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(337) 828 9155

    • Company History

    Southern States is a subsidiary of The J. M. Burguières Co., Limited, the oldest single family-owned land holding company currently in operation in Louisiana. In a series of transactions from 1999 to 2002, the Burguières heirs consolidated their interests in Southern States within The J. M. Burguières Companies. 

    Southern States Land & Timber LLC, a key citizen of the South Florida economy since the early 1900’s, once owned about 2,000,000 acres in what are now Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Dade, Collier, Lee, Hendry, and Desoto counties. By the mid 1970’s most of the company’s land interests had been sold, except for reserved mineral interests in Palm Beach and Martin counties.

    From the early 1900’s to the 1950’s the company developed experimental and demonstration farms involving sugar cane, ramie, citrus and varieties of vegetables. Loxahatchee Groves was built on the vision of Southern States’ ambitious and eager sales manager, George Bensel, who founded the community in 1917. Loxahatchee Groves is the oldest of the western communities, an area of 7,867 acres. Loxahatchee Groves got its name from the Indian dialect for “turtle creek” and the citrus groves that occupied the land prior to settlement. Southern States was also instrumental in the eradication of the cattle tick and the development of the cattle industry.

    Today, Southern States is wholly owned by The J. M. Burguières Co., Limited, formed in 1877 by Jules M. Burguières. Mr. Burguières’ son Jules, Jr., an early owner of Southern States, served on its Board, and was active in South Florida’s economic development. In 1920 he founded and was the first Chairman of the Florida Development Board, the predecessor organization to today’s Florida Chamber of Commerce. In the 1920’s he was a director of the Central Farmers Trust Company in West Palm Beach. The J. M. Burguières Companies are headquartered in Franklin, Louisiana. 


    EVENTS AND MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF SOUTHERN STATES LAND & Timber


    GEORGE F. BENSEL’S HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTHERN STATES LAND AND TIMBER

    The following was excerpted from former Corporate Secretary George F. Bensel’s 1951 handwritten history of Southern States Land & Timber Company, provided to the Company Board by his granddaughter, Jeanne Bensel Hinz.

    SOUTHERN STATES LAND & TIMBER COMPANY AND SOUTH FLORIDA  1902 TO 1950

    Shortly after Flagler extended the Florida East coast as far south as Miami, and Plant built the Atlantic Coast Line to Fort Myers on the Gulf, the Southern States Land &Timber Company, a Louisiana corporation, purchased nearly two million acres of South Florida lands. The population of Florida (1900 census) was 528,540. Today there are approximately 2,430,000 permanent residents in the state, one of the most rapidly growing in the Union. This growth did not just happen. It followed careful planning and sound development. The Southern States Land & Timber Company has been an important factor in connection with South Florida’s development.

    After purchasing this immense area, the Company employed surveyors, engineers, and cruisers to report on these lands. The reports showed a virgin territory consisting of some pine and some cypress timber, vast prairies, and large areas of potentially rich agricultural lands. The only inhabitants were occasional squatters, some cattlemen ranging large heads of cattle on the grassy prairies, a few fugitives and desperadoes, and the remnants of the Seminole Indians from whom this entire country was wrested.

    Soon after acquiring title, the Company sold one tract of 122,000 acres of prairie land to cattle interests in Manatee County, and another large area of similar lands, also to cattle people in DeSoto County. A block of 84,000 acres of pine woods in what is now Martin County was purchased by Detroit interests. These initial sales were profitable, and the Company was then prepared for actual development of parts of the rich farming lands at various locations throughout its ownership.

    The State of Florida and the Southern States Land & Timber Company, in 1902, had title to one half of the deeper muck lands in what is known as the Upper Everglades, the most valuable portion of that entire three million acres of Glade land, the largest solid body of muck land in the world. In connection with the State and other large interests owning adjoining lands, after many conferences in Tallahassee between the Governor and his Cabinet and other interested land owners, the Everglades Drainage District was created, and the State undertook the reclamation of this vast territory.

    As the State drainage canals were being dug, some of them through lands owned by the Company, other large drainage and navigable canals, with necessary lateral ditches, were constructed by Southern States through its property. Experimental and demonstration farms were established by the Company in the muck, peat, hammocks, and sandy loam soils. Proven successful after many years was the growing of sugar cane, ramie, citrus, and forage crops, and the different varieties of hardy and tender vegetables in South Florida.

    The company was instrumental in the eradication of the cattle tick with which South Florida was infested. It constructed the first dipping vats in this section. This was followed by the purchase of a large herd of native cows and crossing them with imported blooded Hereford and Brahma sires and the establishing of the old S S Cattle Ranch with expert cattlemen in charge. Then followed the establishment of a certified dairy at Loxahatchee, with blooded Guernsey milk cows, and the raising of pure blood diary cattle for sale to the local dairies over South Florida.

    These early demonstrations soon proved the value of this section, and the additional research and demonstrations by such interests as the Brown Company, the Southern Sugar Company and its successor, the United States Sugar Corporation, and Florida’s Everglades Experimental Station, were responsible for the present large sugar, ramie, farming, and cattle industry in this section.

    A story of the Southern States Land & Timber Company would not be complete without reference to the large interests it was responsible for bringing to South Florida, many of whom purchased its lands for development. Among these were: Barron Collier, of New York, who bought 610,000 acres and formed Collier County; R. J. Bolles, the Everglades developer who took 293,000 acres; W. J. (Fingy) Connors, large areas in the Everglades, the builder of the forty mile Connors Highway through this land; the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, 100,000 acres, which built its railroad from Central Florida southeast through this area to Palm Beach and Miami; the Brown Company, Farms at Shewano; and numerous others who have been successful and who bought their lands from the Company.

    Finally a brief reference to the Florida land boom of 1925 and the collapse which inevitably followed. Because of the rapid growth of the coast cities, the promising outlook for large scale farming and citrus culture, and because of the State’s famous winter climate, the extravagant boosting by certain columnists and real estate brokers and promoters, a wild, crazy boom was created, resulting in the sale of millions of acres of Florida land at constantly increasing prices until the collapse in less than a year from its beginning. Wild land was subdivided into lots; practically the entire territory, sixty-six miles, between Palm Beach and Miami was subdivided into lots which was to become “one of the largest cities in America”. Even land twenty to twenty-five miles inland was subdivided and sold usually on terms of ten percent down, balance per agreement. The Southern States Land & Timber Company sold 257,000 acres, all in large blocks, for a total consideration of $6,639,769. These sales were mostly on a basis of not less than one-quarter cash, balance one, two, and three years. All but two of these purchasers defaulted, and in the final result the company (took back most of the) acres sold. One of the most amazing of these purchases from the Company by a large syndicate from Philadelphia which, after buying 50,519 acres with down payments of $528,809 and mortgages for balance, abandoned their purchases entirely.

    This unfortunate boom naturally was a bad set back for Florida. However, with its many resources the State soon recovered from the collapse of the boom of twenty-five years ago. It is now one of the foremost states in the Union, rapidly developing its still untapped resources with which the State abounds. The next twenty-five years should show an even greater progress, and the Southern States Land & Timber Company in these nearly fifty years in the southern part of the state is proud of the major part it has played in this initial development.

    Written by George F. Bensel, 1951

     

    Address

    203 Main Street P.O. Box 333
    Franklin , LA 70538
    (337) 828 9155
    (877) 858-2758

    Southern States Land & Timber LLC, a prime element of the South Florida economy since the early 1900’s, once owned large real estate holdings in what are now Martin, Palm Beach, Indian River, Broward, Dade, Collier, Lee, Hendry, and Desoto counties. By the mid 1970’s most of the company’s land interests had been sold, except for reserved mineral interests in Palm Beach and Martin counties.

    From the early 1900’s to the 1950’s the company drained and reclaimed vast acreage and developed experimental and demonstration farms involving sugar cane, ramie, citrus and varieties of vegetables. Southern States was also instrumental in the eradication of the cattle tick and the development of the cattle industry.

    Today, Southern States is wholly owned by the J. M. Burguières Companies, formed in 1877 by Jules M. Burguières. Mr. Burguières’ son Jules, Jr., an early owner and later board member of Southern States was active in South Florida’s economic development. In 1920 he was a founder of the predecessor organization to today’s Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Development Board, and served as its first Chairman. In the 1920’s he was a director of the Central Farmers Trust Company in West Palm Beach. The J. M. Burguières Companies are headquartered in Franklin, Louisiana.

    Southern States views its mineral interests and related surface access rights as a valuable long-term asset and has secured and preserved these rights in conformity with Florida law. Southern States’ property interests are real and have value, just as the surface owner’s rights have value. Notwithstanding this, Southern States wishes to promote and facilitate commerce and development. We therefore offer to property owners time sequential surface access waivers to assure current and future landowners the unfettered use and future marketability of their surface without Southern States’ interference, while retaining the long-term mineral development potential.

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