Tangipahoa Parish's Ninth Ward, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Aug. 2005
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
************************************************

Tangipahoa Creates Ninth Ward

In the Ponchatoula Enterprise, 8 Jun 2005

BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian

Over the past century or so the residents of Ponchatoula and Hammond have had a 
number of disagreements over money, politics, sporting events and other matters.  
While it is not unusual for neighboring communities to sometimes quarrel over 
various topics, the situation about a century ago to some to propose a political 
separation between the two communities.   The Ninth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish was 
created in 1908 from the previously existing Seventh Ward to separate Ponchatoula 
from Hammond.

At its creation in 1869 Tangipahoa Parish was divided into four wards to provide 
for effective subdivision of governmental services.  The First Ward was in the 
north end of the parish with the second being in the center, the fourth to the 
southeast, and Ponchatoula being in the Third Ward.  Representing the Third Ward 
(the Ponchatoula area in these early days of parish government) were Willis W. 
Bankston and Clark White.  In the summer of 1870 after the census was conducted the 
parish was reorganized into eight wards with the First Ward again being in the 
north end of the parish and the other wards were designated with ascending numbers 
from north to south.  Ponchatoula and the growing community of Hammond's Station 
were located in the Seventh Ward while Bedico and Robert (Robertson) were located 
in the Eighth Ward.

The settlement at Hammond's Station {named after pioneer settler Peter Hammond who 
had married a Ponchatoula girl, Caroline Tucker}, continued to grow attracting many 
new residents, including a large number of settlers from the northern states.  
Hammond's Station was incorporated as Hammond in 1889 and was soon outpacing the 
older community of Ponchatoula in both population and economic development.  

Tangipahoa Parish was governed by the parish Police Jury and two men represented 
the Seventh Ward with one man generally from the Ponchatoula area and one from 
Hammond.  Representatives on the Police Jury from the Ponchatoula area from the 
1870's through 1908 included: Thomas M. Terry, William Akers, William H. Holden, 
Charles Yokum, William S. Keaghey, Svante L. Bjorkgren, and Julius D. Tucker.

Economic and cultural strains began to sour the relationship between Ponchatoula 
and Hammond.  Not only were some business and residents leaving Ponchatoula for 
better prospects in Hammond, the question of prohibition of alcoholic beverages 
also became a hot topic in both towns.  The prohibition movement, which had been 
active for generations, gathered strength in the 1890's and the opening years of 
the twentieth century.  A number of elections had been conducted in the 1890's and 
early 1900's both in Tangipahoa Parish and in the town of Ponchatoula to decide 
whether liquor sales should be allowed and licensed or not.  

Besides the moral and social issues concerning prohibition, economic interest also 
swayed the opinion of many Ponchatoula residents.   Ponchatoula residents had again 
approved the licensing of liquor sales in 1900 and the fees from these saloons were 
the principal source of revenues to operate the town and the town's public schools. 

While many Ponchatoula residents disapproved of drinking alcoholic beverages and 
the effects of drinking, few would argue that the sales of such beverages did not 
form an  important part of the town's economy.  Frank Campbell's large saloon on 
the corner of West Pine Street and Northwest Railroad Avenue in the Campbell 
Building and John F. Hawkins saloon on West Pine Street in the middle of the same 
block did a booming business.

In December 1907 an election was held in the Seventh Ward to decide if liquor 
sales should be licensed.  The voters of the Seventh Ward decided by a 256 to 179 
vote not to license and therefore not allow liquor sales in the parish.  The voters 
of Ponchatoula and Hammond {all men at that time} strongly disagreed over this 
measure.   The voters of Hammond. either because of moral convictions or because 
their more broadly based economy was not dependent on liquor license fees, voted to 
outlaw liquor licensing and sales by a 167 to 51 vote, or 77% against licensing.  
Ponchatoula voters decided 128 to 89, or 59% to 41% in favor of licensing!

Even before the Dec. 1907 election was held, serious discussions had taken place 
in Ponchatoula concerning dividing the Seventh Ward to let Ponchatoula and Hammond 
go their separate ways.  Petitions to divide the ward were presented to the Police 
Jury by Ponchatoula residents in October 1907 and July 1908 but were rejected.  The 
push to divide the ward continued in spite of these setbacks.

A petition asking for the creation of a new ward from fifty-five Ponchatoula 
residents including Daniel A. Edwards, the Mayor of Ponchatoula was received by the 
Police Jury in November 1909.   In January 1910, Police Juror J. D. Tucker 
representing the Ponchatoula area of the Seventh Ward made a motion at the regular 
Jury meeting to divide the Seventh Ward and create a new Ninth Ward to be composed 
of the Ponchatoula area running along the township line between township six and 
township seven {roughly the route of Interstate 12 running east-west between 
Hammond and Poncchatoula}.  The motion to create the Ninth Ward was seconded by J. 
A. Arnold of the Eighth Ward, and approved by the Jury by a six to three vote.

However the Ninth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, approved by the Jury 10 Jan. 1910 was 
not to be.  The same nine members of the Police Jury met again on Valentine's Day 
the following month to reconsider their decision to divide the Seventh Ward and 
create a Ninth Ward.  A motion to rescind the actions of the Jury in dividing the 
Seventh Ward was made by J. A. Arnold and seconded by J. D. Tucker, the same 
authors of the division proposal, and was unanimously approved by the Jury.  There 
is no explanation in the public records to explain why the authors of the motion to 
divide the Seventh Ward and their four supports on the Jury changed their minds a 
month later.    It is quite possible that the Jury was informed that they did not 
have the authority to make new political subdivisions without the approval of the 
state legislature.  Additional petitions asking for the Seventh Ward to be divided 
were presented to the Jury in the spring of 1910 but were rejected.

What would have happened in the development of southern Tangipahoa Parish had the 
new Ninth Ward been maintained is conjectural, but interesting to contemplate.  It 
is also quite possible that in light of the rapidly expanding population of the 
Seventh Ward the Tangipahoa Parish governing body, now the Parish Council may at 
some time in the future consider the possibility of dividing the Seventh Ward.

There would be other issues for the Jury to debate after 1910, but the discussion 
as to whether to license liquor sales would soon become moot after the Eighteenth 
Amendment to the U. S. Constitution was adopted in 1919 and took effect in 1920 
making prohibition the national law.

Future Ponchatoula and Hammond voters would argue about school board, police jury 
and judicial representation between the communities, about the opening and closing 
dates of school, and about which high school had the best ball team, but they would 
argue as residents of the same ward with shared governmental agencies.

Anyone with comments, questions, or additional information about Ponchatoula's rich 
heritage may call Jim Perrin at 386-4476