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

************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************

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

WILMER

The rural community of Wilmer is at the intersection of La. Highways 10 and 1061 in the 
northeast corner of T3S-R8E.

The first name of the Wilmer area was Kingsbury's Crossing: J. W. Kingsbury, for whom it was 
named owned a grocery store there.

Then on December 2, 1905, the Wilmer Post Office was established with William D. Cox as its 
first postmaster. Cox had carried a petition for its establishment in the community: and when 
the Post Office Department sent him a list of names from which to select a title, he 
considered naming it for himself in order to avoid confusion and delay in mail distribution, 
the Post Office Department stipulated that no two post offices in one state could have the 
same name.  Since William and Willie had already been established in Louisiana, Cox 
presumably spent a sleepless night scrutinizing the formidable list. At five o'clock the next 
morning he decided upon Wilmer, thereby getting the first syllable of his given name in the 
official title of the post office.