Old Catholic (Irish) Cemetery Burials

Location: N 1/2 of SE 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Section 18, East Boyer Township

Directions to the East Boyer Old Catholic Cemetery:
Head east on U S Hwy 30 from downtown Denison; near the east edge of town will be county road M 36,
also shown as Donna Reed Road; turn south on Donna Reed (a sign will also show the town of Manilla
in this direction)and cross the railroad track, and then cross the Boyer River; immediately after
crossing the river will be a paved road going to the east, turn on this road (sign is down but this
is O Ave). There is a blue sign which shows a Christmas Tree Farm in this direction. Go east 0.8 mile
until you arrive at 283rd St, which is a gravel road heading south. 283rd continues south for 0.7
mile, but turns to dirt near the end. The old Catholic Cemetery will be on the east side of the
road where the road ends and heads into a corn field.

Cemetery Description
The cemetery has been turned over to the conservation unit of the county and they have turned this
cemetery into a native grass plot. The plants get quite tall and at times it is nearly impossible
to find any of the old stones. I am told they burn off the grass about every three to four years
to kill weeds and restore the prairie. They did burn last spring, so there should be no burning
for several more years. Early spring of this year may be a good time to visit, but I feel that by
late summer, it again will be difficult to find many of the stones, and the tall grass does make
for hard walking.

Having talked to some of the folks at the Catholic Church in town, I have learned that a number of
the bodies were moved during the early part of last century to the "new catholic" cemetery in town.
Some of the stones in the new cemetery had to come from out this way as the new cemetery did not
begin until 1905 and some of the stones list earlier death dates. Stones were recorded in 1978
by Phyllis Auen of Denison, Iowa and Neila Rohan of Everly, Iowa. We wish to thank Norm Prince
for submitting this material with the description of the cemetery.

Graves were sorted by rows, beginning in the Northwest corner of the cemetery.
Rows are counted from North to South, stones are listed from East to West.