re: Odd history or little known facts about your hometown.

It's one of the very few single tax colonies in America. It's home (the eastern shore) to jubilees on the bay which only happens in one other location in the world

Fairhope

Have you read that Leander Perez biography? If so, would you recommend it?

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That's an odd fact. What was the population of Bogalusa, or even all of Washington Parish, in 1940? What are the chances five guys from the area were all captured on the Bataan peninsula AND survived the death march, plus the next 4-1/2 years as slave laborers? Were they brothers or some kind of relatives?

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Not brothers, not even with the same units. Four of the five were sent to slave labor camps in China and Japan (all survived); one was considered too ill to be sent off for labor and was still in Camp Cabanatuan when the Army Rangers rescued the remaining POWs in January 1945, dramatized in the movie, The Great Raid.

My current home town is the official site of the first air mail (in 1859). Advertised at the time as going (by balloon) from Lafayette, IN to New York, the balloon actually made it just about to Crawfordsville, 30 miles away, then the mail went by train. They still count it though.

Crawfordsville was, of course, where General Lew Wallace lived when he wrote Ben-Hur.

Leesville was located in a contested area along the Sabine River after the Louisiana purchase known as "no man's land". To the the west about 10 miles was the ferry crossing of the Sabine River into Texas known as Burr Ferry named after the owner/settler Timothy Burr, 2nd cousin of Vice President Aaron Burr. It is rumored this is where Aaron Burr hid out after shooting Alexander Hamilton in a duel.



Also, Cecil Collins is from there.

My current hometown is the only city where City Hall has a working moonshine distillery in it.

We also claim the birthplace of stock car racing (not because of the races... but because of the shine).

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Not brothers, not even with the same units

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That's crazy. I know it was sort of common back then for relatives or friends to enlist together and request the same unit. Of course that all ended with the five Sullivan brothers all dying on the USS Juneau.

I know a very large number of American and Filipino prisoners were taken when Bataan and Corregidor fell. Maybe 100,000? Not sure how many were Americans. Seems strange to think that even with that many prisoners that five would be from Bogalusa and even stranger that they weren't related in some way. That's a cool bit of trivia!

I grew up in Plaquemine, which is the native word for persimmon, which was originally spelled Plakemine.

The Thibodaux Massacre

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On November 23, 1887, a mass shooting of African-American farm workers in Louisiana left some 60 dead. Bodies were dumped in unmarked graves while the white press cheered a victory against a fledgling black union. It was one of the bloodiest days in United States labor history, Read more: LINK Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! LINK Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

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My high school had 2 janitors. One was a Bataan survivor. He was always half running everywhere he went.

The other was a Vietnam vet, and one of only 33 to escape from Jonestown. His wife and child died there.