About 10 days after returning to Atlanta from my Iowa/South Dakota 2018 adventure, I got on a plane with my family to Jackson Hole, Wy. for a much-awaited vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park.

We only visited two cemeteries for a number of reasons. In fact, we didn’t stop at any cemeteries in Grand Tetons. I couldn’t find one that was close to our route. Yellowstone does have a few cemeteries. One of them, Kite Hill Cemetery, involves a hike and only has one marker so we skipped it. We did visit Fort Yellowstone Cemetery in Mammoth Hot Springs, but I’ll get to that one in a few weeks.

The other cemetery we visited was Gardiner Cemetery in Gardiner, Montana, which is just outside the North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Truth be told, the food (in my opinion) offered in the Xanterra-operated facilities inside the park leaves a lot to be desired. So we ate a number of meals in the town of Gardiner. The cemetery is very close to “downtown” so it was an easy trip to make. The day we stopped at the cemetery was drizzly and overcast, as the pictures show.

One great resource I had for research is “Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park” by Lee H. Whittlesey. With a title like that, I was easily persuaded to purchase it.

Gateway to Yellowstone National Park

Before we exited Yellowstone at the North Entrance, we stopped to take photos of the towering Roosevelt Arch. It has a connection with Gardiner Cemetery that I’ll get to later.

The idea of the arch is attributed to Hiram Chittenden, who thought the area around Gardiner was not sufficiently grand. Before 1903, trains brought visitors to Cinnabar, Mt. Cinnabar was a few miles northwest of Gardiner and travelers would transfer to horse-drawn coaches to enter the park. In 1903, the railroad finally came to Gardiner. With development of the Gardiner train station, the arch was proposed as part of the station ensemble.

Construction of the arch started on February 19, 1903, and was completed on August 15, 1903, at a cost of around $10,000. President Roosevelt was visiting Yellowstone during construction and was asked to place the cornerstone for the arch, which then took his name. The cornerstone laid on April 24, 1903 covered a time capsule that contains a Bible, a picture of Roosevelt, local newspapers, and other items. Several thousand people came to Gardiner for the event.

Soon after we passed through the arch and into Gardiner, we were not greeted by people but by elk lounging around Gardiner High School’s track. I later learned that the school is located on the former grounds of the Northern Pacific Railway Gardiner train station. The contrast between the school and the wildlife made me wonder how peacefully the two manage to coexist.

Getting to the cemetery wasn’t difficult. At first, it looked like the gates were locked but the chain was only secured with a wire you could unwind.

Death of a Tinker

Not much is known about how Gardiner Cemetery began but it’s also known as Tinker’s Hill Cemetery. That’s probably because the first “official” burial there is thought to be of a 60-year-old tinsmith (also called a “tinker”) named John Hartz.

While on a horse that reared up on its hind legs, Hartz tried to keep from being crushed beneath the animal. In the process, Hartz hit his head on a rock and died without regaining consciousness. This took place on Oct. 3, 1886. I didn’t see a marker for Hartz at the cemetery and there’s no photo of one on Find a Grave.

According to Whittlesey, at the time of the cemetery’s establishment, it was outside of park boundaries. Today, it is privately owned by the Eagles’ Club of Gardiner, which recently disbanded. Its representatives are working to get Yellowstone National Park to accept the cemetery. I don’t know if they’ve been successful, but it looked to be in good shape when we were there.

Whittlesey goes on to point out that almost all of the 1880s and many 1890s graves are now unmarked because the stones have long ago fallen from years of neglect. There are at least 50, maybe 77, unmarked graves, he says. Find a Grave lists about 200 memorials for Gardiner Cemetery.

The earliest marked graves at Gardiner Cemetery belong to Fannie Fitzgerald and her baby, who both died in 1888. I didn’t know that they were the earliest marked graves when I photographed them that day.

Before I talk about Fannie, let me back up a little. Selleck Fitzgerald, Fannie’s father-in-law, was a native Iowan who married Mary Ann Brown in 1863 in Wyoming. After living in several Western states, the couple settled in Montana in 1873. Henry was one of their eight children, born in 1866.

Death Following Childbirth

Henry married Fannie Roche on Sept. 30, 1885 in Gallatin, Mt. A son, Roy, was born the next year. Another son, David, was born on July 5, 1888. Sadly, Fannie died of what was then called “puerperal fever”, a common bacterial infection following childbirth often caused by poor hygiene during delivery. It was a common cause of death for new mothers.

Little David died 15 days later on July 26, 1888. He is buried near Fannie.

Henry remarried in 1897 to Estella Alderton. Oddly enough, Roy is not listed as living with them on the 1900 Census. I could not find Henry in the 1910 Census but he is listed as living in Stillwater County, Mt. in the 1920 Census. He is listed there as a widow. Roy’s name does appear in Henry’s obituary after he died in 1932. He is buried in Nye Cemetery in Nye, Mt. I don’t know where Estella is buried.

Tragedy in the Fitzgerald family was not limited to Henry. His older brother Ambrose’s wife, Laura, knew her fair share. Ambrose was born in 1864 and in 1891, he married Wisconsin native Laura Hansen. On March 19, 1893, son Willie was born. Hazel was born on March 29, 1895. For reasons his obituary does not note, Ambrose died six months after Hazel’s birth on June 9, 1895. He was only 30.

Laura remained in Gardiner with Willie and Hazel, possibly supported by her in-laws and husband’s siblings. By the time of the 1900 Census, she was managing a hotel in Gardiner. But her grief was not over. Willie died on February 21, 1900 at the age of six from spinal meningitis, according to a local newspaper.

“These Little Flowers of Love”

For reasons I could not uncover, Hazel died at the age of 13 on Jan. 9, 1908. The 1910 Census lists Fannie as living in Bozeman, Mt., working as a servant. She died at the age of 53 on April 21, 1912. I don’t now if she was still living in Montana but she is buried in Newport Lutheran Church Cemetery in Wisconsin, and shares a marker with her brother, John.

As it turns out, Henry and Ambrose’s father, Selleck, outlived his two wives and three of his children. He died in Fishtail, Mt. on March 22, 1932 at the age of 92. His first wife, Mary, died in 1906 and is buried beside him at Gardiner Cemetery. His second wife, Emily, died in 1920 and is buried at South Street Cemetery in Portsmouth, N.H.

Pioneer “Uncle” John Yancey

Whittlesey’s book mentions a Montana pioneer named “Uncle” John Yancey that’s buried at Gardiner Cemetery so I looked through my photos. Sure enough, I had photographed his grave. It’s Yancey who has the Roosevelt Arch connection.

Born in 1826, John Yancey was a Kentucky native. In the 1870s, shortly after the creation of Yellowstone National Park, he turned up as a prospector in the area of the Crevice Creek gold strike on the northern boundary of the park. With the money he made, he established a way station on the Gardiner to Cooke City road inside the park in 1882. Someone who met Yancey during a visit in 1896 described him as a “goat-bearded, shrewd-eyed, lank, Uncle Sam type.”

In April 1884, the Department of the Interior granted Yancey a 10-acre lease in nearby Pleasant Valley to establish a hotel. Soon thereafter, Yancey constructed a five-room hotel he named Yancey’s Pleasant Valley Hotel. While the housekeeping left something to be desired, the hotel was a success and many travelers stayed there.

Yancey was 77 when he traveled to Gardiner to witness the dedication of the Roosevelt Arch by President Theodore Roosevelt on April 24, 1903. Yancey not only witnessed the dedication, he apparently met President Roosevelt that day. Unfortunately, Yancey caught a cold soon after and died in Gardiner of pneumonia on May 7, 1903.

While Gardiner Cemetery is small, there are many more stories to share from this picturesque burial ground. I’ll have more in Part II.

 

My Iowa/South Dakota 2018 cemetery adventure actually ended in Nebraska! That doesn’t tie up my “Iowa/South Dakota” trip in a tidy package but it was a part of my visit so it doesn’t feel right to leave it out.

Two Cemeteries Merge

Voss-Mohr Cemetery is located in southwest Omaha in the suburb of Millard, not far from where Christi lives. I learned that it began as two family cemeteries. The Vosses buried their loved ones in the northwest corner of their farm and the Mohrs buried their family members in the northeast corner of their farm. The burial grounds adjoined to form the basis of the Voss-Mohr Cemetery. The area was known as Chalco at the time.

At some point, graves from the Stender family’s cemetery were moved to Voss-Mohr but nobody is sure when. Today, Voss-Mohr is a private cemetery managed by the Voss-Mohr Cemetery Association and burials are still taking place today. Additional room is available for future burials. Well maintained, it is located on busy Harrison Street and easy to access.

So why stop at Voss-Mohr? We were actually driving by it when I saw this large monument from the road. It was a great excuse to pull over and take a look.

It’s not often you see a statue on top of a monument in the U.S. of a man in a German military uniform. So I was immediately curious to figure out how Ferdinand Petersen merited such a grand monument.

Born on May 4, 1828, Ferdinand Petersen was from the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany. It’s located in the far northern part of the country bordering Denmark. That would be a key factor in his future.

According to his monument, Ferdinand fought in the German Wars of 1848, 1849, and 1850. From what I could find out, the First Schelswig War or Three Years’ War was the first round of military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question. It involved the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.

It’s a safe bet that it was a desire to leave the strife of war behind him that caused Ferdinand to emigrate to America around 1850. How he ended up in Nebraska Territory is uncertain but around 1858, he married Elizabeth “Bettie” Fuellner. They only had one child, Lizzie, around 1864.

Lizzie married Adolph Voss at the age of 32 in 1897. Adolph had also emigrated from the Holstein region with his family around 1876 as a boy. That explains how the Petersens came to be buried in Voss-Mohr Cemetery. The 1900 U.S. Census shows Ferdinand and Bettie living with their daughter and son-in-law on their farm.

Ferdinand died on March 17, 1903 at the age of 74. Fortunately, someone posted an article from the Papillion Times that described the monument and how it came to be at Voss-Mohr Cemetery.

“An Honest Soldier”

Last week at the cemetery a mile and a half south of Millard was erected one of the finest monuments in the state to the memory of Ferdinand Peterson, who was one of the oldest residents of Sarpy County. The monument was finished and erected by Hodges & Baldwin of Fremont at the cost of $500. It is of the best dark barre granite, with a granite statue of a soldier standing at parade rest, with a uniform like they wore in the German War of 1848, 1849, and 1950 of which Mr. Petersen was an honest soldier. The monument stands 15 feet high and made two train car loads from Fremont to Millard. The bottom base weights over eight tons and took ten horses to haul it from the station to the cemetery.

The inscription on Ferdinand’s marker is in German but someone on Find a Grave had a translation:

As the World’s Master sent me to the last Peace, then you all rest good night. Thy work is complete, now have a blessed sleep in Peace.

I’m intrigued by the effort and expense that went into providing this fine monument for a farmer. He must have been much loved by his family and community. I wish I knew more about what role he played in the community but was unable to do so.

Bettie continued living with Lizzie, Adolph, and her grandchildren until her death in 1912. She is buried beside Ferdinand.

Lizzie and Adolph had one son, Ferdinand, in 1902. They moved to Long Beach, Calif. around 1915. Lizzie died in 1919 and her body was sent home for burial at Voss-Mohr Cemetery. Adolph remarried in 1924 to twice widowed Nebraskan Mary Jensen Reeh, who had four children of her own. Adolph died in 1947 in California but he, too, was sent back to Nebraska for burial beside first wife, Lizzie. Son Ferdinand died in 1963 and is buried in California.

It’s not often you get the luck of knowing who actually provided a monument. As the article points out, Ferdinand’s monument came from the Hodges & Baldwin Marble and Fremont Granite Works. Fremont is located about 30 miles northwest of Voss-Mohr Cemetery.

The History of Hodges & Baldwin

George Henry “G.H.” Hodges came to Fremont around 1881 and worked as a stonecutter. At some point, he and L.W. Baldwin forged a partnership, opening their own monument works in Fremont. Over the years, they grew and expanded their operations, always operating a store in Fremont where customers could view samples of the stone available and designs.

The business had its fair share of ups and downs. A lawsuit that resulted after the accidental death of a worker went all the way to the Supreme Court. One article I found reported the theft of a horse from the monument works’ barn. But for the most part, Hodges & Baldwin prospered.

Hodges & Baldwin stayed in business until both men retired around 1936. G.H. died in 1940 at the age of 76. He and his first wife, Lura, share a beautiful monument.

A native of Wisconsin born in 1859, Lewis William “L.W.” Baldwin came to Nebraska in 1877 in a covered wagon. He was working as a traveling salesman for the same employer as G.H. when they met. L.W. died of a stroke in 1944 at the age of 85.

Both G.H. Hodges and L.W. Baldwin are buried at Fremont’s Ridge Cemetery.

Millard Pioneer

The tree-shaped monument for Julius Schroeder and his wife, Wilhelmine, stands out. There’s also a bit of irony about it that I’ll share later. A native of Germany, Julius was born in 1836. He married Wilhelmine Millitz around 1857. They journeyed to America in 1868.

They landed in Louisiana, traveling through Texas to settle in Nebraska where Julius farmed until 1875 when his health declined. In 1880, Julius was operating a saloon in what was then known as McCardle, just north of the area that became Millard. Julius was part of the first board of trustees when Millard was incorporated in 1885.

Although Julius was still keeping the saloon, he also owned a 320-acre farm that prospered. He and Wilhelmine would have six children who lived to adulthood.

Wilhelmine died on Feb. 12, 1896 at the age of 59. Soon after, Julius died on April 17 of the same year. He, too, was 59.

Now here’s why I think the Schroeder’s tree monument is a bit ironic. In doing a Newspapers.com search for Julius, I was only able to come up with this interesting item from the Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Neb.) on Aug. 28, 1896. In those days, newspapers thought nothing of publishing your financial worth and that included any insurance you might have had.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that tree-shaped markers are very closely tied to Woodmen of the World, a fraternal organization based in Omaha. Many people have WOW tree-shaped markers, complete with a WOW seal. While Julius and Wilhelmine’s family chose a tree-shaped marker for their parents, it was likely paid for by insurance proceeds from the Knights of Pythias. Not Woodmen of the World.

Stender Cemetery Grave

The last marker I’m going to share probably came from the old Stender Cemetery. Margaretha “Mattie” Brock married fellow German immigrant John Stender on Dec. 28, 1873 in Sarpy County, Neb. She was 17 years old. Mattie gave birth to a son, Fred, on Dec. 15, 1875. She died at the age of 22 on March 18, 1878.

Husband John would remarry to Sophia Lupteen not long after Mattie’s death. The couple had five children, four living well into adulthood. John died in 1902 and is also buried at Voss-Mohr. Sophia died in 1891 but if she is buried at Voss-Mohr, her grave is unmarked.

With all three of these markers, German was used for the inscriptions. Even the German “mutter” for mother and “vater” for father were not considered unusual at the time. This acceptance would change in the next decade when World War I approached and anti-German sentiment began to rise. Some immigrants would even change the spelling of their names entirely to downplay their German heritage.

Visiting Voss-Mohr was a pleasant way to end my Iowa/South Dakota adventure and it’s one I’ll remember fondly. Going cemetery “hopping” with my best friend is time I always treasure.

 

 

How can you tell if I truly fall in love with a cemetery? Big hint is I write a four-part series about it! That’s been the case with Le Mars Cemetery. With its bevy of white bronze markers, there’s been no shortage of examples about which to do a “show and tell”. Despite the fact there are more I could talk about, I’m ending this series today.

The first monument I’m going to share with you shows how one of these monuments enabled a family to share much of its history in one place, plate by plate. There are a total of 44 Beckers buried at Le Mars Cemetery. Five of them (Fred, 2 Katherinas, Jacob and Rosina) share one marker.

The Becker family story begins in 1829 in Switzerland with the birth of patriarch Fredoline “Fred” Becker. His emigration to America in 1849 interested me because unlike many Europeans, Fred made his arrival in New Orleans and not a Northeastern port like New York City or Boston. My own ancestor, John McCoy, took this same passage from Ireland in 1776.

Fred married fellow Swiss immigrant Katharina Hefti in Galena, Ill., but I’ve seen two different years listed for that event. As their children were born, they moved from Illinois to Plymouth County, Iowa around 1867. I believe they had 10 children total but I’m not certain.

The earliest date of death on the Becker marker is for a Rosina Hefti, who died at the age of 67 on May 16, 1870. Since Hefti was Katherina’s maiden name, it’s possible that it was her mother.

Rosina has a grave foot marker (an item we talked about last week) that would have cost around $4 at that time. She is also featured on a panel of the monument, which she shared with one of Katherina and Fred’s son’s Jacob.

At the time of Jacob’s death on Oct. 28, 1885, he had been living with his married sister, Katherina. She married cigar store owner Nicholas Koerting in 1880 and the couple had two children. According to a newspaper article, Jacob died of malarial fever (sometimes called typhoid). This was common during the 1800s, especially during the Civil War era.

Jacob’s death ushered in a terrible time for the Becker family. His mother and married sister, Celia Becker Dabb, were also ill at the time. Sister Katherina, age 25, succumbed to malarial fever on Nov. 19, 1885. Just a few months later, Katherina Becker died of the same ailment on Feb. 6, 1886. She was only 55.

Fred remarried in 1889 to a German immigrant 30 years his junior, Kate Durst or Drest. They had two sons, William and George. By now, Fred has amassed quite a bit of property. The family moved to Leeds, a neighborhood of nearby Sioux City.

“Liked By Every Man, Woman and Child”

On August 17, 1909, Fred died at the age of 80. His life was eulogized in the local newspaper as a Le Mars pioneer. But his will resulted in a scandal that I’m sure Fred never imagined when he had it drawn up.

Born around 1853 or 1854, Rosina “Rose” Becker was the first child of Fred and Katherina Becker. She married Gabriel Freuler in 1873. Together, the couple had at least three children.

Sometime after 1900, Rose was admitted to what is now called the Cherokee Mental Health Institute. When it opened for patients on August 15, 1902, it was called the Cherokee Lunatic Asylum. Rose spent the rest of her life there, dying at the age of 91 in 1945. Her death certificate states she died of bronchial pneumonia due to a fracture in her neck and femur caused by a fall. It also explains that the reason Rose was there was due to “manic depression psychosis.”

Left Out of the Will

In November 1909, after Fred’s will had been read, the family learned that while Kate Becker and all the other children were left bequests, Rose had been left out. His second wife was named executrix. Thanks to Ancestry, I saw the will for myself. Why did Fred purposefully leave Rose out of his will? I honestly don’t know.

Rose’s husband Gabriel Freuler sued the estate (which supposedly amounted to anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000) because Rose was not included. Gabriel charged that Fred had been unduly influenced his son, Fred Jr., in shutting out his sister. The court sided with Fred’s estate and Gabriel received no money.

I traced Fred’s second wife, Kate, to the 1910 U.S. Census, living in Leeds with sons, William and George. She appears for the last time in the Iowa Census of 1915 as living in Sioux City. She would have been 54 at that time. I don’t know what happened to her after that.

The Fall of Ben Amos

This next story I’m going to share is a sad one and not typical of what I encountered in researching the folks buried at Le Mars Cemetery. Ben Amos came from a good family and showed promise in his early years. But in the end, his life took a tragic turn.

Born in 1856 in Jackson County, Iowa, Ben was the son of Franklin and Martha Amos. He spent his boyhood years in the eastern part of the state. Franklin served in the 31st Iowa Infantry and was severely injured at the Battle of Atlanta in 1864. The couple also had a daughter, Talitha.

At some point, the Amos family moved to Le Mars. Ben married a young woman from Illinois named Victoria Nold. I’ve seen two different years listed for the marriage. In 1885, they were living with Franklin and Martha. Ben worked in real estate and seemed to be doing well. Franklin died in 1890 at the age of 60.

But sometime during the 1890s, Ben’s love of drink slowly took over and destroyed his marriage. Victoria left, heading for Colorado. By 1896, Ben had moved into rented rooms and according to the local newspaper, was known as the town drunk. He died on Feb. 7, 1896 after several weeks of drinking. The final blow came when he overdosed from a supply of drugs provided to him by a local man named Bill Schields, also known as “Morphine Bill.”

Ben shares a white bronze monument with his father, who also has a white veteran’s marker. Note that the top features an urn with an eternal flame coming out of it.

Victoria did not attend her estranged husband’s funeral but his mother and sister, now married, were present. Eventually, she remarried to a man named John Murphy in 1899 and began a new life in Montana.

Talitha Amos Miller, whose husband died from stomach cancer in 1910, died in 1912 from dropsy. Ben’s mother, Martha, had gone to live with Talitha and her family after Frank died in 1890. She died at the age of 89 in 1917, having lived her last years with her granddaughter in Minnesota.

One thing I noticed in the obituaries of both Talitha and Martha was the complete absence of Ben’s existence. In fact, Martha’s death notice specifically states that she had “but one child” and that was Talitha. It’s my guess that Ben’s death was considered so scandalous that his name was not to be mentioned ever again, which is incredibly tragic.

The Detloff Family Story

My last story is an example of how something that today would merely be an irritant could end one’s life. It also shares one family’s brief history that came full circle.

Born in Germany in 1860, Frederick Detloff arrived in America with his parents, John and Dora, when he was a child. In 1881, he married fellow German immigrant Rosa Wilde. Their son Arthur Detloff was born and died on Nov. 9, 1882. Freddie Detloff was born on June 12, 1887 and died the next day. They also had two other sons, Ernest and John, who lived to adulthood.

Frederick cut his hand one day, probably doing something quite simple while working on his farm. In a world where antibiotics did not yet exist, it proved fatal. Blood poisoning was the result and he died a few days later on Feb. 18, 1888. As was the rather unsettling custom of the time, his death notice included how much life insurance he had.

Rosa was left a young widow at the age of 24 with two sons to raise. From what I can tell, they remained in Le Mars for some time. She remarried some 14 years later to David Cross, who was a widower who had lost his wife in 1897. After living in Rock Island, Ill. for a while, they moved to Yakima, Wash. where she died of leukemia in 1911 at the age of 47.

According to her obituary, David and her two sons traveled with her body back to Le Mars for her burial beside her first husband and infant sons. She had one sister still living in Le Mars. What began with the death of her first child in 1882 ended with her own in 1911. David, who died in 1930, is buried in Yakima, Wash.

I’ve truly enjoyed putting together these blog posts this month, reliving a visit that was truly a highlight of my “hopping” career. Le Mars Cemetery remains only about 35 percent photographed on Find a Grave. It’s a goal of mine to go back and perhaps complete photographing it some day. It’s certainly a place I’ll never forget.