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.

Busy Lincoln Highway passes right by quiet Calvary Catholic Cemetery.

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 crucifixion tableau at Calvary Catholic Cemetery.

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 Kirby brothers died less than two years apart.

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

Irishman John Kirby died on 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.

Catharine Kirby outlived her husband by 16 years.

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.

Thomas Nolan died only a few months before his son William.

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.

Article from the Vinton (Iowa) Review, Sept. 6, 1911.

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.

William Harrington died in a car accident in 1911.

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 and Bridget Kelly were like many Van Horne residents in that they were Irish born and Catholic. (Photo source: Find a Grave.com)

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.

Sisters Margaret and Ellen Kelly were less than a year old when they died. The shadow of the cross that tops their brothers’ monument is falling on theirs.

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.

Brothers James and Michael Kelly share a monument. They died only eight months apart.

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.