LEE COUNTY IOWA GENEALOGY
IAGENWEB PROJECT
Abandoned
Cemeteries Index
Compiled by Sally Youngquist
There are 117 Cemeteries or Burial Grounds in Lee Co. Many of the larger
cemeteries are maintained by churches, private associations, the cities or a
governmental branch or the Township Trustee. There are between 70-75 Cemeteries
or Burial Grounds that are Pioneer Cemeteries. A Pioneer Cemetery, as defined
by the State of Iowa, is a cemetery having less then six burials during the
last fifty years.
The Township Trustees provide monies for about 30 of the
Pioneer Cemeteries. Some townships provide enough money for good care, but the
majority of them don't, they only provide mowing once or twice a year with a
brush cutter. Fallen trees, head high weeds and growth, poison ivy and broken
stones have nearly destroyed many of these cemeteries. The other 40-45 pioneer
cemeteries or burial grounds are now on private property and have been
abandoned and are being lost to the elements.
These Cemetery Listings were obtained from the Old Fort Genealogical Society of
Ft Madison and the Local and Family History Dept, Donnellson Library. If you
find family members on these lists and can provide names of more burials we
would appreciate your help. Please let us know of more burials.
Sally Youngquist - If you know of any burials
not in these cemeteries, but in a private or family burial ground, we would
like to know of these too. Thank you!
Many people over the years have contributed to these listings, their efforts
are greatly appreciated. Within the last several years, yet another effort has
been made to bring them up to date. Garnett Klinger, Carm Fett and Randy
Johnson of Donnellson have led an effort, working with obituaries and news
articles to find early burials. Pat Morrison of Ft Madison has worked with
death records and other public records to update the cemeteries. Both Groups
have been re-walking the cemeteries.
These cemeteries were chosen to list because they have been lost or abandoned
or they are on private property and difficult to get to. Several cemeteries
are under the care of the Trustees, yet they are almost lost to the elements. Maybe we will be able to add more Cemeteries later. For Cemeteries not listed
here , we have Lookup Volunteers for Cemeteries on the main Lee Co. page.
Note: Dates shown as (24) (28) have been found in various listings or records
as being different
All of the Surnames found in the
Cemetery Listing
Index of Names
Sorry, not up to date
Abandoned Cemeteries
Acklam
Bowman
Cook
Denmark
Dover
Dudley
Enslow
Fairview
Henkle
Johnson
Locust Grove
McCulloch
McKeehan
New Garden
Old Pilot Grove
Pitman Chapel
Pitman Family
Tierney
Yellow Banks
Smaller Cemeteries and Burial Grounds
Ally to Hauck
Ally, Ambrosia, Ballinger, Beeler, Blacksmith, Box, Broadway, Bunker Hill,
Conlee, Cottonwood, Creel, Emerson, Frost, Half Breed, Hampton and Hauck
Hayes to Warson
Hayes, Henry, Hoffmeister, Hyde, Kennedy, Lauther, Lee co., Moon,
Oiler, Rudd, Sax, Turner, Van Hynning, Viele and Warson
Blondeau Street Cemetery
1844
“The pioneer church of the village was of course Roman Catholic. A lot had been
given on the corner of Blondeau and Second streets, upon which to build a
church; meantime a house of two rooms was put up on the corner of the lot at the
rear and here masses were said, one of the rooms being fitted up as a chapel,
the priest living in the other. Weddings were also solemnized in the small
chapel, one of which I attended, that of Elizabeth Hunt and Henry Louis [De
Louis], my cousin and myself being the only witnesses. . . .
“The lots surrounding the Church were used as a cemetery. On one occasion
twenty-five men were buried there who were killed by the explosion of the
steamboat Mechanic in their endeavors to get off a large rock in the first chain
of the rapids, from which circumstance it took the name of Mechanic rock.
Quarry Cemetery
Abandoned cemetery found in the county.
One stone up on the hill reads: Mary A. Billups, daughter of E. & E.A. Billiups,
died: Sept 20, 1859; age 3 years.
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IAGenWeb, Sally Youngquist & the individual submitters This page was updated Mar
--, 2008