MITCHELL COUNTY PIONEER
CEMETERY RESTORATION PROJECT (MCPCRP)
January – June 2004 Newsletter - "The Digger"
MONA CEMETERY:
Loren Meyer reports that on April 11, 2004 he re-burnt the Mona Cemetery. According to Loren this is what was suggested last year and some confusion existed due to not understanding this procedure. Milt Owen suggested the ground go back to a natural state for one year then burn once again, seed, and mow in one year. The Gophers have returned(not sure they ever left?) in selected colonies creating rough ground for mowing. Loren indicated he will use his tractor and re-level the ground from their burrowing. If the Gopher issue persists, Milt Owen has volunteered to treat the area as needed.
Loren contacted a monument company to purchase epoxy to restore the headstones, expecting to pay the going rate for a gallon. To Loren’s surprise, the monument company donated a gallon for the restoration of the headstones at Mona.
DAVID HISTORICAL BROCHURE – A FIRST
Headed by Dorcus Dorow of the Mitchell County Historical Society and assisted by Vivian Du Shane they are putting together a historical brochure on the old Ghost Town of David, IA. Their hopes are to compile a series of these brochures to be for sale at the historical museums and other historical Ghost Towns locations in Mitchell County.
Vivian and local neighbors of David are working on putting up a reader board that will give history of the town at the actual site of the Ghost Town. There are many old communities that have been lost due to time and it’s nice to see an effort to keep these sites in our minds.
Trivia question . . . anyone know where Glendale was in Mitchell County? Too tough . . . how about Dixie or Pennyville? Check it out on the maps section of the Mitchell County Web page.
CEMETERY RECORDS - BLENDED
Through the efforts of Kath Pike of Austin, MN who submitted the Mitchell County, Iowa Grave Records to us. These are basically the information that was compiled by the WPA (Works Project Administration) and was gathered from the Mitchell County Cemeteries in the 1930’s. A vast amount of missing information has been provided which helps all the records for the various cemeteries be more factual.
Kathy sent the Mitchell County WPA information to Neal Du Shane and the St. Ansgar Cemeteries were sent to Kermit Kittelson, each person methodically went through each cemetery, adding information that was missing from previous records. Kermit then revised the information on the internet. Thanks to everyone for their excellent efforts on this gigantic project.
OSCAR PETERSON CEMETERY – WHERE ARE YOU?
Further research has yielded little in the way of the actual location. The mystery continues to exist, as to where the actual location was, who was buried there, what happened to the markers and why there are headstones presumed to be from this cemetery, several miles to the west.
MCPCRP PUBLICITY:
Larry Kershner reports he will be writing two articles on MCPCRP accomplishments. One article on the Lohr Cemetery and the other the Mona Cemetery. He hopes to write an article on the Smith Family Cemetery plus the "Mystery of Mitchell County" Oscar Peterson Cemetery when we can determine more information.
MCPCRP BOOSTER PROGRAM
Donations continue from interested parties. The names of the various people and businesses donating to the MCPCRP Booster Program have been added to the MCPCRP on the internet. Thanks to all of you that are giving the presentations and handing out Booster Membership Application. We are in the process of addition three new categories for larger donations, 1. Silver, 2. Gold and 3. Platinum. Individuals or businesses that contribute $100 will earn a Silver recognition; contributing $500 will earn them a Gold recognition and $1,000 + will be a Platinum recognition. We have one individual that is getting close to the Silver category.
MCPCRP PRESENTATION
Kersh, with the assistance of Vivian Du Shane gave an excellent presentation to the American Legion from St. Ansgar. Unfortunately the attendance was minimal due to having the meeting in a different location than normal. A donation was received for Booster Membership.
EDEN CEMETERY
With the efforts of Steve Ham, Steve Norby and Kathy Pike, we were able to get the information on Eden documented and posted on the internet. Unfortunately we were never able to make the connection with the Eden Church Board to get their records. Maybe in the future this comparison can be made?
ROCK CREEK CEMETERY
This was a big update – and it seems we still will need to do some tweaking. Thanks to Diedra Badker and Kathy Pike we were able to blend the WPA information with what Diedra had compiled. It’s now on Excel format and can now be sorted how ever you want it. Diedra reports she has spent additional time and has it more refined than ever before.
RICEVILLE KIWANIS CLUB PRESENTATION
Deb Kuehne gave a presentation on the effort of this group to the Riceville Kiwanis Club on April 15th. Deb did an excellent job, even utilizing the ceiling as the projection screen. Excellent questions were
asked and I felt there was a good reception from the audience. There was even an extra guest at the meeting (someone stopped in for breakfast and asked how they could get a similar presentation to their club in Rockwell!).
So, my news would be to mention the outstanding work done by Deb in getting the word out to people in Riceville.
Later, Cheryl Jahnel(-: Just got to ask . . . if the ceiling was the projector screen . . . did everyone lay on the floor to view it???? Interesting :-)
A special thank you from MCPCRP goes to the Riceville School for lending Deb the projector for the presentation.
HEADSTONE RETREVIAL
Kersh and Marlene report they are making progress, negotiating with the property owner of the unknown/unidentified cemetery at Mitchell Line St and Dancer Ave, Section 15, Range 18N, Township 97N. Kersh and Marlene hope to retrieve the headstones in the wind break of the farm and store them until a definite historical location can be determined. They report there are approximately 6 or 8 headstones and only one has a name they can read. Marlene has dowsed the area and reports she did get several readings.
There is a mystery/confusion relating to these headstones where they presently reside (Mitchell Line St & Dancer Ave). The only record that we can find at this location is a reference, when in the 1960’s ladies from the DAR referred to this location and posted it on a recipe card at the court house. At that time they referred to the cemetery as The Oscar Peterson Cemetery. But did they research and identify there has never been a reference to a cemetery in this section? Plus the Range is only digit different, everything else it identical, could it be an error in recording this cemetery? The headstones are physically there, "must be the Oscar Peterson Cemetery"?
Based on past experience, there is an assumption that Oscar Peterson would either be buried there, donated the land, or owned the land. There is no record of him on any of the above. Nor have we been able to locate where Oscar Peterson was/is buried.
Rather in the 1911 Atlas of MC there is a cemetery indicator on land that he owned but there is no current day evidence of any burials.
Steve Ham has reported that the present location of the headstones the former property owner said "I don’t know where the headstones came from, one night someone dumped them in our wind break".
Local’s where the cemetery is identified in the 1911 Atlas and Oscar Peterson owned the farm, Section 15, Range 17N, Township 97W, are reserved and we can only acknowledge "something happened" and no one is willing to elaborate what happened. But they imply there was a cemetery at this location. If you drive north on Jersey from Mitchell Line St. approximately ¼ mile you will cross a bridge over Rock Creek. At this point look to the North East and you will see a sandy knoll, this is believed to be the location of the former Oscar Peterson Cemetery. What happened to those interred? Is there any remaining headstones unearthed, waiting to be found?
Stay tuned! If you know someone that can fill in the missing pieces for us please let us know as soon as possible.
Hope you are having a good spring and you are looking forward to summer. Thanks to each of you for your outstanding efforts. If you would like to assist with some of our efforts let me know, we have plenty of tasks with your name on them.
Neal