  This building was located further west on 
West Oak Street and was then being used as a residence.  The building is again 
shown on a 1930 town map in the same location and a "filling station" and auto 
repair shop are on the corner where Ballard's Service Station is now located.

The Ponchatoula Benevolent Association and the Ponchatoula chapter of the Knights 
of Phythis no longer exist, but the social and community improvements they sought 
for Ponchatoula are today being carried forward by organizations such as the 
Rotary, Kiwanis, Jaycees, Lions, and other civic organizations.

Anyone with comments, questions, or additional information about Ponchatoula's rich 
heritage may call Jim Perrin at 386-4476