Friday, January 06, 2012

County Farm Cemetery update


Back in July, I wrote a little about a Chariton Historic Preservation Commission plan to place a sign at the Lucas County Farm Cemetery to commemorate those buried there --- all but four in unmarked graves.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Commissioner Melody Wilson, who coordinated research and logistics, the sign has been designed and will be ordered officially next week from Iowa Prison Industries (which produces much of Iowa's roadside signage), then put into place by the county engineering department.

The little cemetery alongside Burlington Northern & Santa Fe tracks just northwest of town is the sole remnant of the Lucas County Farm, where the poor and afflicted were, when other options were not available, housed, cared for and in some cases buried commencing in 1869.

The sign will contain the names of 38 people whose burials are recorded in county home records, county death records (after 1880) and in some cases newspaper accounts. There may be more graves, since no effort ever was made to keep records specifically related to the cemetery. The spellings are not necessarily accurate, but are as recorded originally.

Here are the names and dates that will be on the new cemetery sign:

James Adkins, 1838-1912
J.C. Berry, 1837-1911
Mrs. J.Y. Berry, d. 1918
John Burns, 1863-1920
Jacob Bown, 1849-1907
James O. Bryan, 1867-1885
Edmon Carey, 1817-1894
Rachel L. Coleman, 1850-1898
Horace Coles, 1860-1895
Archie Cramer, d. 1917
Lewis Erickson, d. 1909
Louis Ferm, 1830-1917
Chas. Freed, 1869-1890
Benjamine Hillen, 1841-1879
Elias Jacobson, 1837-1916
Ida Mae Jenkins, 1887-1905
Albert Johnson, 1865-1887
P.G. Johnson, 1846-1911
Henry Kelley, 1820-1894
James Lafyett, 1849-1895
Wm. H. Linn, 1849-1885
Lydia Long, 1804-1891
Arthur Lucas, 1858-1893
Lucy Mathews, 1845-1914
John Miller, 1848-1917
Mary A. Moor, 1831-1879
Ola Olson, 1871-1911
Mrs. Swede Olson, 1816-1892
Peter Pearson, 1819-1902
James Perkins, 1802-1892
John S. Reed, 1827-1902
John Reiner, 1831-1918
Lizzie Shambory, d. 1916
Rebecca A. Shipley, 1815-1889
John Smith, 1826-1906
Nute Wayland, d. 1926
Alfred Whitcomb, d. 1926
Wesley Willey, 1808-1890

We've also talked about erecting some sort of memorial at the Potter's Field section of the Chariton Cemetery, where well over 100 Lucas Countyans rest in unmarked graves. That is a somewhat more complicated project, however, in large part because of the large number of burials. So we're still talking about that one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that you guys gave honor to these folks -- keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

A very noble deed. Thanks for sharing this info, Frank.