Uneedus, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Robert Vernon, Nov., 2000

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>From "Individual Studies of Place Names in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, James Valsin 
Coumes, Tangipahoa Parish Resource Unit, Tangipahoa Parish School Board, 1972."

UNEEDUS

About two miles east of Zemurray Park on La. Highway 40 is the sprawling community of 
Uneedus. 

In the beginning, Uneedus was a farming community developed by William and Charles 
Houlton, brothers and owners of the Lake Superior Piling Company, a corporation domiciled in 
Duluth, Minnesota.  The Houlton brothers named the settlement "Uneedus" a word coined from 
their development slogan -- "You need us."  Here they began to establish model farms, which 
around 1920 were experimental and progressive for the region.

A short distance somewhere north of Uneedus there supposedly existed for a short time the 
small place called "Weneedu" (possible spelling) probably invented from "We need you," the 
affirmation some residents gave to the Houlton mandate.  Though not familiar with "Weneedu" 
Mrs. B. Szymoniak, once secretary to Charles Houlton, states that at one time when he was 
giving a talk to farmers on the subject of purebred cattle and hogs, a colored man in the group 
declared "Mr. Houlton, you not only need us, but we need you."  Undoubtedly, frequent 
repetitions of such remarks could have suggested such a place called "Weneedu."