Prairie cemetery

[Liberty Belle]

This is a lonely little prairie cemetery about two miles across the South Grand River from the first house we lived in, which was five homestead shacks pulled together to make for one rather large, and very leaky, abode. The ranch had belonged to my great grandfather and my great uncle before we bought it from another neighbor and the cemetery is on land we rent for pasture, owned by a family from Texas.

According to records left by my grandmother, who was the postmistress of the little Glendo post office, the cemetery contains four graves, Mr. and Mrs. Pankow, a Mr. Hoffman and a seventeen year old boy, Earl Vrooman (Vroman), son of Mrs. Clyde Comstock, who died of pneumonia while cowboying in Montana. According to my grandfather, Mr. Pankow was found dead in the barn with his horses, leaning on a sack of grain and it was grandpa who hauled his body to the cemetery in his team and wagon.

Do any of these names seem familiar? Mr. Pankow's grave is the only one of the three anyone can identify, but I'd like to get them all marked.

This handmade stone marker is beautiful, but we have no idea which grave it marks. As you can see, the name plate is long since gone.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Does the Cemetary have a name?

 

[baling wire]

We have a small cemetary near us. A neighbor who was died in Veitnam is buried there. They embeded his medel of honor in the head stone and someone dug it out. Hope it means somthing to them.

 

[Faster horses]

It is evident that a lot of love went into the making of that second headstone. There is probably a real story behind it...if we only knew...

 

[Haytrucker]

Have you seen the Pioneer Cemetery northeast of the 16 mile corner, Baling wire? I farmed by it this summer, there is one really neat memorial stone, and several homemade markers there.

 

[mp.freelance]

Does your county keep records on this sort of thing? It could be a good place to look.

 

[Murgen]

Just wanted to show you guys a cemetery from Canmore, Alberta. Dates were from the early 1800's. Most interestlingly was that alot had the cause of death printed somewhere. "Mountain Climbing, Killed by Bear, etc."

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Murgen/CanmoreCemetery2.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Murgen/CanmoreCemetery1.jpg

 

[Martin Jr.]

Just a little that I found on the internet: in 1900 William A. Pankow family lived in Charter Oak, IA including wife, Minnie, both born in Germany, sons, Lewis F., Willie, Elmer, and daughters, Dora, age 15 and Minnie, age 10. Next 1910 in Dixon county, NE Daily Twp. William A. age 50, wife Minnie L. age 45,(5 children born to her) and children Lewis, age 26, William H. age 22 and Elmer E. age 15 and father in law, Fred Eckart, age 86, born in Germany, widowed.
finally in Grandview Twp, Harding county: Minnie B. Pankow born 1866, widowed born Germany, immigrated 1869. children, Elmer E. age 24 born in Iowa, and Lewis F., aage 33, born in Iowa.
Earl Jay Vrooman registered for the draft on Sept 11, 1915 lived in Glendo, born June 17, 1898, mother: Lizzie Elsie Comstock.
If you want a poem on "Prairie Cemetery" do a google search and type in "Nollette Cemetery"

 

[Liberty Belle]

Martin - that's amazing! Where ever did you find this information, in the census reports? Earl Vrooman was a good friend of my great uncle, Gustav Schmidt, who was about the same age. Uncle Gus, a full blood German, changed his name to Gus Smith, joined the army and went to fight "those darn Germans" in WWI. He died in France, leaving his homestead, that was just south of where Earl Vrooman's mother lived, to his sister, my grandmother.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I just found the poem - did you write it? It is very good. I'm going to add it to the information I have on this little cemetery and the cemetery in our pasture that has ten graves on another lonely hillside. At least all the graves in the cemetery on our land have stones to identify them.

 

[baling wire]

I was not aware of that one Haytrucker . Wonder what the name of it is?

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

William Pankow born in Germany on June 18, 1831. He had a brother Louis

this is all I could find out.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Lily - if your William Pankow has any connection with the one on the tombstone, he would have to be a father or uncle. Mine was born in 1860. Where did you find your information and did your Pankows have any ties to South Dakota?

 

[V_Key]

Cemetery Corrals south of Gilroy, Ca.
Across the road from Gavilan College

Book:
The Cattle King
by Edward F. Treadwell
The Bioraphy of Henery Miller. Forunder of the Miller & Lux Cattle Empire

The remaines were moved to San Francisco in the 50's - - this site is now uses as a Corral

It is said that Miller could ride from Canada to Mexico and sleep on his own land every night

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/pageload.cgi?William:ankow::23.html

Just thought it might tie in since he had a brother named Louis and in the post martin jr did, he posted that your william pankow had a son named Lewis.

 

[Martin Jr.]

I found these Pankow records in census records, using www.ancestry.com. This is a subscription service. It wasn't hard to piece these together, as children's name's fit and you could trace where they came from. WPA did do some South Dakota cemeteries in the '30's. Didn't do all cemeteries. the only ones I could find on the internet were in Todd County. Otherwise it lists WPA cemetery records for South Dakota as on LDS film #1,295,756 and could be searched by going to a LDS Family History Center and order the film and view it.
Was there a land opening there in the early teens with a land drawing to bring people out there?
I don't make any claim to be a poet, but I did write the one on the cemetery.

 

[rdman]

Liberty Belle, Have you tried to get a rub off of the nameplate? You can do this by taking a piece of paper and placing it over the nameplate. Then take your pencil and rub the lead over the entire piece of paper. You might be able to read the name this way. Also, I've heard of people taking flour and dusting the name plate so that the name becomes visable.

 

[Liberty Belle]

rdman - I have done that before, but in this case the information was on a sheet of paper under a pane of glass that was imbedded in cement. The glass got broke and the paper has disappeared. I'll keep looking. If only I would have had brains enough to ask my grandmother while she was still alive... but, as they say, hindsight is twenty - twenty.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

check with as many elderly members of your community as you can before it's too late. Our little church cemetary had lost the records a few years back as to who was buried where, some not havin head stones to mark the graves. The cemetary association had a meeting/dinner and invited all the older members of the church to sit and talk and try to figure out if any of them remembered who was buried in the unmarked sites. They perdy much came up with all the names and have since marked them.