Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Nov., 2000

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>From Tangipahoa Centenial Book, 1869-1969: 
Donated to the archives by the Tangipahoa Parish Tourist Commission

Hammond

Located at the intersection of U.S. Highways 51 and 190 about fifteen miles south of 
Amite and five miles north of Ponchatoula is the city of Hammond.

Hammond was named for its first settler, Peter Hammander (1798-1870), of Hammardal,
Sweden, who Americanzied his name.  Having been born in to a large fmaily, he solved
the family's problem of supporting him by leaving his native village when he was 
fourteen years old.  His eagerness to reach America was thwarted temporarily when
British sailors seized his ship, the voyage being concurrent with the War of 1812
between the United States and England.

After escaping from the prison at Dartmoor of Devonshire, he made his way to New 
Orleans.  It was here that he heard of the large tracts of pine-forested land 
which the Federal government was selling north of Lake Pontchartrain.  Shortly
thereafter he left New Orleans and arrived by schooner at either Wadesboro or
Springfield, the necessary stopping points in those days before reaching what is 
now Tangipahoa Parish.

In about 1818, Peter Hammond settled in what was later to become the city bearing
his name.  He began, in a sense, the economic development of this settlement by
manufacturing products obtained from the resin in pine trees, which products he
shipped to New Orleans via Wadesboro.

In 1825, Hammond built a house which around 1830 became a home, graced by his wife,
the former Caroline Tucker, then of Ponchatoula but originally from Boston.

As his settlement began to grow, Hammond often traveled a road cut through the
forests and extending east of his home and west to Baton Rouge.  When the New 
Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad crossed this road shortly before 1854,
the intersection became known as Hammon's Crossing.  (Today part of that road is
Thomas street and the railroad is the Illinois Central.)  Later this crossing
became Hammond Station; and sometime after the Civil War, when such leaders as
Charles Emory Cate, Joseph Wilcombe, Henry Mooney, Benjamin Morrison, the Neelis
brothers, and others further developed the town, the name became, simply, Hammond.

The town of Hammond was first incorporated in 1889.  The estimated population in 
1965 was 13,000; this figure, however, may be somewhat short of the true number
even now, for it is difficult to keep up with Hammond, labeled the "Strawberry
Capital of America," the home of Southeastern Louisiana College, the largest,
fastest growing and most cosmopolitan city in Tangipahoa Parish.