Jacob Abels and the Development of West Pine Street, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Jan 2007 Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ JACOB ABELS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WEST PINE STREET BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian PART ONE Jacob Richard "Jake" Abels was one of the most successful and influential citizens of Ponchatoula over the course of it more than 150 year history. Born five miles west of Ponchatoula on 21 Dec. 1858 to Prussian born Richard Dietrich Abels and Katherine Schwartz Abels, Jake grew to manhood on his father's farm doing all the chores associated with rural life during that period. When he and his brother Charley were teenagers they briefly operated a cooper's shop in Ponchatoula making syrup barrels for the use of their father's cane syrup business. Jake married Elizabeth "Lizzie" Drude on 17 July 1882. Lizzie was born 17 July 1865 in New Orleans and was the daughter of Charles Drude and Margaret Bauer Drude. Jake and Lizzie decided not to live on the Abels' farm but to reside in the small town of Ponchatoula, which then numbered about 300 persons. Jake entered into the business and civic affairs of the town with an innate entrepreneurial drive and a desire to move the entire community forward. Upon settling in Ponchatoula Jake began to explore the opportunities for a successful business enterprise. Of the four street corners in town which faced the railroad, which were the prime business locations, all were occupied or immediately unavailable. The southeast corner where the Collinswood Museum is located today was the site of James Tucker's store; the northeast corner where Paul's Café is today was vacant but part of railroad square and would remain vacant for another generation except for the section foreman's home and a stock pen; the northwest corner where the Campbell Building was later located was the location of Arnold's Saloon operated by the Levi Arnold family; and the southwest corner where the Abels Building would later be erected was the site of Johanna J. Settoon Pierce's store. Johanna Settoon, the daughter of John Settoon and Lavinia Strickland Settoon, had been first married to Robert Hunter who seems to have died about 1859, and thereafter married about 1860 to William H. Pierce, a native of New York. In Nov. 1862 the Pierce's purchased the corner of Southwest Railroad Avenue and West Pine Street from William Akers and his wife Juliana Vinyard Akers. This corner lot {Lot 1, Square 41} ran fifty feet down Railroad Avenue and 200 feet down West Pine Street, which was half of the block facing West Pine. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce erected a new store building on the corner and operated on "Pierce's Corner" until William Pierce sold his interest in the store to Johanna's mother in May 1867. Soon thereafter Mr. Pierce moved to New Orleans and he died there in 1870. Mrs. Pierce continued to operate the store probably with the assistance of some of her Hunter and Pierce children, and with the financial help from her mother. In Sept. 1871 Mrs. Lavinia Settoon sold the store and corner lot back to her daughter Rohanna Settoon Pierce. Rohanna and her family lived on that corner lot, probably in the apartments above the store. The following September Rohanna leased the store and lot to Hiram Turnage for two years. The records do not indicate if she continued to live in a residence on that corner lot or moved her family to another location. In January 1878, Rohanna sold the corner lot and store to Jacob Trautman formerly of New Orleans, thus marking an end to her sixteen year operations on "Pierce's Corner." Jacob Trautman operated the store in partnership with long-time Ponchatoula resident John W. Ovedier. In 1884, Trautman sold the business and corner lot to Jake's father, Richard Dietrich Abels. Dietrich Abels set Jake up in the store along with Jake's brother Charley Abels who also seems to have had an interest in the business. Charley Abels sold his interest in the store to Jake Abels in March 1888. The large two story frame building which was a store on the ground floor and residence on the second was said to have been built in the 1880's in one account but exactly when or by which owner of the lot is uncertain. The handsome building was much later called "Hickory Flats" and the photograph of that building shows the structure on the morning of Feb. 14, 1895, when Ponchatoula received its largest snowfall in history. Jake Abels had also acquired a large piece of land in back of the store in Nov. 1887 from Mrs. Ida E. Grenes Cole, the daughter of one of Ponchatoula's earliest merchants Christian Grenes. Mrs. Cole retained a parcel of land fronting Railroad Avenue about where the Womack Tire Store is currently located and continued to live in an attractive home there for some years. Besides his mercantile enterprises, Jake also became the largest land owner in Ponchatoula when he purchased the Ponchatoula properties of Benjamin F. Blossom of Peoria, Illinois in the 1880's. The property sold to Mr. Abels by Benjamin Blossom had been transferred to Blossom through his sister Maria M. Blossom Bates, from her husband Thomas C. Bates, through their relative Ezra F. Hoyt, and from James Clark's succession sale in 1869. Jake would sell most the town lots he purchased from Mr. Blossom over the subsequent decades. Jake was a respected civic leader in town and was elected mayor of Ponchatoula for several short terms {1887-1892, and 1899-1900}. Jake was a strong supporter of public education and contributed to the establishment of some of Ponchatoula's earliest schools. He was also a leader in his church, the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) of Ponchatoula, now called the United Methodist Church. He gave generously of his time and also backed his church financially. Jake Abels operated his corner store in partnership with a Mr. Cooley, and later with Sanford Sylvester Simms for a few years before operating the store entirely on his own. Those were hard days to operate a general store as the Panic of 1893 {they weren't called depressions in those days} crippled many businesses in the county for three years or more and made credit hard to obtain for small business operators. Much of the business was done on credit, especially for the many local farmers who would buy small items for their families during the year and pay when their crops were harvested. Although some paid their debts promptly, and most paid as they could, some could not or did not pay on their accounts causing Jake and the other local merchants to file suit in the district court to obtain compensation. The business climate improved in the late 1890's, both nationally and locally. Jake's general store became more profitable as conditions improved for local farmers. One development aiding Ponchatoula's farmers was the introduction of commercially viable strawberry plants and the availability of refrigerated railroad cars to transport the berries to distant markets. After the turn of the century strawberry production increased and by 1910 was an important cash crop in the Ponchatoula area. Adding to Jake's success was the operation of his Diamond A brick plant, established about 1901 which produced about 1.5 million bricks per year. With his store doing very well and his brick plant producing vast numbers of bricks, Jake decided to erect a large brick building on his corner lot. The construction of Jake's building and a number of other buildings on Pine Street in the opening years of the twentieth century would largely give downtown Ponchatoula its present appearance. Next: Abels' new brick store PART TWO Jacob Richard "Jake" Abels, one of Ponchatoula's most prominent businessmen witnessed the quickening of local business condition during the opening years of the twentieth century. In part this economic up-turn was a result of the improving national economy following the prolonged "Panic of 1893," but the improvement was also due to the growth of the infant strawberry industry as well as local lumbering activities. Jake Abels decided the time was right to replace his two story frame store and residence on the corner of West Pine Street and Railroad Avenue with a massive two story business building. Abels already owned the Diamond A Brickyard near Ponchatoula so much of the needed materials could be easily obtained. He contracted with D. A. Helmich, an architectural firm from Birmingham, AL, to prepare blueprints and other necessary construction documents. Helmich designed a massive two story 50' by 150' brick building which has been a Ponchatoula landmark since its construction. Before the erection of his new brick store, Jake had to solve one nagging question; where did his property line on the corner begin. Since he owned most of the block and since the wooden store had been in that location for decades that previously had not been an important question. Now with a massive brick building being designed for his corner it was imperative that it be placed on his property and not overlap the public property being part of Southwest Railroad Avenue. At the time Abels was planning his new building there was no official map of the town {and there would be no official map until 2 July 1907}, and in fact there were at least three different maps which were being used when property was bought and sold. One map had been prepared in Dec. 1854 under direction of the town's founder James Clark, one prepared 26 Sept. 1884 by pioneer Ponchatoula school teacher Thomas Garahy, who later became the parish surveyor, and a third map was created by Herman C. Collins, Garahy's successor as parish surveyor. Some of these maps indicted that the property line began 105 feet from the center of the original railroad line and some showed that the line began 100 feet from the center of the tracks. A matter of five feet was important when a large brick building was to be erected on the edge of the line. To be "on the safe side" Jake and William Diendorf measured 105 feet and eight inches from the center of the railroad tracks and staked out the corner of the Abels property for the construction of his new building. The erection of the Abels Building 105 feet from the railroad tracks had the effect of moving other properties on that block five feet to the west and created confusion in later years as future property owners tried to establish their property lines on the block. A number of other buildings in Ponchatoula in other blocks were also established using the 105 feet measurement. Construction on the Abels Building began in 1902 and was completed in 1903, making it the second brick business building constructed in Ponchatoula. The building was the largest store in the parish at that time and had space enough for Jake to divide the store into various departments such as millinery, dry goods, shoes, farm tools, seeds, etc. The second floor of the building was composed of a number of apartments with a dining area on the ground floor extending west from the main building. A separate kitchen was located just behind the dining room. The old two story frame building which had served as a general store and residence for the Pierce, Ovedier, and Abels families over the decades was moved away from the corner following the completion of the new store. The old building was moved around the block to the corner of Oak and Sixth street and was used as an apartment building. The old store building was called "Hickory Flats" after it was moved and remodeled. It served as an apartment house until it was dismantled in February 1928. As carpenters Martin and Webb took the house apart in 1928 they found many of the sixty year old timbers in excellent condition and used some of them for the new "bungalow" which they constructed for Mr. Abels on that corner. Jake continued to successfully operate his store for a number of years until late September 1913, when he sold his business. Next: The Wells-Alford-Clement firm operates in the Abels Building. PART THREE Jake Abels, one of Ponchatoula's most prominent businessmen of a century ago, sold his business located in his massive brick building on the corner of West Pine Street and Southwest Railroad Avenue in September 1913. The sale included the contents of the store, but not the building or land, and was made to a new business firm which would operate in his store. The firm of Wells-Alford-Clement, Inc., was composed of local businessmen John Y. Wells, Lucius Tyler Alford, and Paul J. Clement, who had incorporated their business earlier that month. Mr. Wells and Mr. Alford had previously operated a grocery and meat market in the Campbell Building across the street from Jake's store. Hearing that Jake might be interested in selling his business they began their partnership with Mr. Clement and moved their operations into the Abels Building. They paid Jake $25,000 for all the goods, wares, and merchandise he owned in and adjacent to his brick store building. Jake agreed not to open another mercantile business in Ponchatoula for the next two years without the consent of the purchasers. Mr. Wells and Mr. Clement operated the main store while Mr. Alford mainly oversaw the operations of the large meat department. For a number of reasons the Wells-Alford-Clements firm was not a financial success. The strawberry industry which had grown in local economic importance over the previous decade suffered two bad harvests in 1915 and 1916 due to very dry conditions. When few farmers cold make a profit from their main cash crop the Ponchatoula merchants also suffered. By December 1915, the Wells-Alford-Clements firm was in danger of bankruptcy and Paul Clement approached Jake Abels, to whom the firm was largely in debt from their original purchase of the business and asked for assistance. Mr. Clement asked Jake to act with him as co-receivers for the firm as it entered bankruptcy with Jake to have full control of the business operations. An inventory of the firm's asset conducted in mid-December 1915 showed the many items in the stores inventory, plus hundred of unpaid accounts. The accounts were classified as good, or doubtful, along with a special category called "Coffin Accounts" for those planning on their personal final accounting. The Wells-Alford-Clements firm struggled on over the next few years under the receivership of Paul Clement and Jake Abels. The firm received another financial blow during the night of April 4, 1916 when the schooner Fannie Fitzsimmons sank in Lake Pontchartrain carrying to the bottom $795 of the company's uninsured merchandise. With limited funds to buy new merchandise the items in the store became outdated after a few years and were much harder to sell. Unable to pay their creditors the Wells-Alford-Clement firm had the contents of the store and their open accounts sold at a sheriff's sale in July 1917. Jake Abels purchased what was left of the business for $7,508, which was much less than he was owed by the firm. Funds produced by the sheriff's sale were used to partially pay their creditors. Final accounts for this firm were submitted to the court handling the bankruptcy in July 1921. Each of the members of the firm went on to more successful business endeavors in Ponchatoula over the following years. Jake decided to leave the mercantile business and in 1920 sold his business to his niece Sallie Ruth Pusey Lavigne and her husband Henry Jacob Lavigne who operated the store in that location for many years before leasing the site to the partnership of Herbert Hotard and Edgar Goode. Jake continued in other business ventures in Ponchatoula including the sale of his still extensive real estate holdings, and the building of residences for the booming population of the early 1920's. In 1924, he erected a new store on his property at 139 West Pine Street. The store with a thirty foot frontage on Pine Street by forty feet deep was completed in May 1924, with Jake personally supervising the work. His name and the year of construction are visible in the ceramic tile threshold of that store today. The store was first occupied as the new location of the Wright Furniture Company, with Mr. Colmer working as the manager. Jake made his will in June 1935, providing for his wife during her lifetime, and leaving his sizeable estate to a large number of relatives in his extended family. Although he and Elizabeth had no children they had many nieces and nephews to whom they expressed their affection by bequeathing property. Jake also left the Methodist Church the store on Pine Street which was then occupied by a furniture store operated by A. L. Colmer. Jake died 23 March 1937 at his home in Ponchatoula of cerebral thrombosis. Elizabeth died 11 Dec. 1942. They were buried in the Ponchatoula Cemetery they had owned with other relatives for many years. Thus ended the life of Ponchatoula's pre-eminent businessman of a century ago and his beloved wife. The beautiful brick buildings he left behind on West Pine Street are a fitting memorial to this successful, public spirited citizen. Anyone with questions, comments or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.