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Cemetery Of His Own

Picture of Elliot Parr's Marker
    Pictured at the right is the grave of Elliott Parr, located in the NW corner of the NE ¼ of Section 10 in Springfield Township.

Editor''s Note: The following article appeared in the March 25,1973, issued of the Cedar Rapids Gazette and was written by Mrs Earl (Arlene) Busch, who at that time resided on a farm northwest of Massillon and now lives in Davenport. This is reprinted with permission from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, as per phone call to the Sunday editor on November 23, 1976.

    LOWDEN - - - Beside a windswept portion of the blacktop Hoover highway, about three miles southwest of Lowden, a United States flag flutters in the breeze above a lone grave.

     The tiny cemetery carved from the corner of a farm field is certainly one of Iowa's smallest burial places and the reason for it is surprising to people who hear of it today.

     A government headstone marks the final resting place of Elliott Parr, a veteran of the Civil War and member of a pioneer Lowden family. No date of birth or death is inscribed on the simple marker.

     Elliott Parr was a son of old Billy Parr, as he was known back in Ohio and later in Cedar County where he and his family settled with the earliest pioneers in this area.

     A caravan of 13 covered wagons housing Ohio immigrants, who were seeking a home in the new west, crossed the Mississippi river on Nov. 9, 1848. After two days of hard work the travelers, wagons and horses had been ferried across into the new country.

     Under darkening November skies the sturdy band of pioneers continued north and west about 40 miles, finally stopping near what is now Lowden. They transferred the wilderness into a small settlement of log houses and took up life in the new west.

     It was in this setting that young Elliott Parr grew to manhood. When the country became embroiled in the Civil War, Elliott, with four of his brothers joined others to march away.

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    Elliott came back to Billy unscratched. But the smallpox epidemic of 1887 struck Cedar County and Elliott Parr died of the then dread disease.

     Residents in the area were terrified and refused to allow burial of smallpox victims in Van Horne cemetery, the only burial ground in the vicinity. Billy Parr said, “I have enough land of my own. My son was a good soldier. He can have a cemetery of his own.”

     And so it was that old Billy set aside a quarter acre of his farm beside the road and deeded it to Cedar county. There he buried his son.

     Many years ago the government placed the headstone at the grave. Each year on Memorial Day members of the Lillis Deerberg Post of the American Legion place a new U.S. Flag at the gravesite – and pause to remember Elliott Parr.

     The tiny cemetery is enclosed with a high wire fence and the government stone is inscribed simply “Elliott Parr, Company K, 35th Iowa Infantry”.

     Some of the burial customs of the earlier pioneers seem hard for us to understand today. Since death and life go together the pioneer had barely established his home when oftentimes he had to make arrangements to dispose of his dead. No funeral homes, hearses or caskets existed so a few sympathetic neighbors would gather and prepare the body for burial. In early days a kindly neighbor would undertake to make funeral arrangements and thus the phrase “undertaker” came into use.

     Many were laid in the bare ground but later on crude coffins were sometimes made to the size of the deceased by the neighborhood cabinet maker. This accounts for the fact that selling furniture and funeral directing became linked together and remains so in many communities today.

     Lowden's Van Horne cemetery in which Elliott Parr was refused burial is on land a quarter mile down the road from this tiny cemetery.

     An unusual burial took place in Van Horne many years ago: In the northwest corner of the cemetery lies the body of one Henry Busckke, a young man who took his life by hanging. According to an old German practice for such unfortunates, he was not allowed burial near the other lots. The drive at the west and north side of the cemetery turns east along the north fence just over his grave.

     Perhaps history will record some of our present burial customs as unusual or strange even as we view the reasons for the burial places of Elliott Parr and Henry Busckke.

* ~ * ~ *

WE REMEMBER WHEN -

. . . . . our mother would pack a market basket of groceries every week for neighbors with large families that found survival difficult during the depression years. Many years later this kindness was recognized as not having been forgotten.

              Anne and Hulda Nieting

. . . . . the men and big boys sat in the benches on the right side of the church and the ladies and girls on the left.

              Mrs Melvin (Eleanor Mensing) Licht

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Do You Remember?

. . . . . going to baseball games in 1949 at Lowden Memorial Park. That is the year the park opened. In 1947, the Lillis Deerberg American Legion Post conducted a drive for funds to construct a park in memory of all those serving their country. The park became a reality in 1948.

     Those going to games that first year brought their blankets to set on as seating room on the bleachers and benches was taken long before game time. Fans at baseball games have twindled in past years due to too many other recreational activities, etc., but Lowden Memorial park is still one of the popular recreation spots in our area. There are now two picnic shelters and these are the scenes of many family reunions during the summer.

     More than 1000 persons usually turn out each year for the Park Benefit Day and Chicken Barbecue held in August. This event in 1974 was highlighted by a pageant planned and presented by members of the community in celebration of the park's 25th anniversary.