Hammond, LA news and local guide

In 1854 the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad, later the Illinois Central, came through, and the point where it crossed the trail to Springfield, first called Hammond's Crossing, grew into a commercial and transportation center. During the Civil War the town was a shoemaking center for the Confederate army. Charles Emery Cate, who bought land in 1860 for a home, a shoe factory, a tannery and a sawmill, laid out the town's grid along the railroad near the end of the war and named several streets for his sons; Cate Street is named for him. After the war light industry and commerce came to Hammond, and by 1900 it was a stopping point for Northern rail travelers heading south and for New Orleanians escaping summer yellow fever. It later became a shipping point for strawberries, and a state plaque downtown calls it the Strawberry Capital of America. Sources Wikipedia: Hammond, Louisiana