Although Tabor is in Fremont County, the cemetery is in Mills County, in the northwest part of town.

The Tabor cemetery was known in the early days as simply the burial ground or silent city and is the final resting place for many of the earliest pioneers and their families. The first person interred there was three-year-old James Gates, who was taken by cholera on May 20, 1853. His baby sister would follow a year later, attesting to the terrible toll of disease in the early years. Town founders George B. Gaston, John Todd, and Samuel Adams can also be found there, along with many others.

As Tabor grew so did the cemetery, for years the responsibility of the Cemetery Association was part of the Congregational Church. The church erected 90 oak headboards on otherwise unmarked graves.

The overall care of the cemetery grounds eventually passed to the town, but upkeep of headstones and monuments remain a family responsibility. Unfortunately, the passage of time has taken its toll and many gravesites are now orphaned without a proper caretaker.
(Note: by Chuck Douglass)

Photos courtesy of Kathy Weaver

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