The Day Ponchatoula Was Sold, Tangipahoa Parish Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Apr, 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 ************************************************ THE DAY PONCHATOULA WAS SOLD By JIM PERRIN The sale of an almost complete incorporated town in one day is a rare occurence, but that is what happened in Ponchatoula on a spring day in 1869. The reason for this strange event is tied to the life and death of an individual named James Clark. The piney woods located in section 18, township seven south, range eight east which would become the village of Ponchatoula in the late 1850s, had been passed over by the early settlers in this area. French, then English, and later Spanish colonists who lived in this general area established titles to lands along the many rivers and creeks. The lands along the Ponchatoula and Tangipahoa Rvivers were considered the best farm sites and areas for commercial development because of the ready access to water transportation Thus, settlements arose on the Natalbany River (Bookter's Landing, later called Springfield), Madisonville (a prosperous community for many years before it took its name after President Madison in 1812) on the Tchefuncta River, and a generation later, Wadesborough, on the Ponchatoula River. Many whole sections of land containing one square mile or 640 acres went unclaimed for decades, as cash money to purchase additional forest land from the Federal government was difficult to obtain. At the standard price of $1.25 per acre for a minimum of 80 acres (1/8 of a section), the price totaled $100, which was a handsome sum for many marginal farmers. The desirability of some of the local piney woods lands not near waterways changed in the opening years of the 1850s, as a movement was afoot to construct a railroad from New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi. The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad Company was chartered in both Louisiana and Mississippi and received the financial support from both state governments as well as from private investors. Three alternate routes around Lake Pontchartrain were considered, but the route running through present day Ponchatoula and through the swamps to Manchac was the route selected by the company. The chief engineer of the southern section of the railroad company's line being constructed through this area was James B. Clark. Clark, who was in charge of the survey crews, had inside information on where the company's depots would be located. Purchasing the vacant land where a new depot was planned allowed Clark to develop a town in hopes of making a handsome profit. With partner William Benson, Clark purchased from the Federal government the section of land that would become Ponchatoula. (Clark later acquired Benson's portion of the development.) Clark laid out his town in the typical grid fashion used across the country, naming east-west steets after types of trees, and numbering the north-south streets one through ten. The focal point of the new community was the railroad depot. Since the existing road ran at the southern edge of his new devopment, Clark had a road laid out to run east-west, adjacent to the depot; he called it Pine Street. Using standard surveying tools such as Gunter's Chain (a chain of 100 links which stretched out to 66 feeet), a theodolite, and a quadrant, Clark ran his street pattern through the forest. He cut trees along the main streets and used the timber for the construction of buildings. The road/street construction left exposed roots and many stumps which would not removed for years to come. The square blocks in Ponchatoula were 400 feet per side and each square was divided in 16 lots, each with 50 feet fronting a street and 200 feet long. Clark donated what would later be called "green space," consisting of a square block of public land in each quarter of the town. These public squares are no the property on which the present junior high school was constructed, and what we now call Atheletic Park, Memorial Park and Kiwanis Park. There was also a square reserved for use of the railrad company just east of the depot. Appropriately called "Railroad Square," this property would be used over the next generations for a home for railroad workers, a cattle pen, two spur lines, loading sheds, etc. Clark could have named his new town Clarksville or Clarksburg, but more modestly chose the name Ponchatoula, which was associated with the river a couple of miles to the west. He stayed busy in 1853 and 1854, surveying for the railroad and developing both Ponchatoula and Independence, another railroad community in which ]he had a vast commercial interest. With the completion of the railroad line from New Orleans to Osyka, Mississippi, in August, 1854, the pace of life in Clarks' new development quickened and he began to sell lots in Ponchatoula. The first sales in 1854, and for sometime afterward, were centered in Squares 35, 41, and 42, which were the three blocks at the intersection of Pine Street and the railroad tract. (The fourth block, Railroad Square, where Paul's Cafe and the Ponchatoula Feed & Seed are presently located, was then owned by the railroad.) Some of the early purchasers of town lots in this area included William Akers, James Tucker, Elijah Settoon, Hiram S. Mix, Levi Arnaold and Calvin I. Bradley. Sometime around the summer of 1857, James Clark left the Ponchatoula area and moved to Cuba, perhaps to survey for railroads on that Spanish-controlled island. He was in the Ponchatoula area in late June when he sold land, but was said in a November 28, 1857 land sale to be a citizen of Cuba. In subsequent land sales in the Ponchatoula area, in the years following 1857, he is repeatedly said to be in Cuba. In his absence, he placed with Janet Clark Loveland, who is believed to be his sister, his power of attorney to sell lots in Ponchatoula, as well as other properties. Loveland was born about 1810 in New York and moved with her husband, Hanford Loveland, to Ponchatoula in the 1850s, probably after Clark purchased land and established Ponchatoula. She had at least two children: James H., who was a miller and Mason in Ponchatoula and who married Samantha Jane Settoon; and Caroline Loveland, who moved in about 1870 from Ponchatoula to New Orleans where she spent the rest of her life. After handling James Clark's business affairs for several years, Janet Loveland also moved to New Orleans and died there in 1893. Clarks' activities after he left Ponchatoula and moved to Cuba are uncertain. He stayed there for several years, but whether he ever returned to the United States is unknown. He probably died in the early days of 1869, for his succesion was opened in Livingston Parish in the first months of that year and his property was sold that March. Clark's extensive land holdings and some personal property were ordered to be sold at public auction and the money realized from the sale would be dispersed to Clark's heirs. Advertisement of the Clark succession sale was published in the local weekly newspaper, The Livingston Herald, which was printed and edited by Joshua O. Spencer of Ponchatoula. As advertised, William Watson -- the sheriff of Livingston Parish, in which Ponchatoula was then located -- appeared in downtown Ponchatoula on March 29, 1869. Probably standing at the train depot, which as the usual town spot for auctions, Sheriff Watson offered for sale town lots and square blocks, amounting to about 95 percent of Ponchatoula. The small portion of the town not sold that day was that which James Clark and Janet Clark Loveland had previously sold. The previously purchased lots were mainly along both sides of Railroad Avenue and the first block of Pine Street on either side of the railroad tract. Since the town's population was about only 300 in 1869, most of the adults in the community were probably gathered at this special occasion to watch at least part of the lengthy auction. Ezra Foster Hoyt of Rochester, New York, was the largest purchaser of land in Ponchatoula, acquiring 35 square blocks, two fractional squares, and 61 individual lots. Gubernator & Company, operated by John L. Gubernator of New Orleans, purchase smaller but sizeable amounts of land. Other purchasers included Mrs. Mahala Mix, Judge Calvin I. Bradley, Geroge D. Wells, Thomas M. Akers, Daniel T. Settoon, E J. White, Orin F. Terry, Thomas R. Cole, Julius Lange, and Frank Axtmann. Many of these square blocks purchases in 1869 would remain vacant entering the 1920s as the town's population slowly expanded. Other lots, especially in the expanding commercial corridor, would be sold fairly quickly in the coming years. Sheriff Watson also sold about 1,200 Clark-owned acres outside of Ponchatoula, as well as equipment from Clark's Ponchatoula sawmill. As a weary Sheriff Watson rode back to the Livingston Parish courthouse in Springfield to have the clerk of court register the sales, the town of Ponchatoula made a significant change from the ownership of its founder to a more diversified proprietorship. Ponchatoula had changed hands that March day, and the memory of James Clark, thereafter, rapidly faded. His efforts to establish a town in the piney woods succeeded beyond anything he could have imagined. James Clark could be justly proud of what his Ponchatoula has become. (James Perrin, a retired elementary school principal, is a local historian who has written several historical pieces. He submitted this to The Enterprise in hopes that our readers will enjoy some of our past history.)