Echoes From The Attic and Poems, BENSON PROPERTY, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Don Johnson, Jan. 2001
Typed by Belford Carver
Written by by Edna F. Campbell
Copyrighted by Edna F. Campbell
With special thanks to her family for permission to use her works.

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BENSON PROPERTY

Should the name Benson Box designating a polling booth for residents in the 
Pleasant Ridge area prompt questions, since identity is missing, the answer may 
be found in historical research.

The old Benson property, now the homesite of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Lunn on the Old 
Covington Highway was the family home of the George Bensons from 1919 until 1946.  
The voting place gained its name from the Bensons who operated a store in the 
vicinity.  Benson and J. H. Ketteer (a neighbor) formed a partnership in a general 
store and a strawberry brokerage business around 1920, which continued until the 
depression years of 
the 1930s.

However, the interest in history began much earlier when the Gurley family came 
into possession of the land.  The property is located in Section 29 and 30, 
Township 6 South, Range 8 East; this area having been originally patented by the 
United States to John Ward Gurley March 11, 1859.  Gurley, the grandfather of Mrs. 
Edward L. McGehee Jr., gained the property consisting of 157 and 65 hundreths 
acres for 25 cents per acre, the total cost being $39.41.

Mrs. McGehee, the former Aurora Gurley, has said she learned more about the Hammond 
property after coming here as the bride of Dr. McGehee.  Mrs. McGehee's father was 
John Ward Gurley.

She was informed that the place was a summer home for the Gurleys, and that her 
father had worked two years cultivating broom corn earning college fees.  He was 
graduated from Washington and Lee University.

Records show that the Gurley land was sold September 9, 1882 to Mrs. Laura Harris 
Craighead, with the exception of 14 acres that had been sold previously to William 
Barlett.

Mrs. Nick Hermann, the former Miss Katie Crouse, whose parents were pioneer 
settlers in Pleasant Ridge, says that the original acreage has been greatly 
subdivided.  She is one of the few citizens who can recall several families who 
lived on the land prior to the Benson possession.  Remembered are the Frank 
Darouses and a Tiger family.

Fifteen acres of Benson land was sold to James N. Barker, Feb. 17, 1945 and the 
remainder of the original 44 acres purchased from Sargent Pitcher family, was sold 
to William J. Awty on November 16, 1946.  The Lunns who moved on the place about 
20 years ago demolished the old Benson home and built a large wooden framework 
structure where they still live.

Mrs. Richard B. Tewell, of Monroe, and Lawrence K. Benson, of New Orleans, are the 
children of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Benson.  Robert Benson of Hammond, is the son 
of Lawrence K. Benson of New Orleans.

(From ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC, III, 1968, by Edna Campbell)

(Pic Old Benson Home)