Mix Family, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Feb. 2005
Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives.

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MIX FAMILY SETTLED HERE

(The following historical sketch of a Ponchatoula family name was submitted by Jim 
Perrin, former school principal and local historian. The subject of this article 
is the Mix family.)

BY JIM PERRIN

Hiram S. Mix, a native of New York, was born Dec. 9, 1807, and came to the area 
that would later become Ponchatoula by the early 1840s.

He married about 1842 to a local girl, Mahala M. Joiner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
John Joiner. Mahala was born Jan. 20, 1821, in Louisiana.

When the 1850 census was conducted, Hiram and Mahala were living in the Wadesborough 
community with their two oldest children, and Hiram was working as a blacksmith. In 
1857, Hiram purchased two lots in the new town of Ponchatoula facing the railroad 
tract. He later bought additional lots nearby, which were located to the rear and 
just right of the present post office building.

On these lots he erected a small sawmill. By 1860, when the census was again 
conducted, Hiram and Mahala's family had increased to five children, three boys 
and two girls.  Hiram listed his occupation in 1870 as that of a carpenter. 

In spite of the best efforts of local doctors Alexander Brown and Benjamin Taylor, 
Hiram died at Ponchatoula in late November, 1875, and was buried in the nearby 
Wetmore Cemetery. 

After Hiram's death, Mahala continued to live with her children and in 1880 was 
living in a house in Ponchatoula next to her son Felix's family.  Mahala died Aug. 
21, 1892, and was buried beside Hiram in the Wetmore Cemetery.

Hiram and Mahala had five children:

Felix S. Mix, born about 1844, served as a lieutenant in the Confederate Army,
wounded in the Battle of Second Manassas. After the war, he married Frances (?) 
(died Aug 23, 1900, in New Orleans). Felix worked as a merchant in Ponchatoula in 
1870 and an engineer in 1880. He and his wife moved to New Orleans by 1900.  They 
had four children, Anna, Samuel, Charles, and Rosine Mix.  

Festus Peter Mix, born Dec. 14, 1847 and served in the Confederate Army. He married 
after the war to Emily A. Bradley (died May 28, 1962 in New Orleans).  Festus 
served as the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish for 20 years during the 1870s to the 
1890s. He died June 26, 1905, at his sister's house in Amite, and was buried in the 
family plot in Wetmore Cemetery. 

Clinton Paul Mix was born about 1853. He served as town marshal in Ponchatoula in 
1878, and moved to Amite by 1880.  He married Minnie A. Houze on Sept. 2, 1990.  
Minnie was born in 1862 and died in 1920. They had two children, Minnie Lee Mix 
(1890-1957), married J. Irving Freeman, and Annie M. Mix, born about 1893.  Clinton 
and his wife were living with his daughter Minnie's family in Amite in 1910. 
Clinton died Nov. 14, 1921, in New Orleans.

Anna Adeline Mix was born about 1855.  She married John Borst (1823-91) and moved 
to Amite. They had three children: John Jr., Edna, and William Daniel Borst.  Anna 
married secondly to John W. Smith.

Amanada Lillie Mix was born Feb. 27, 1860. She married Eldridge Julian White 
(1852-1924), son of Dr. and Mrs. Edward J. White of Ponchatoula. They had five 
children: Laura Rosalie, Josephine D., Everett, Lucian, and Patience Octabia White. 
Lillie died Jan. 16, 1905.