The Minden Cemetery | |
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Details | |
Established | Before 1843 |
Location | |
Country | US |
Coordinates | 32°37′00″N93°17′37″W / 32.6167°N 93.2936°W |
Find a Grave | The Minden Cemetery |
The Minden Cemetery, located in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States, has graves dating from 1843, seven years after the founding of the city in 1836. Some of the oldest marked graves date back to the era of the American Civil War, but most are 20th-century interments.
Part of the graveyard is located south of Bayou Avenue not far from the downtown district. A larger section is bordered by Bayou Avenue on the west, Goodwill Street on the south and Rephart Street on the north and east. Rephart Street follows the easternmost part of the newer portion of the cemetery adjacent to the main artery of traffic, Pine Street. There is a traffic light at the intersection of Pine and Goodwill at one of several entrances to the cemetery. [1]
According to the cemetery website, historical accounts differ on when interments began at the cemetery. Many older grave markers were destroyed in a tornado on May 1, 1933. The first grave, the re-interment of a Mrs. Mary A. Smith on April 22, 1840, is unmarked, having been among the monuments toppled in the tornado. Two other early graves are those of Sarah Emily Pennell on September 13, 1843, and Samuel B. Harper on October 12, 1859. [2] In 1854, the cemetery owners, Colonel and Mrs. John Langdon Lewis, deeded the property to the city of Minden. [3] As of 2009, gravemarkers still existed dating back to 1843. [4]
In 1864, the bodies of twenty-one Confederate soldiers who died of wounds suffered at the Battle of Mansfield were buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery. In 1936, an obelisk was placed at the site of the graves. [5] Individual markers were placed near the obelisk in 2008 to honor the soldiers. [6]
The last surviving Confederate widow in Minden, storekeeper Alberta Glass (August 25, 1845 – January 8, 1937), is interred at Minden Cemetery. [7]
In 2003, the Minden Cemetery Association began conducting an annual "Ghost Walk" to raise money for cemetery upkeep. The event features citizens dressed in period costume portraying some of those interred at the cemetery. [8]
Prominent local citizens interred here include two U.S. representatives, four state representatives, a state senator from the 1950s, and twelve mayors who served since 1910. Their tombstones are pictured in their (if any)Wikipedia articles, accordingly:
Claiborne Parish is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish was formed in 1828, and was named for the first Louisiana governor, William C. C. Claiborne. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,170. The parish seat is Homer.
Bossier Parish is a parish located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 128,746.
Homer is a town in and the parish seat of Claiborne Parish in northern Louisiana, United States. Named for the Greek poet Homer, the town was laid out around the Courthouse Square in 1850 by Frank Vaughn. The present-day brick courthouse, built in the Greek Revival style of architecture, is one of only four pre-Civil War courthouses in Louisiana still in use. The building, completed in 1860, was accepted by the Claiborne Parish Police Jury on July 20, 1861, at a cost of $12,304.36, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The other courthouses are in St. Francisville, St. Martinville and Thibodaux.
Dubberly is a village in Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 290 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Minden Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Shongaloo is a village in Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States.
Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Maspeth and Woodside, Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. With about three million burials, it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States. Established in 1848, Calvary Cemetery covers 365 acres (148 ha) and is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and managed by the Trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Alexandria National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Pineville, in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. It occupies approximately 8 acres (3.2 ha), and is site to over 10,000 interments as of the end of 2020.
James Edwin Bolin Sr. was an American jurist and politician who served as a judge of the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal. He was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Minden, the seat of government of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.
Hubert Tamblyn "Tam" Spiva, Jr., was an American television screenwriter best known for his work on The Brady Bunch and Gentle Ben.
Wellborn Jack, Sr., was an attorney from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Caddo Parish serving from 1940 to 1964. He finished in sixth place for five at-large seats in the general election held on March 3, 1964.
John Cecil Jones (1915-1946) was an honorably-discharged World War II corporal and veteran who was tortured and lynched near Minden, in Webster Parish, Louisiana by a mob in 1946. His 17-year-old cousin Albert Harris, Jr. was tortured and left for dead alongside Jones. This was the only known post-World War II lynching to occur in Louisiana, and it involved multiple well-known local individuals, politicians, and a cover-up by multiple law enforcement entities.
Jeffrey Stephen Cox, known as Jeff Cox is a judge of the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit, based in Shreveport, Louisiana.
John David Batton, was from 1952 to 1964 the sheriff of his native Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. He was defeated after three terms by O. H. Haynes Jr., a fellow Democrat and the son of the sheriff, O. H. Haynes Sr., whom Batton had himself unseated twelve years earlier.
John Thomas Watkins was an American lawyer and politician who served eight terms as a U.S. representative for Louisiana's 4th congressional district.
Jean McGlothlin Doerge is director of the Germantown Colony and Museum in Webster Parish, Louisiana, and a former Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who represented District 10 from 1998 to 2012. From 2001 to 2006, she served as the vice chair of the House's Commerce Committee; in 2007, she was appointed to the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee, and from 2008 to 2012, she served as the vice chair of the Retirement Committee.
Minden High School serves 9th to 12th grade students in Webster Parish, Louisiana. The school in Minden, Louisiana was preceded by Minden Academy. It is part of the Minden School District.
John Nicholas Sandlin was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served eight terms as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1921 to 1937.
Robert Floyd Kennon Sr., was an American politician and judge who served as the 48th governor of Louisiana, an associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, a judge of the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal, the district attorney of Bossier Parish and Webster Parish, and mayor of Minden, Louisiana. During Kennon's governorship, he additionally served as chairman of the National Governors Association and chairman of the Council of State Governments.
|death_place = Shongaloo, Louisiana, U.S. |office = Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives |term_start = 1900 |term_end = 1904 |preceded = McIntyre H. Sandlin |succeeded = E. L. Stewart |party = Democratic }}