This week, I’m going to spend some time sharing the lovely white bronze (zinc) monuments at Oak Hill Cemetery.

One of the reasons I always looked forward to our trips to Iowa was that I knew we’d encounter at least a few white bronze monuments/markers. Since the Western White Bronze Company had a factory in Des Moines, there are tons of their markers scattered throughout the state. I don’t see them that often here in the South.

At OHC, white bronze monuments come in all shapes and sizes. But the largest one I could find was for the Bever family. There is one large monument for to represent all the Bevers, with individual markers for family members made of stone and white bronze. Find a Grave shows there are 23 Bever memorials listed at OHC.

The Bever Family

If you’re driving around Cedar Rapids, you can still find the name “Bever” on a handful of streets. There’s a Bever Woods historic district and a Bever Park. At one time in the early 1900s, there was even a Bever Park Zoo.

Born in 1808 in Ohio, Sampson Cicero Bever was already a wealthy man when he and his wife, Mary, moved with their family to Cedar Rapids in 1852. He opened the city’s first bank and was involved in bringing the first railroad to Cedar Rapids.

At some point, Sampson had the remains of his parents John Bever and Euphemia “Effie” Imbrie Bever Flack moved from Ohio to Cedar Rapids. John Bever died young at 32 in 1811. Effie remarried to Frances Flack in 1815 and died in 1869.

Sampson and Mary had a large family over the years. At least, Mary and Mirtilla, died in their teens in 1860. Their mother, Mary, died in 1885 at age 72. Five of her adult children were still living at the time.

When Sampson died in 1892 at age 84, the local newspaper published a lengthy obituary about him that included this tribute:

Mr. Bever was a man of exceptional if not extraordinary business sagacity and acumen. His judgment seemed to be unerring and every business enterprise that enlisted his personal co-operation, attention and encouragement succeeded. In this long career of continuous commercial and financial success he acquired vast wealth and was rated as a millionaire. He was intimately known by all the old settlers of central and eastern Iowa, many of whom have had business transactions with him for the past forty years. Financially he was one of the most important and potential factors in the city.

Bever Park was established in 1893 on wooded land owned by the Bever family to honor Sampson Bever.

“Whisky Killed Him”

Henry Bever was one of Sampson and Mary’s sons. I did not photograph all of the Bever markers but I did get a photo of his. It is made of stone, not white bronze.

Born in 1846, Henry lived at home with his parents until he served in the 46th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Co. E, during the Civil War. He came home and worked as a dry good merchant for a time, then as a coal dealer, and later in his father’s bank.

Henry died at the age of 36 on Christmas Day 1882, which must have been quite a blow to the family. I found a few brief death notices but this one from the Dec. 29, 1882 Muscatine (Iowa) Weekly Journal got my attention.

This kind of thing always gets to me because frankly, it wasn’t necessary. No other funeral notice about Henry Bever said anything about whiskey. Even he did have a problem with alcohol, printing it in the newspaper did nothing but bring his family pain. Part of me wonders if someone at the Muscatine Weekly Journal had a beef with the Bever family to include it.

When a Husband Dies

I was only partially successful at solving the mystery behind the Downing white bronze marker. But it’s rather typical of the kind of thing that may happen when a women loses her husband at a fairly young age.

Born in Ireland around 1831, Margaret Cooper married Robert Downing in 1854. I don’t know if they wed in America or in Ireland. They had at least four children together.

By 1870, Robert was out of the picture. There is no record of his burial at OHC. Margaret and the children (Anna, Caroline, Addah, and Emma) were living in Grinnell, Iowa. That’s about 80 miles west of Cedar Rapids.

On June 18, 1873, Anna died at age 18. I don’t know her cause of death. On June 1, 1878, Addah died at age 16. Again, I don’t know the cause of death. They were both buried at OHC.

According to the 1885 Iowa Census, Margaret and youngest daughter Emma were still living in Grinnell. Daughter Carrie had married a Mr. Smyth and moved to Tacoma, Wash. Margaret and Emma would move there sometime before 1892. Emma would marry a Mr. Merritt. Eventually, Margaret moved in with Carrie and her family.

Margaret died on March 30, 1909 in Tacoma. Her body was taken back to Cedar Rapids for burial with Anna and Addah at OHC. I am wondering if the monument for all three of them was made when she died because white bronze markers were not being made in Des Moines until 1886. The factory closed around 1908 so it was likely one of the last ones made.

Died from a Cut on His Knee

I couldn’t find out a great deal about the Stein family but what I did discover made me sad.

German immigrant John Stein married Irish native Sarah Jane Johnson at some point before settling in Pennsylvania. The couple would have eight children together, eventually moving to Cedar Rapids.

Born in 1861, William Robert Stein was their fourth child. He died on March 15, 1885 at age 23. I was curious to know how he died so young and found the following obituary (below). A cut evidently turned septic and it caused his death. Something that could have been easily treated today with antibiotics, mostly likely.

He was buried at OHC with a large white bronze monument.

Sarah Jane, his mother, died on Dec. 5, 1905 at age 78. Her death certificate notes that she died from “a broken leg and shock”. Her obituary had no further details. William’s father, John, died four years later on May 27, 1909 at age 82. Sarah Jane and John are buried in the plot with William but don’t have markers.

Mystery of the Mills

The white bronze marker for Marie Mills Dickerson, Bessie Mills, and Jimmie Mills left me with more questions than answers.

James “Jimmie” Mills, born sometime in March 1887, and Bessie Mills, born in 1888, were the children of Robert D. Mills and Cornelia “Cora” Dickinson (or Dickerson). Finding information on them was tricky because Cora’s last name was spelled different ways. But I did learn the two were married in Cedar Rapids in 1883.

Jimmie died on Jan. 4, 1890 and Bessie died on Jan. 12. 1890, both from “diphtheritic croup” or rather, diphtheria.

On the other side of the marker is a plate for Marie Mills Dickerson, wife of G.A. Dickerson. Born in 1842, Marie died of “anasarca dropsy” which is another term for edema. According to burial records, she had suffered from it for 8 years. Interesting to note is that her marker says she died on April 5, 1890 but death records indicate it was actually April 5, 1889. She was 47.

I could only find one mention of a G.A. Dickerson in the newspapers and it was that he had a watch repair business in Cedar Rapids. That was it. I have no record of his burial at OHC or elsewhere. My guess is that he was Cora’s brother, and the uncle of little Jimmie and Bessie.

Fatal Accident

Then you find one of those stories that just break your heart.

Born around 1845 in Maryland, John J. Mathias enlisted in the Union Army. He was assigned to the Third Maryland Volunteer Infantry, Company E, which was known as the Potomac Home Brigade. He married Nannie “Nancy” Stone (also of Maryland) in Ogle, Illinois in 1869. By 1860, they were living in Lisbon, Iowa with their infant son, John. That’s about 19 miles from Cedar Rapids.

By the 1880s, the Mathias family had moved to Cedar Rapids and John had gotten a job working in the fertilizer department of a packing house. On Feb. 17, 1887, John was killed in an accident that is detailed in the article below.

Nancy was left with their son, John, to fend for herself. A note published in the local newspaper a few days later expressed her thanks. This was a common practice back then. It sounds like John’s employer may have assisted her and John financially. They may have even provided his white bronze marker.

Sadly, Nancy died almost a year to the day of her husband’s death. There was no newspaper notice I could find but death records note she died on Feb. 17, 1888 of “disease of the liver and bowels”. Perhaps she also died of a broken heart.

I could not find any trace of John W. Mathias, John and Nancy’s son, after she died. He would have been around 18 at the time, so hopefully he managed alright on his own. There is no record of him being buried at OHC.

I’ll wrap things up next week in Part IV.

Last week, I introduced you to Oak Hill Cemetery (OHC) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It’s a lovely place to wander around in and there was plenty to divert me.

What I found was the story of a fellow who tried to fake his own death and start a new life, and the grave of a Cedar Rapids dentist who posed for one of America’s most famous paintings.

Later in our trip, we visited the museum at Anamosa Penitentiary and its cemetery. However, I had no idea that when I was photographing graves earlier at OHC that I’d photographed the grave of an infamous former Anamosa prisoner named Frank Novak.

Faked His Own Death

Below, you can see the Novak family plot at OHC. I photographed it because of the beautiful wood/tree-themed style of the surname monument and the individual stones that accompany it. Not because I ever thought there would be notoriety attached to it.

It all began with a mysterious 1:30 a.m. fire on Feb. 3, 1897 in a store called Novak & Jilek that awoke the residents of Walford, Iowa, about 12 miles southwest of Cedar Rapids. Missing was Frank Novak, the store’s owner.

Frank Novak, 32, was the son of German immigrants John and Anna Novak. John emigrated from Bohemia in the 1860s and married Anna Cerveny in 1864. They had four children together and Frank was the oldest. John did well in his business/farming efforts and the family prospered.

Frank was very charming, intelligent, and played the violin beautifully. Farm work was not to his taste, being of a less than robust constitution. Gambling was more his style. He was keen on starting new business ventures with his father’s help but none of them seemed to ever pan out.

The store he opened with his sister Blanche’s husband, Vaclav Jilek, however, seemed to succeed. But while Frank and Vaclav were on a train headed for the World’s Fair in Chicago, Ill. on July 23, 1893, Vaclav fell off on his way to another car on the train and was seriously injured, dying soon after. He is buried in the Novak plot at OHC.

Frank rebuilt the store in 1896 and opened a small bank next door. That spring, burglars blew open the bank’s safe, making off with the contents. Frank swore it would never happen again and despite being married with children, would often sleep on a cot at the store next door to keep an eye on things.

On the night of Feb. 2, 1897 around 9 p.m. Frank and his other brother-in-law locked up the bank and store, then headed to Martin Loder’s tavern to have a beer. Among the patrons was drifter Edward Murray, an alcoholic often in and out of jail. Later, Frank and his brother-in-law were seen back at the store selling tobacco to two men who couldn’t get it at Loder’s along with Edward Murray.

Once the fire was out, the debris revealed a dead body. Everyone was sure it was Frank Novak since he was nowhere to be found. But examination of the man’s teeth soon revealed it wasn’t him. He’d recently had extensive dental work that was not present in the corpse’s mouth. Further exploration of the remains confirmed it was Edward Murray, whose skull had been bashed in. His sister, Nellie, confirmed it by an item found on his body.

A Musical Murderer

Frank had purchased several insurance policies on his own life totaling around $27,000 not long before he died. His plan was to leave his wife Mary (who knew nothing about it) financially settled while he pursued a new life with a new name elsewhere.

Newly elected Benton County attorney M.J. Tobin was keen to track down Novak and detective C.C. Perrin took up the challenge. Thus began a pursuit covered in newspapers that was followed with interest by many across the country.

In a nutshell, Frank fled to Omaha, Neb. and purchased a train ticket to Portland, Ore. From there, he traveled by steamer to Alaska and ended up in the town of Dawson. Frank was captured in August 1897 by Perrin while playing violin in a dance hall. He was escorted back to Iowa for trial, where he received a life sentence from judge George W. Burnham for insurance fraud and murdering poor Edward Murray.

By now, Frank’s wife had divorced him, and was supporting herself and their sons Milo and Leo by running a boarding house.

“Life” in Prison

But similar to today, “life” in prison didn’t always mean just that. At first, Frank served his time in Anamosa Penitentiary and behaved himself. By 1903, he was involved in photography and part of the prison band. His non-incarcerated friends petitioned Iowa’s governor for clemency. In 1908, Frank was transferred to a rougher prison in Fort Madison, where he started another prison orchestra.

In 1911, Frank was released when his life sentence was commuted by the governor because of having served 13 years already. He married Ella Johnson in 1913 and the couple moved to Chicago where he became a real estate broker, living a quiet life. Ella died in 1918.

Frank’s mother, Anna, died in 1907 and was buried at OHC. Sadly, his father committed suicide on March 6, 1927 at age 88 when he turned up the gas on his home’s oven. The article below describes how John Novak made sure his pet canary was not harmed. He was buried beside Anna at OHC.

Frank died on July 12, 1930 in Chicago. A few days later, his remains were sent to Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids. He is buried in a corner of the family plot. Mary Novak never remarried and died in 1964. She and her sons (both lived long lives) are buried at Cedar Memorial Park in Cedar Rapids.

American Gothic Dentist

OHC is also the final resting place of someone whose face you’ve likely seen, but you never knew who he actually was.

Born in 1891 in Anamosa, Iowa, artist Grant DeVolson Wood is noted for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. Most know him for his popular painting American Gothic. Earlier, we stopped at Iowa State University’s library in Ames to see some of Wood’s murals.

Wood took inspiration for the painting from what is now known as the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa, along with “the kind of people [he] fancied should live in that house”. It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter – often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The painting’s name is a word play on the house’s architectural style, Carpenter Gothic.

Wood asked his sister, Nan Wood Graham, to be the model for the daughter, dressing her in a colonial-print apron mimicking 20th-century rural Americana.

The model for the father was the Wood family’s dentist and Gran’s friend, Dr. Byron McKeeby. Nan told others that Grant had envisioned the pair as father and daughter, not husband and wife, which Wood himself confirmed in his letter to Nellie Sudduth in 1941: “The prim lady with him is his grown-up daughter.”

Wood painted Dr. McKeeby in his dental office. Dr. McKeeby, then 62, put on overalls and held a prop pitchfork. The rest of the painting, including Nan, was completed nearby in Woods’ studio. Nan and McKeeby never posed together in front of the Eldon house.

Dr. McKeeby studied dentistry at the University of Iowa, graduating in 1894 and founded his first practice in Winthrop, Iowa. He moved to Cedar Rapids in 1901 where he established an office which he maintained almost until his death.

Denial Then Acceptance

At first, Dr. McKeeby distanced himself from the painting’s popularity. Friends thought it was him and even joked about the pitchfork’s role in his dental procedures. But Dr. McKeeby stood firm in his denials. Because the dentist was known around town for his dapper style and affable sense of humor, the real Dr. McKeeby was nothing like the dour farmer in the painting.

In 1935, Dr. McKeeby admitted he was the farmer. Cy Douglass, an Associated Press news bureau chief, helped coax his confession. Dr. McKeeby’s oldest son was married to Douglass’ sister.

Dr. McKeeby eventually embraced his part in the painting, appreciating the fact that he looked more like the rustic farmer as he got older.

In 1943, Dr. McKeeby was interviewed about his unexpected fame. He said, “‘It made it (the friendship) a little bumpy, but nobody could really be mad at Grant Wood. He painted a beautiful picture of a bridge for my new house and when he gave it to me he said, ‘Doctor, you made me a bridge once, now I’ve made you one!’ ”

Dr. McKEeeby died on Jan. 6, 1950 at age 82. He is buried at OHC beside his first wife, Belle Metcalf McKeeby, who died in 1917.

Nan Wood Graham is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Anamosa with her brother, Grant. We visited that cemetery, too. I’ll share more about them in an upcoming blog post.

Next time, I’ll be featuring some of the white bronze (zinc) markers of Oak Hill Cemetery.

In contrast to Calvary Catholic Cemetery’s 300-something burials, Oak Hill Cemetery (OHC) in Cedar Rapids boasts close to 11,000 memorials on Find a Grave. That’s quite a difference!

Cedar Rapids is the second-most populous city in Iowa. The 2020 United States Census notes that the city population was 137,710. Cedar Rapids is 100 miles northeast of Des Moines, the state’s capital and largest city.

After Cedar Rapids was incorporated in 1849, land development to the east threatened to overtake the small Village (or Washington) Cemetery. In 1856, those graves were moved to the new Oak Hill Cemetery on a tract of land then considered to be outside the city. The new cemetery included a potter’s field, which is now City Cemetery owned by the City of Cedar Rapids Parks Department.

Chicago landscape architect Horace William Shaler Cleveland was hired in 1869 and again in 1880 to prepare a plan for cemetery improvement, giving it a rural picturesque landscape design. Initially operated as a for-profit cemetery, OHC was reorganized (with additional land) as Oak Hill Cemetery Association, a non-profit organization.

Titanic Victim

One of the reasons I wanted to visit OHC was to visit the mausoleum of Walter Donald Douglas, a successful Iowa businessman who perished on the Titanic on April 15, 1912. You might recall I featured another Titanic victim, Nebraska’s Emil Brandeis, in a past blog post.

Walter was the second son of Scottish immigrant George Douglas (1817-1884) and Margaret Boyd Douglas. George was a partner in a cereal mill in Cedar Rapids, which later merged with several other oat mills in 1901 to form the Quaker Oats Company. When he died in 1884 at age 67, George was the first to be interred in the Douglas mausoleum at OHC. Margaret, who died in 1905 at age 77, joined him in the mausoleum.

Born in Waterloo, Iowa in 1861, Walter wed Lulu Eliza Camp in 1884 and they had two sons, George Camp and Edward Bruce. Lulu died of typhoid fever in 1899 at age 37, and is interred in the Douglas mausoleum. Walter remarried in 1906 to Mahala Dutton Benedict, a divorcee originally from Cedar Rapids.

Douglas amassed a fortune of at least $4 million in various Cedar Rapids industries and expanded into the linseed oil business in Minneapolis, Minn. With his elder brother George, he formed the Douglas and Company Starchworks (later Penick & Ford) in 1903. Associated with several prominent businesses, Walter was also an executive in the Quaker Oats Co.

With Mahala, Walter built a mansion overlooking Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis that they called Waldon. Douglas retired in January 1912 and the couple embarked on a three-month tour of Europe to find furnishings for their palatial retreat.

Walter purchased first-class tickets for he and Mahala, and Mahala’s French maid, Berthe Leroy, on the Titanic in hopes of being home in time to celebrate Walter’s birthday. According to the Encyclopedia Titanica:

On the night of the sinking Mr. and Mrs. Douglas had been in their cabin at the time of the collision, the shock of which was so slight that they paid little heed to it. Receiving no instructions to go topside, the couple waited in their cabin, he reassuring his wife that there was no danger. Only the sight of other passengers gathering in the corridors dressed in lifebelts prompted to couple to do the same and they dressed and headed to the boat deck where they waited for some time.

Mr Douglas saw his wife and maid off in lifeboat #2 but refused to go himself until all women and children were accounted for, saying it would make him ‘less than a man’ or ‘No, I must be a gentleman.’ According to later reports Walter Douglas, dressed in his finest, helped lower the last lifeboat of survivors off the Titanic.

Walter died in the sinking and his body was recovered by the cable ship MacKay Bennett.

Meanwhile, Mahala and Berthe, passengers in lifeboat #2, were among the first to board the Carpathia, which had come to rescue survivors. Walter’s brother George Douglas and his wife made their way to New York from Iowa to meet her, along with her stepson Edward, and she recuperated at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Mahala later returned to Waldon with her family.

Walter’s remains were sent first to Minnesota, and the family had a service at Waldon for him. After that, he was moved to Cedar Rapids for another private service at Oak Hill Cemetery before interment in the Douglas mausoleum.

Mahala Moves On

Spending much time abroad, Mahala divided her time living in Minnesota at different locations. She made frequent trips to a holiday home in Pasadena, Calif. She remained close with her maid ,Berthe Leroy, who was still listed with her on the 1930 U.S. Census.

An advocate of arts and culture, Mahala turned Waldon into a showplace for extravagant gardens and furnishings collected from around the world. Also a talented writer, Mahala Douglas published a collection of stories and poems in 1932. The last poem in the book is a haunting account of the Titanic disaster.

Mahala died on April 22, 1945 at age 81 in Los Angeles, Calif. She is interred with Walter and her step-sons in the Douglas mausoleum. Berthe Leroy died on July 1972 at age 88 and is buried in Hersin Coupigny Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France.

“Gone to His Last Long Sleep”

There’s an interesting postscript to the Douglas family story. When Walter Douglas died, his will stipulated that his sons and heirs should for 10 years earn at least $2,500 a year. After that time, half a million dollars left by their father should be divided equally between them. Mahala got her own portion of his fortune.

Son Edward fulfilled his requirement to earn his part of the inheritance, which included serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. George worked at the family-owned starch works until 1915 when he enlisted as a private in the British Army as World War I was starting there. Apparently, he earned less than his brother. He also remained in the British Army, being stationed in Arabia after the war. While on furlough, he returned to America in 1922 to plead his case with the executors of his father’s will to receive his inheritance and they agreed he had “paid his dues”.

Sadly, George died in 1925 at age 39 in Chantilly, France. George had not only been gassed but wounded more than once during the war and later contracted beri beri while serving in Arabia. Some articles I found said he died in an accident, others as a result of his poor health. Regardless, his body was brought back to Cedar Rapids for interment in the Douglas mausoleum.

After World War I, Edward Douglas came home to Minnesota to try his hand in the banking business. But he later enrolled at the New York Central School of Arts where he became the student of Danish-American sculptor George J. Lober. He married and divorced three times.

Edward became a noted sculptor, moving to Rome in 1927. He married Marthe Legret and they moved to France. They had one daughter, Beatrice. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The picture below is of a bronze called “Busto di Donna” he completed in 1930.

Edward died of a heart attack at age 57 in San Francisco, Calif. on Feb. 6, 1946. He was the last member of the family to be interred in the Douglas mausoleum.

“Laid Beneath the Flowers”

OHC has two “woodsy” themed markers that I plan to highlight. The first is especially tragic because it tells a tale in names and dates of the four Hager children who died in the 1880s.

Born in Maryland in 1849, Richard Hager came to Iowa as a boy. He married Lottie Hergesheimer in 1874 and worked as a railroad foreman. The couple would have three children over the next few years: Charlie, Samuel, and Lizzie.

Diphtheria hovered over the Hager home in late April 1882. Sammie, age, four, died on April 22. Charlie, age six, died on April 27. Lizzie, only two, followed on May 2. Three children gone over the passage of only 12 days.

Dolly, born on Jan. 31, 1882, died of diphtheria on Oct. 9, 1889 at age seven.

Youngest son Archie, born in 1885, is the only Hager child who escaped an early death. He grew up and became a blacksmith for the railroad. As far as I can tell, he never married. The last record of him I could find was a World War II draft card that reported he was working as a fisherman in Peoria, Ill.

Richard Hager died at age 71 in 1921. Lottie died at 81 in 1930. They are buried with their children but their names are not inscribed on the “tree”.

In Part II, I’ll share the story behind another tree-themed Novak monument that involves a man who tried to fake his own death.

Our Iowa 2019 roadtrip technically began in Marshalltown when we stopped for a few minutes at one of my favorite cemeteries, Riverside Cemetery. But I’ve already written about them so let’s start with the one we went to after that.

Calvary Catholic Cemetery (CCC) is right on busy Lincoln Highway between Marshalltown and Cedar Rapids. The closest town is Van Horne. There was no rhyme or reason in how I chose it. It was on the way and it seemed convenient to stop. The graves we discovered reflect the lives of a humble but hard working, Irish Catholic community that made its mark in America’s heartland.

I wish I could say I found a lot of information about this cemetery but I didn’t. The oldest marker is from around 1855. Iowa officially became a state in 1846. According to Find a Grave, there are about 352 memorials recorded. It looked well tended when we visited and I saw a burial from the year of our visit. So it appears to still be an active cemetery.

I don’t know if it is affiliated with a Calvary Catholic Church in the area or if the congregation still exists today. There are five Catholic churches in Benton County known as the Queen of Saints cluster but none are called Calvary.

I did see that it also goes by the name Kelly Cemetery. There are 65 Kellys buried there with the earliest dying in 1863. It’s possible the Kellys originally owned the land and donated it for the purpose of a cemetery.

CCC has a beautiful cross bearing the figure of Christ, symbolizing the importance of Calvary where He was crucified. I don’t know what year it was installed.

The Kirby Family

The first marked burial belongs to the Kirby brothers, sons of John and Catharine Kirby of Ireland. Mathews Kirby, born in May 1847, died at age eight on Sept. 27, 1855. Brother P.T. Kirby, born on May 2, 1857, died 10 days later.

The boys’ father, John Kirby, was a farmer in Benton County. He died at age Sept. 4, 1871.

Wife Catharine died in 1887. Her brief obituary noted that she spent her last years traveling to visit her children. John and Catharine’s daughter Carrie, who died in 1895, is buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, Ill. She is buried there with her second husband, John “Judge” Shane. Her Find a Grave memorial shows an illustration of a “dress fitting apparatus” that she patented in 1891.

1911 Car Accident

While the Kellys dominate this cemetery, there are more than 40 Nolans buried at CCC. One of them was William John Nolan, born in 1876 to Irish immigrants Tom Nolan and Ann Hanley Nolan. He was a young man who showed great promise but his life was tragically cut short.

William lived and worked on his family’s farm. Mother Ann died in 1907 at age 71. William wed Lena Agnes Woestemeir on Oct. 12, 1909. The couple worked and lived on the Woestemeir farm in St. Clair. William’s father, Tom, died on Aug. 16, 1911 at age 74. He was buried beside Anna.

Although William mourned his father, he and Lena celebrated the upcoming birth of their second child. Their fortunes were increasing and life on their farm was good.

On Sept. 1, 1911, William was in the back of an automobile with Oscar Tow near Fairfax, Iowa while his friend, James Harrington, was driving. As they crossed a bridge, two men on horseback were riding behind and got spooked by the car. Once on the other side of the bridge, Harrington attempted to pull over to give the two riders a wider berth and the car tumbled down an embankment.

Harrington suffered a broken arm and Tow escaped unharmed. But because William was in the rear right seat, he was killed instantly. He was only 34 years old.

His wife, Lena, only 21, was left a pregnant widow. She gave birth to Mary Magdalene Nolan on Dec. 27, 1911. She would remarry in 1915 to Leo Ament. The couple lived in Linn County, Iowa and had nine children together. Lena is buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Kellys

Irish immigrants Michael Kelly and Bridget Ryan Kelly were one of Benton County’s founding families.

Arriving in America as a child around 1855, Michael’s family settled in Kane County, Ill. but later moved to Iowa. Michael wed Bridget Ryan in 1868.

Michael was a farmer but he also was a canny businessman. He founded the Van Horne Savings Bank and at the time of his death, he was its vice president.

But regardless of wealth, the Kellys knew tragedy as their neighbors did. They would have nine children over their marriage. Only five still lived when Michael died in 1930.

Daughter Ellen, born in November 1873, died on Aug. 20, 1874 at eight months old. Daughter Margaret, born in October 1878, died on Sept. 23, 1879 at 10 months old. They share a monument at CCC. In the photo below, you can see that Michael Kelly is buried directly behind them in the shadows with Bridget to the left.

Son Michael, born in October 1881, died on Dec. 26, 1886 of diphtheria. Brother James, born in November 1871 was 15 when he died on Aug. 31, 1887. He was thrown from his horse on the family farm and the horse then stepped on his neck, killing him. He and Michael share a monument.

Matriarch Bridget Kelly died at age 81 in 1927. Michael died on Sept. 11, 1930 at age 84.

As we prepared to head onward, I was reminded that while large cemeteries are always a pleasure to visit, the small, rural ones are just as interesting. They offer a unique look into the history of the farming families that built America’s Midwest into what it is today. One life at a time.

I’ll see you next time at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.