Bossier Parish, LA; History of Allentown; Allentown Cemetery Submitter: Clifton D. Cardin, Official Bossier Parish Historian < cliftondcardin@juno.com > Cemetery surveyed about 1992. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** This information on Allentown and its cemetery is taken from "LOUISIANA ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT CEMETERIES & GRAVES", AN INDEPTH STUDY OF THE CEMETERIES AND GRAVES LOCATED ON THE LOUISIANA ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT (LAAP) NEAR MINDEN, LOUISIANA. INCLUDING A STUDY OF ALLENTOWN AND ALLEN BROS. & WADLEY LTD. SAWMILL located in the extreme western portion of the "old" LAAP. WRITTEN BY CLIFTON D. CARDIN BOSSIER PARISH HISTORIAN PRODUCED AT NO COST TO LOUISIANA ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT, MORTON THIOKOL, OR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PURPOSE: A thorough investigation of the cemeteries and burials on what is currently known as the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant offers a very unique look into undisturbed pre-World War II burial grounds. When the LAAP was created in the 1940's, plantations in both Bossier & Webster Parish were purchased and consolidated therefore creating an "island" of land that would supply the Federal Government with the seclusion necessary to build explosive munitions, both far away from civilization and from the prying eyes of our global enemies. This island would provide the government with the ability to guard it's manufacturing capability, size and extent of the munitions being made. The resultant absorbing of these nine cemeteries would protect them from the normal wear and tear that is associated with cemeteries that are frequented by more burials and general public traffic. Very few burials were allowed in these cemeteries after the 1940's. Evidently when the Government took control of these lands, they also assumed the role of providing perpetual care to these cemeteries. This role has been fulfilled very well, the LAAP fencing and maintaining these areas with utmost respect to their inhabitants. Another ironic twist has been the fact that when the government took control of these cemeteries, many of them had only wooden markers standing quiet vigil on top of their respective graves. These wooden markers would not reveal the names of their charges. The federal government apparently replaced these wooden markers with generic concrete markers, which do not reveal the names of their inhabitants either. Five of these nine cemeteries contains burials, with generic headstones, and although the names of the cemeteries are known, the names of the residents are not. Another prime reason to inventory and document these graves is to supply to the "outside" world a bona-fide list of those who are known to be buried within the confines of the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, without it becoming necessary for them to gain permission and travel into LAAP. ALLENTOWN Allentown Cemetery is the most westerly of the nine cemeteries located within the confines of the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant. It is the only cemetery on LAAP that is in the current Bossier Parish. Allentown Cemetery was named because of it's close proximity to a locale that after 1891 became known as Allentown. Allentown was best described by the Shreveport Times, October 24, 1894. ALLENTOWN A Veritable Human Bee Hive - A Constant Hum from Morning till Night. "In the Spring of 1891, Messrs. Allen Bros. & Wadley, saw mill men of long experience, bought several thousand acres of land in Bossier Parish, and, three miles north of Haughton, they established one of the largest and most complete saw and planing mill plants in the State. This place is known as Allentown. It is one of the busiest places in America. From daylight until dark the hum of the saws and clattering of the planing mill knives furnish music by which every man and boy able to do duty, march. There are no drones or idlers at Allentown, and none are allowed to remain there - all must work or move on. From 120 to 140 men are kept constantly employed. The employees live within a short distance of the mill in houses which were built for their comfort and convenience by the company. While Allentown is not incorporated, yet the best of order and discipline is maintained. In a word, it is a model town. It has its own school house, church and Sunday school;,a resident physician, a large store which is stocked from one end to the other with general merchandise, and many other comforts and conveniences not often found in more pretentious towns. The average daily attendance at school is forty. Church services are held regularly once a month by Rev. J. B. Williams, a Methodist minister. Sunday school services are held regularly every Sabbath. Dr. W. J. Mobley is the resident physician. No whiskey or intoxicants of any kind are allowed to be sold or handled, and immediate discharge is the penalty for any employee, it matters not what position he occupies, who appears in Allentown drunk or under the influence of liquor. This is an inflexible rule of Messrs. Allen Bros. & Wadley. The employees are paid off every evening at 6 o'clock. THE MILL AND IT'S CAPACITY; The saw and planing mills are furnished throughout with the best and latest improved machinery, every piece of which is entirely new. All kinds of yellow and oak lumber are manufactured. The average daily output of lumber is about 70,00 feet and the monthly shipments range from sixty to ninety cars per month. This lumber is shipped principally to Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Illinois, Missouri, Texas and the Indian Territory. The capactiy of the planing mill is 100,000 feet per day, Quite recently a Ketchum dry kiln with drying capacity of 40,000 feet per day, has been put up. There is on hand at present about 4,000,000 feet of lumber. The shipping point of Allen Bros. & Wadley is Wadley's switch on the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad, three miles east of Haughton, while their express and telegraph office is at the latter place. This firm owns nine miles of railroad, which they are gradually extending due north, and will soon reach the Bodcau. One locomotive and twenty flat cars are daily employed hauling logs from the interior to the mill. Allen Bros. & Wadley own 6,000 or 7,000 acres of timber land and own the timber on thousands of acres of other lands adjacent to their line of railroad. The railroad is not only indispensable to the mill, but is of great service to the people living along or in close proximity to it. For some time the farmers have been endeavoring to get their cotton hauled by rail to Wadley's station, and Messr. Allen Bros. & Wadley, ever ready to do all in their power to accomodate their friends, have entered into correspondence with the officials of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad and as soon as satisfactory arrangements can be made they will build a warehouse at Wadley station and begin to haul cotton and other farms products to and from that station. The population of Allen-town is between 400 & 500 souls. It is stricly a saw mill town, where everything is on the qui vive from sun rise to sun set. It is a veritable human bee hive. There drones, idlers or tramps have no abode. Allentown is a regular post office and has daily mail service." The sawmill operated in eastern Bossier Parish until 1908. Remains of the old sawmill still exist, outside the domain of the LAAP, but very close to this cemetery, due west. Allentown itself has remained a mystical area, it's remains held under the ownership of the LAAP until about 1990, when the property was sold off by the Federal Government. In 1994 there was a shooting range located just north and east of the old Allentown sawmill remains. Even today the road leading north-east from Haughton is still called Allentown Road, although it no longers reaches through Allentown to Hwy 80. A thorough search of the old sawmill location might reveal interesting historical finds. ALLENTOWN CEMETERY, Is in the Southwest corner of the Northeast 1/4 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 11, Township 18 North, Range 11 West. It is well maintained by the LAAP management. It was fenced by the federal government by a strong cyclone fence that measures 21 ft. by 24 ft. An original archeological survey of the area performed in the 1980's interviewed a local informant who worked at the LAAP for many years, and he recalled that prior to the 1940's, the cemetery had 17-20 graves which were marked with wooden markers. He remarked that by the time the U. S. Government fenced the area, only one headstone was evident. That headstone reads: IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR DEAR BABY ROSSIE LEE WIMBUSH BORN NOV 13 1898 DIED MCH 13 1899 AGE 4 MTS The headstone is broken laterally across the surname, and the name and inscriptions are hard to read. The original 1980's survey apparently could not read the inscriptions and accepted a local newspapers notion that the childs name was Wimberlie. Their research could not find out anything about the child. But close inspection of the headstone does reveal that the name is definitely WIMBUSH. GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION, It is highly likely that the child is the daughter of Jack and Malinda Davis Wimbush. Mr. Wimbush was an employee of Allen Bros. & Wadley Ltd since about 1897, for on June 20, 1907, the sawmill "sold" the forty acre tract which contained the childs burial site to Jack Wimbush "for $1.00 and acknowlegment of 10 years of service." The 1900 census records that Jack Wimbush was born in Virginia in September of 1857. His wife Malinda was born in Louisiana in October of 1867. It records that they were married in 1884 and had at least two other children Cora, born in Louisiana in February of 1886 and Robert, born in Louisiana in October of 1892. The 1900 census also records that Jack was section foreman, meaning he held the important job of making sure the sawmills extensive railroad tracks were kept in good working condition. He might have also overseen the handling and loading of the railcars, quite an accomplishment for a negro employee considering the racial atmosphere in Bossier/Webster Parish at the turn of the century (see note 1). It was quite a compliment to Jack Wimbush for Allen Bros. & Wadley to sell him 40 acres of land for $1.00. Jack Wimbush was definitely censused as living among the laborers of Allentown in ward 6. In fact, Wm. Wadley was censused shortly after Jack Wimbush. Jack retained the land for years, leasing it June 7, 1922 to J. W. Holt and finally selling it Oct 31, 1923 to J. K. & Audrey Murff Sheppard. Jack Wimbush was last known living in Haughton, in 1923, when he sold the land. There are presently no Wimbush's living in either Haughton or Shreveport. No relatives were found to interview. None of the conveyances in Bossier Parish Courthouse pertaining to this tract of land contain any mention of the Allentown Cemetery, or the burial site of Rossie Lee Wimbush. CONCLUSION, There has never been a thorough search of the Allentown Cemetery area using metal detectors or ground probes to determine if evidence can be obtained of the possibility of other graves. Metal detectors can determine if there are lead or tin caskets buried underneath the ground and ground probes can determine if headstones have fallen and subsequently covered by forest debris, or if the headstones may have sunken, which has been the case in other cemeteries located in the flat woodlands similiar to that which surround the Allentown Cemetery.