ALLENTOWN                                

                                  wpe7.gif (3361 bytes)  

The following was taken from an article written by Clifton D. Cardin, Bossier Parish Historian:

Allentown was best described by the Shreveport Times, October 24, 1894.

"In the spring of 1891, Messrs. Allen Bros. & Watley, 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 mills 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 merchandize, 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 knife 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 Mssrs. 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 70,000 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 capacity 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.

                                       wpe9.gif (2724 bytes) 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 office 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 accommodate 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 Allentown is between 400 & 500 souls. It is strictly 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."

    A map from 1896 shows the location of the Allentown station on the Vicksburg Shreveport and Pacific Railroad line between Doyle Station (Doyline) and Haughton. It also shows the sawmill railroad running from the Allentown station to Bellevue.
    The sawmill operated in eastern Bossier Parish from 1891 until 1908. Remains of the old sawmill still exist, outside the domain of the LAAP, but very close to the Allentown Cemetery that is located inside the boundaries of LAAP.

There is only one marked grave in the cemetery. That headstone reads:

                                                                 wpeA.gif (1979 bytes)  

                                   IN LOVING
                                 MEMORY OF
                               OUR DEAR BABY
                                   ROSSIE LEE
                                    WIMBUSH 
                                 BORN NOV 13
                                         1898
                                  DIED MCH 13
                                         1899
                                   AGE 4 MTS

                                                              Back to History Page 1


                                                             Back to Community Page