"The wooded and Ridgey landscape makes it a very sweet cemeetery full of history."Those are the words of Angie Hynek, chair of the
Ringgold County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, to describe Oak Ridge Cemetery north of Mount Ayr.
The Pioneer Cemetery Commission is in a three-year
commitment to restore the Oak Ridge Cemetery, as funds become available.
Currently 29 cemeteries in Ringgold County qualify as pioneer cemeteries, so
Commission members have been working on them, one at a time, since 1997.
A cemetery is deemed pioneer if it has fewer than 12 burials in the past 50
years. In Oak Ridge, there are only six burials after 1965.
The Commission started restoration last year with the erection of Oak Ridge gates to reduce
casual cruising, with consideration to the difficulty of turning around without damaging stones. The gates are never locked to allow public access. David
Weeda made the gates to feature the pioneer theme, and Darrel Adams installed the rail fence.
Because stones have been found near the perimeter fence,
the brush must be removed by hand, rather than dozed. Tony Mercer and Brad Smith are working to clear the fence line. Fredericksen Memorials from Creston
is resetting and repairing the stones. Work has been complete for this year, and the stone restoration should be finished with next year's budget.
If
a stone is beyond repair, crumbled, shattered or void of writing, it is retired. Our last resort is to cut a new stone, based on written records, and the
old stone is laid face down in front of the new stone.
Diane Zollman is the Pioneer Cemetery Commissioner for the Oak Ridge Cemetery.
According to
"Early History of Ringgold County: 1844 - 1937," written by Mrs. B. M. Lesan and quoted on the Ringgold County IAGENWEB website (../../cemeteries),
Oak Ridge Cemetery is located in Benton Township in Ringgold County. From U.S. Highway 2, the cemetery is located approximately 1.7 miles north on
West Street. The entrance to Oak Ridge Cemetery is a long winding gravel lane located on the east side of the road.
Oak Ridge Cemetery was the first cemetery
located in the vicinity of Mount Ayr. Joshua Chance purchased the land on November 13, 1856, and donated it for use as a burial plot before his death on
August 27, 1858. The deed turned the land over to Ringgold County as a burial plot was never on record. It was lost. On September 5, 1877, Ringgold County
made a deed for the Oak Ridge Cemetery Association with trustees W. H. Barnes, J. A. Miller and S.
[Page 2] England. Dorrington Chance deeded another lot to Oak Ridge Cemetery Association on September 1st of 1887. On December 12, 1916, Dorrington
Chance and his wife gave a quit-claim deed for 11 acres more or less to the cemetery which rectified the loss of the original deed.
In the spring of 1856,
Johnny Crabb died, the first death in Mount Ayr and the first interment at Oak Ridge Cemetery. Two women were interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery; however, no
gravestones were placed to mark their burial sites. These interments occurred prior to the cemetery was given to the county.
The first gravestone was of
Joshua Chance, who donated the land to the county and died on August 27, 1858. The next oldest interment was of Rebecca Cavett on October 12, 1858.
Many of
Joshua Chance's descendants are interred at Oak Ridge as were many local families - Beard, Faris, Newton, Miller, Warrick, Cavett, Denhart, Kling, Fife, and
Shidler. Civil War veterans and victims of the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic are also among the interments. Several gravesites are either unmarked or
the gravestones are now missing. The last interment was in 1998.
Although Oak Ridge Cemetery is not closed for burials, most local interments are at Rose
Ridge [sic, should be Rose Hill) Cemetery located in the southeastern portion of Mount Ayr.
Many of the early Mount Ayr obituaries refer to Oak Ridge
Cemetery as the "North Cemetery" or "Fife Cemetery."
Photographs courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2015
Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, November 12, 2015, Page 2
