Ovedier 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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OVEDIER FAMILY HAD ROLE IN BUILDING COMMUNITY

(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 Ovedier family.)

BY JIM PERRIN

John Warren Ovedier was born May 13, 1844, in Louisiana, probably in Livingston 
Parish.

His father, who was from Ohio, may have been the J. R. Ovedier who purchased 40 
acres of land in Livingston Parish in June, 1843.

At any rate, John appears as the son of the widow St. Helena Ovedier, born about 
1822 in Hanover, Germany, and living in Ponchatoula in 1880, and who was living 
in the Ponchatoula area of Livingston Parish in 1850.  John, his mother, and his 
sister, Venitia Ovedier, were living west of what later became Ponchatoula when 
the census was conducted in 1850.  

By 1860, the family had moved to New Orleans and 16-year-old John Ovedier is listed 
as a clerk. When the War Between the States erupted in 1861, John enlisted in the 
New Orleans Crescent Regiment. He later served in the Ninth Battalion of Louisiana 
infantry in the company composed of men from the Ponchatoula area.  During the war, 
John's mother and sister returned to Confederate controlled Ponchatoula and in 
July, 1863, a local newspaper advertised her services as a school teacher and 
piano teacher. 

After the war, John returned to New Orleans and was working there as a clerk in 
1870.  In July, 1874, while living in New Orleans, he had his sister, Venitia, 
purchase a house and some town lots in Ponchatoula. John thereafter operated a 
store in Ponchatoula in conjunction with Joe Trautman on the corner of West Pine 
Street and Southwest Railroad Avenue.

In 1880, the Ovedier household in Ponchatoula consisted of John; his mother and 
sister; a cousin Rebecca Watterson; and 38-year-old Calvin Tucker, who was working 
as a clerk in John's store. 

John Ovedier married in 1881 in Tangipahoa Parish to Ada Rebecca Nesom, daughter of 
Frank Nesom. During the same year, John was elected as one of the aldermen of the 
Town of Ponchatoula, and after serving one term of two years, he was elected in 
1886 as mayor of Ponchatoula.

He died Oct. 26, 1895, and was buried in Springfield Cemetery.

Venitia Ovedier, John's sister, was born in December, 1841, in Louisiana, probably 
Livingston Parish.  She lived in her mother's household in Ponchatoula and New 
Oreans areas for many years.

She returned to Ponchatoula with the rest of her family and began teaching in the 
Ponchatoula public school. She taught in the small Ponchatoula school for several 
years in the 1870s and won special praise from the district superintendent for her 
work in teaching the children and maintaining the school.

She probably taught for several years in the 1880s in Ponchatoula as well, but the 
records are not available to follow her employment each year.

Venitia married on Feb. 1, 1888, in Tangipahoa Parish to Andrew Briggs Robertson 
(1820-95).  Venitia and Andrew moved to Baton Rouge, where Anderw died in 1895.  
Venitia was listed on the 1900 census in Baton Rouge as a widow and shcool teacher.

The Ovedier family, although not as large and well known as some local families, 
helped build this community through John's business operations and his leadership 
of town government, and through Venitia's contributions as one of Ponchatoula's 
first public school teachers.