In the search for forgotten cemeteries I stumbled upon a small cemetery in the wooded area between two farms. This spot is shown on, what is technically, a road that does not seem to be cared for by the county. It goes from gravel, to dirt, to grass very quickly. If you are lucky enough to find it you’ll find Wabbaseka Cemetery. Also know as Watterseka. Any map will tell you the area is near Wabbaseka Bayou, but it seems that the original spelling is Watterseka. I can’t really find much on the name. As far as I know the original name is Watterseka, and the name Wabbaseka come up later. Perhaps a misspelling on an old form? Or maybe someone thought it would be better this way. Who really knows. The only publication I can find with this spelling, before 1990, is a obituary from 1954. This states that the person’s funeral was held at Wabbaseaka Church in Watterseka. It is interesting to see both spellings in the same publication.

The cemetery has at least 37 burials, and very likely has more. Many of the headstones were provided by burial insurance and so sport the insignia of each one. Many of these are oblisics, and seem to last a lot longer than others. There are a few homemade, concrete stones. There is one stone that seems to have never been properly placed. It is leaning in an odd spot and is not set into the round. This stone is for someone who served in WWI. The story of this person has been fairly difficult to figure out.

We are hoping to map the cemetery with radar technology. I met someone who has access to this and is also interested in this particular site. We don’t have the highest of hopes to find much, but there is some. The soil chemistry and the fact that so many people would be buried in pine boxes means there might be nothing left there to find. We can tell where some burials should be, the soil has a divot to it that is not “natural”. You might even call it body sized. We are hoping to find some possible hidden headstones. This would help further my research into the county residents. Surveying this cemetery has allowed me to make connections to surrounding cemeteries. I can put together a timeline of when this cemetery fell out of use in favor of those closer to main roads. In the end this site hold many secrets that I hope to get to eventually.