Blanks, Louisiana
| Blanks, Louisiana (Blanks) | |
| Unincorporated community | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Louisiana |
| Coordinates | 30°33′12″N 91°36′01″W / 30.55333°N 91.60028°W |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
  Location of Blanks in Louisiana
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 Location of Louisiana in the United States
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Blanks is the name of an unincorporated community located in southwestern Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States.
History
The town is said to have gained its name from Handsel Burrow Blanks, of Warren County, Mississippi. Mr. Blanks was a lumberman and part owner of the Bomer-Blanks Lumber Company. He had come to Vicksburg, Mississippi from Lake County, Tennessee with his wife, Edith Roper Blanks, and daughter Bessie. Another daughter, Ruth was born to them at Vicksburg.
His partner, Edwin Jefferson Bomer was also a lumberman who had come to Vicksburg, Mississippi from Brownsville, Tennessee, along with his wife, Mosella Dearbra Anderson Bomer, and his two daughters, Lottie and Cherry. He built a three story landmark home at 2315 Cherry Street in Vicksburg, which later became the home of his youngest daughter, Cherry, and her husband, John Rundle Smith, an attorney in Vicksburg. Mr. Bomer also had a home in Blanks.
Edwin Bomer and Handsel Blanks began to purchase land in the Pointe Coupee area of Louisiana around 1910. The Bomer Blanks Lumber Company, Inc., had its beginning in 1912 with the building of their first sawmill. According to a family tradition, the two partners had a light-hearted argument about what to name the community that had developed around the sawmill, each insisting that it be named after the other. Apparently Edwin Bomer won the argument and in 1913 the community became known as Blanks. There was a railroad spur that had been named after the Bomers.
Lottie Anderson Bomer, the elder daughter of Edwin Bomer, married Arthur Neil Smith and by 1913 they built and operated a general store near their home in Blanks. This commissary handled fabrics, boots, toiletries, fresh cut meats, farm fresh vegetables and eggs for the new community of Blanks. Mr. Smith also managed the sawmill for the Bomer-Blanks Lumber Company. A post office was established in the community of Blanks in 1913, attached to the commissary, but it is no longer in operation.[1]
The Bomer Blanks Lumber Company was a major industry in Pointe Coupee Parish in the lumber manufacturing field until 1928. In the peak years of its operations, the firm was engaged in the manufacture of cypress and hardwood lumber, with production running some 60,000 to 75,000 board feet per day and employed approximately 250 people. The late Edwin Jefferson Bomer was one of the co-founders and long Secretary and Treasurer of the company. The timber holdings were on approximately 16,000 acres (65 km2) in Pointe Coupee Parish. In 1928 When the Bomer Blanks Lumber Company Inc. ceased its lumber manufacturing operations, Mr. Arthur Neil Smith acquired the firm's sawmill facilities and timber holdings on some of the land in the parishes of Pointe Coupee and St Landry and organized his own enterprise as the A. N. Smith Lumber Company of Blanks, LA. In 1931, he closed the big mill and erected a modern circular sawmill to meet the requirements of the time and over many years the firm continued its operation on a moderate scale. There is no sawmill at present. Bomer Blanks Lumber Company still functions today as a family holding company in the management of its vast holdings in land, farming and oil and gas development. Edwin J. Bomer died 12 Feb 1943 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His partner, Handsel B. Blanks died 12 Apr 1939 at Fayette County, Kentucky.
As a breeder of registered Brahman Cattle, Mr.Arthur Neil Smith had one of the finest herds in the state of Louisiana and served as President of the American Brahman Breeders Association. He also raised commercial beef cattle and was a member of the Pointe Coupee Parish and Louisiana Cattlemen's Association. Arthur N. Smith died June, 1968 at Blanks, Louisiana.
Geography
The community is west of Livonia, Louisiana near the intersections of Louisiana Highway 976 with US 190 and Louisiana Highway 81. The town of Lottie, Louisiana, is located to the west, and Fordoche, Louisiana, is to the north.
References
- ↑ Lockhart, John M. "Roadmap to the Westside", The Riverside Reader, January 21, 2008, p. 5
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