Echoes From The Attic and Poems, ZEMURRAY GARDENS, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Don Johnson, Feb. 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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ZEMURRAY GARDENS A TOURIST ATTRACTION

During the spring season of the year Zemurray Garden beckons the tourists with its scenic 
background and panorama of blossoming azaleas.  Throngs of tourists wend their way to view 
the majestic beauty. Azaleas and camellias outline the lakes and surround the pathways.

The Zemurray Garden holds interest on the basic of floral beauty and primitive historical 
background.  The tourist attraction spot has changed titles and names many times during its 
beginning shortly after the Revolutionary War.

A narrow wooded driveway leads from the highway to the lodge grounds entrance.  Near the 
gate is a small burial place scarcely visible from the roadway, and amid a cluttered growth of 
scrubs is a towering white monument.  The inscription reads, "Nathan Joiner and Wife, First 
Settlers In the Home Place".  The date is omitted but surrounding the stone are several graves 
with age-worn markers.  Descendants of the early Joiner settlers reside in the Hammond area 
and numerous others are buried in nearby graveyards.

Records from the parish courthouse show that Alfred Hennen purchased this present day 
Zemurray property in 1828, in two different land sales, one 640 acre piece was purchased 
from William Cooper and another 640 acre plot was listed in sale from Moses Moore.

Involved in the various title changes during the following years were Hennen heirs and relatives.  
Noted in one of the transactions the place was called Hennen Retreat.  Five acres had been 
alloted for a Hennen Cemetery in a donation land book.  Hammond has a big interest staked in 
the name as Charles Congrieve Carter, the first mayor of Hammond, was a Hennen descendant.

In March of 1888 the succession of Ann Morris Hennen was auctioned to John Albert Morris of 
Westchester County, New York, and then in the donation land records it was turned over to 
Dave Morris.  The next change came when Dave Morris sold the property to Morris Building and 
Land Improvement Association Ltd. in 1900.

In 1918 the same acreage was known as the Morris Retreat and at this time it was purchased 
by Lake Superior Piling Corporation, with Charles and William Holton, company heads.  This 
"changing land" became widely known as "Holtonwood"  The lodge building underwent building 
renovations and improvements.  The Holton brothers were prominent in the business world.

The final change to date was in October 1928 when Samuel Zemurray of New Orleans, president 
of the United Fruit Company, decided to invest in the property.  He planned to have extensive 
vegetable cultivation as the main project.  Howard Schilling, a parish farmer, was employed to 
superintend the work.

Mrs. Zemurray, an admirer of flowers, was responsible for the beginning of the flower culture.  
She instructed Schilling to plant rows and rows of azaleas and camellias in a continuous trail.  
When her husband saw the beauty created, he undertook the program of expansion.  The 
blossoms were thriving in splendor as they landscaped the pathways, and outlined the lakes in 
continuous trails.  The gardens increased in beauty and majestic scenery.  Each spring season 
tourists and people of the vicinity trek the grounds to capture the grandeur of the 
tremendous panorama of colorful blooms, greenery and ponds.  Greek Gods accent the open 
glades completely encircled in cultivated plants.

The garden tour is free of charge but the lodge house is not open to the public.  In former 
years Mrs. Zemurray used the lodge as a summer house.

(From ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC, V, 1970, by Edna Campbell)

(Pic of the lodge)

(According to staff member, Jeanine Connelley, the property is currently owned by the 
Reimers and Schneider families, with Bennett and Peters, Inc., Consulting Foresters, as 
managers of the 5,800 fenced acres.  The gardens are on 150 acres of this land.  It is open 
during the azalea season prior to Easter of each year.  This year the charge is $4 per adult 
and $3 for children under the age of 12.  Picnic facilities are near the parking lot.  Three 
cemeteries are on the land, two near the entrance and one deep into the park; four others 
are across from the property in various directions.  BEC 1/31/01)