Roseland, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Aug., 2000

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

Roseland.

Between Amite and Arcola on U.S. Highway 51 is the town of Roseland.

The following remarks relating to the origin of Roseland are taken
from an original brochure entitled "Map and Plan of Roseland Colony":

"It was suggested by a number of the readers of the Farm, Field, and
Stockman who desired to escape the rigors of the northern winters, that 
its publishers should devise some plan and take the lead in organizing
a colony in Louisiana.  In accordance with this wish we sent an expert
down to select a suitable tract of land for this purpose, who, after 
spending two months traveling over the country, decided upon the 
present site of Roseland, in Tangipahoa Parish, as the best."

Shortly after 1886, a purchasing committee was formed which soon bought
the present Roseland area from E. F. Herwig and a Mr. Woods.

The first settlers, the J. H. Siples family, arrived on September 3,
1888.  Before the end of the year, others came.  Some of these family
names were the following: Pierce, Bond, Richardson, Lane, Chapin,
Brooks, Rownd, Benson, and Strong.  By the end of 1888, about thirty-
five persons enjoyed Christmas dinner under the oak tree at the J. M. 
Chapin residence. Fittingly , the first child born in the colony
was named Nellie Roseland Hunt.

The name of the Roseland Colony stemmed from the many wild Cherokee 
roses which the promoters of the colony found growing in the region
in the latter part of the nineteenth century.  Although the old rose
hedges have long since been destroyed, today these thorny and 
prolific roses can still be seen blooming in the spring just south
of Roseland across from the Dibert, Bancroft and Ross steel foundry 
and in front of Neola farm.

Roseland was first incorporated in 1892, and in 1960 the population 
was 1,254.