Large Land Owners of Ponchatoula, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Oct. 2006 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 LARGE LAND OWNERS OF PONCHATOULA BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian Through most of the first half century of Ponchatoula's existence a majority of the property in the town was owned by a few individuals, several of whom were related. How and especially why these people came to own a large slice of this small Southern town is an interesting and as yet incomplete part of Ponchatoula's history. When James Clark, the railroad surveyor and entrepreneur, came through this area of what was then Livingston Parish he decided to buy a section of state owned public land through which the railroad would run. This vacant land was described as Section 18, Township seven south, range eight east and was one mile square containing 640 acres. It was forested land but was what would today be called "wetlands." The Federal government in 1849 had given millions of acres of federally owned swamp land to the state of Louisiana to help with flood control. The one mile around Ponchatoula was not actually swamp land but was a wetland because of poor drainage. This section is shown on several maps of the period as being wetlands which might in part explain why no one had settled here previously. The two main water courses in the section, Cow Branch which drains into Ponchatoula Creek and Duncan's Branch which drains into the swamp south of town were probably clogged with brush and accumulated growth creating the back up of standing water. Clark purchased the north half of the section in two transactions 9 Dec. 1852 and 28 Jan. 1853 for the customary $1.25 per acre. Clark's business partner William Benson purchase the lower half of the section, but Clark later purchased that area from Benson and became the sole owner of his new town. After laying out the town and selling a few lots near the railroad depot and Pine Street, Clark left his business affairs in charge of his sister Mrs. Janet Clark Loveland, and moved to Cuba. Clark died around 1868 or early 1869 and the parish sheriff sold the succession property in Ponchatoula at public auction in late March 1869. A number of persons attended the auction which was held at the train depot in Ponchatoula and several area residents purchased a few lots from the perhaps 90% of Ponchatoula land which was then vacant and owned by the Clark succession. Beyond the local buyers of a few lots in Ponchatoula, one purchaser was able to buy most of the town. Ezra Foster Hoyt of Rochester, New York, purchased twenty-six complete squares or blocks in the town, fifteen fractional squares, plus an additional 168 lots which was equivalent to ten and half other blocks. Ezra F. Hoyt (1817-1886) and his wife Jane M. Hoyt (1822-1898) apparently lived their entire lives in Brighton, a suburb of Rochester and it is not at all certain that he ever came to Ponchatoula. After selling a number of lots to various individuals in Ponchatoula using other people as his agents, Ezra F. Hoyt and his wife Jane M. Hoyt appointed 27 Dec. 1881, Thomas C. Bates, also of Rochester, to sell any of their lands in the town of Ponchatoula. Soon thereafter Ezra and Jane Hoyt sold their remaining Ponchatoula properties, as well as 291 acres of land they had acquired north of Ponchatoula to Thomas Cochran Bates (1812-1887) and his wife Maria Melissa Blossom Bates (20 Jan. 1814-19 March 1893) for $19,500. Maria M. Blossom Bates was a close relative of Ezra F. Hoyt, who mother was Thankful Blossom (1787-1864). Thomas C. Bates, who had purchased this extensive parcel of Ponchatoula real estate, was a railroad engineer and contractor. His involvement in railroad development might explain how the Hoyt, Bates and Blossom families of Rochester, New York, knew of Ponchatoula. In 1849, Bates was the contractor for a tunnel through some of the Cumberland Mountains between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is listed as a railroad contractor in Jefferson, Texas, when the 1860 census was conducted, but by 1870 had returned to Brighton, NY, where he is listed on the 1870 census as the president of a railroad. It is entirely possible that through his railroad work in the South he learned of Ponchatoula from railroad surveyor James Clark, who was from the same section of upstate New York. Thomas C. Bates died 1o Nov. 1887 in Brighton, NY, and was buried in the family plot in Brighton Cemetery. In his will made a few days before his death he left all his property to his wife Maria. Maria Blossom Bates thus acquired extensive land holdings in Ponchatoula and the surrounding area. She sold some additional properties in Ponchatoula in the late 1880's and the opening years of the 1890's. After her husband's death she moved to Peoria, Illinois and lived the rest of her life with the family of her brother Benjamin Freeman Blossom. Maria Blossom Bates died 19 March 1893 in Peoria and was buried next to her husband in the Brighton Cemetery. In her will she left all her property to her only brother Benjamin F. Blossom. Benjamin had Maria's will probated in Tangipahoa Parish and became the owner of her Ponchatoula lands. The Rochester, New York, connection with Ponchatoula real estate came to an end when Benjamin F. Blossom sold all his remaining Ponchatoula properties to Ponchatoula businessman Jacob R. Abels, 18 June 1900. The sale from Blossom to Abels was for 23 square blocks of the town, two fractional squares, and 84 individual lots as well as two tracts of rural land near Ponchatoula. Abels was a life-long resident of the Ponchatoula area and an astute businessman. Over the years from 1900 until his death in March 1937 he sold most of the property he acquired from Benjamin F. Blossom but retained a sizeable portfolio of lands in Ponchatoula. From James Clark to Ezra Hoyt, Thomas Bates, Maria Blossom Bates, and Benjamin F. Blossom, this vast area of Ponchatoula had devolved to local ownership where it would remain. Further research may reveal how the Hoyt, Bates, and Blossom families came to know of Ponchatoula and whether their knowledge of our community was the result of a family tie, a professional railroad connection, or just a chance investment in a small piney woods town. Anyone with questions, comments or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.