Name/Title
Cemetery, Speech Old Cemeteries in Waupun, Ben KasteinDescription
Old Cemeteries in Waupun, this document written by Ben Kastein was presented to the Waupun Historical Society by Gene Buchholz. Mr Buchholz acted as the person who sold and kept track of Forest Mound Cemetery for many years. The first part is a note written by Gene Buchholz and dated April 29, 1996. The copies are stamped Waupun Public Library, so I assume that they have an original copy.
This speech was given by Ben Kastein on Tuesday March 19, 1957. I have not been able to determine the organization to which he was talking. Ben Kastein was elected as Trustee and Treasurer of Forest Mound Cemetery Association on December 2, 1918. He was elected secretary and superintendent on May 23, 1927. He served in this capacity until his death on August 18, 1960.
Eugene Buchholz
April 29, 1996
Old Cemeteries in Waupun
Webster says "Cemetery is a public burial ground." That means a place of the dead, so perhaps this is not a living topic.
I have no records that give me any information about the old cemeteries in our city, so what I will tell you will all be from memory, which I am finding is not too reliable these days. I know more about the Waupun Cemetery, now Wilcox Park, on the corner of South Watertown and East Lincoln Streets, because when I was a boy, with brothers Will and John, I occasionally went there to play. It was a good place for playing hide and seek, because of the tall grass, bushes, evergreen trees and some monuments, it was a good place to hide.
Across the road to the east was the Johnston farm, later owned by Ole Bronson and now owned by the state, except of course for the houses built to the east of Watertown St. To the south across E. Lincoln street the ground was owned by J. T. Hillyer, who lived in the house now owned by H. M. Larson. To the west was ground owned by Richard Goff, with no house on Lincoln street between the cemetery and the corner of Carrington street, except the one in which Mrs. Bush lived, the mother I believe of C. J. Bush and Norman C. Bush. If I am wrong about this please correct me. To the north the ground was low and in wet seasons and in the spring of the year, there was usually a pond of water, about where Bronson street now runs. That ground was sold by A. S. Johnson, Sr. to the Waupun Wringer Factory, of which F. E. Jones, was one of the partners.
I have no recollections of any burials being made in this cemetery, but do recall that some person started to bury one member of his family but was stopped because the City Council had prohibited any further burials being made there.
On the Johnston land along Watertown street there had been a stone a stone quarry from which I was told some of the stone was taken that was used in the building of the State Prison. There was water there and brother John and I went swimming there, although neither of us could swim. This quarry was filled in by the city and now you know that space is all occupied by residences.
West Side Park occupies the ground which had been a cemetery, but I know little or nothing about it. To the south across Grace Street was ground owned by M. K. Dahl, who lived in the house now owned by Dick Rens. To the west was Chris Johnson's tobacco field, but who owned to the north I cannot say.
Whatever became of the records of the burials of two cemeteries I do not know, as I do not believe they were turned over to Forest Mound Cemetery, unless they are in a box brought to me after R. D. Tillotson died. I have never looked in the box and it is still in the bank's storage vault. I am occasionally asked by former residents if I have any of the records which show the burial of such and such a person. If they were buried in Forest Mound Cemetery I can usually help them, but if the burials was in the other two cemeteries, I cannot help them.
Forest Mound Cemetery records do show some of the persons that had been buried elsewhere and removed the Forest Mound, but from memory I cannot recall who they were, except for those of Mrs. Way Martin's family that were removed from the Atwater cemetery.
Perhaps some of you people present have some information about these two cemeteries that I do not have. So much for the "dead cemeteries".
I thought you might be interested in some of the history of the beginning of Forest Mound Cemetery, who were the organizers, with the names of the first trustees and officers and the present trustees and officers.
According to the minute book a meeting was held on November 16, 1862 at the office of W. H. Taylor for the purpose of forming a cemetery association, and to the Certificate of Organization dated December 18, 1862, the following persons were organizers of the Association: George W. Bly, William Hobkirk, Thomas Oliver, Charles Johes, H. L. Butterfield, T. W. Markle, E. Hillyer, Thomas Stoddart, W. H. Taylor and A. McNaughton. The name of the Association was to be Forest Mound Cemetery Association, with Geo. W. Bly, W. H. Taylor and A. McNaughton Trustees for one year; Thomas Oliver, T. W. Markle and H. L. Butterfield for two years; Chas. Jones, Thomas Stoddart and William Hobkirk for three years. Geo. W. Bly was elected President and W. H. Taylor, Secretary. In 1867 Thomas Stoddart was elected Secretary.
The present Trustees are, J. H. Landaal, N. E. W. Lenz and Ben Kastein whose terms expire in 1957; E. W. Hooker, Ed Nummerdor and Dr. J. A. Loomans whose terms expire in 1958; D. C. Newcomb, Drew J. Pattee and Dr. H. E. Luck whose terms expire in 1959, E. W. Hooker is President, D. C. Newcomb, Vice President and Ben Kastein, Secretary and Treasurer.
On the 24th day of December, 1862 [Date is hard to read.] twelve acres of ground was purchased from John J. Brake and wife and T. W. Markle and wife. I wanted to state who was the first burial made in Forest Mound Cemetery but it would have taken too much time to look it up and then perhaps it could not be found as no very good Record was made in the early days.
When J. E. Brinkerhoff was made Secretary in December, 1908 he, I believe, took steps too make records that would show each lot, the size of same, in which Block located and the burials made on each lot. I have made copies of three different lots which shows how the different lots are platted and burials records made on them. I thought the W. H. Taylor one would be of interest because he was the first Secretary of the Association. It seems to me I can just recall his funeral and that it was quite an affair. As I have it in mind some men standing at the foot of the stairs in the Taylor Block, the building which is now occupied by the State Bank, with their swords crossed overhead under which men passed to the sidewalk and then to the street. I have a faint idea that Mr. Taylor was spoken of as General Taylor, but I might be mistaken and that was another Taylor.
One of the plats is of the Wesley Loomans lot who is the latest burial in Forest Mound up to yesterday when Ben Kraemer was buried. You will note that the Loomans burial is No. 2812. I find Mr. Brinkerhoff began numbering the burials with the first one numbered 129. That does not mean there are 2812 burials in our cemetery, as there must be many more than that because in the 48 year period between 1863 when the cemetery was started and 1911, when Mr. Brinkerhoff began numbering there must have been several hundred people buried.
The third one is of the Wallace E. [might be a b] Varney family which I thought would be of interest because you will note that in March 1885 they had three children buried, all three of them having died of scarlet fever when Waupun had the terrible epidemic when so many children died.
Dr. VanHengel who lived across the street from us in the house now occupied by Mrs. Josie Hull, also had three boys die with scarlet fever, all within a week or two of each other, in fact two of the boys were buried in one grave.
When I first became Secretary in 1927 there was no index giving the names of the persons buried in Forest Mound Cemetery, and the only way I could find them was to look at the Perpetual Care ledger, which is filed alphabetically. But that often did not help as in the case of the W. H. Taylor lot, the perpetual care deposit was made by Mrs. M. I. Taylor-Gee, a daughter, and the ledger sheet is filed ender the letter G.
Several years ago I had some cards printed on which I could make what I hoped was a complete record of the person buried. I went through the records and plats of each lot and made up cards as best I could of the persons buried on each lot. In many cases however no names were given on the plats. All there would be was the family name of the owner of the lot, and some of the graves where there were no monuments or markers, Mr. Brinkerhoff just said "unmarked grave". Now if anyone comes along that wants to know where their relatives are buried I look through these cards, of which there are now four drawers full.
I thought the record card of W. H. Taylor would be of interest so I made a copy, as also of Wesley Loomans, for your inspection.
Many years ago, in fact at a special meeting held February 28, 1898, steps were taken to accept funds for perpetual care of lots, such funds to be held in trust in a separate account and known as Perpetual Care Fund. As of March 11, 1957 there is a total of $95,331.20 in principal held in the Fund, only the income on which can be used for the care of lots under perpetual care deposit. A separate ledger sheet is kept of each Perpetual Care account, as shown by copies of the Ben Kastein and the Wesley Loomans accounts.
Some of the old Rules and Regulations did not anticipate at what speed this present generation would travel.
Rule 1 - No vehicle or horse will be allowed to pass through the grounds at a rate faster than a walk. No person riding a bicycle, except he be an owner of a lot shall be permitted on the grounds. Later the rules said no child should ride a bicycle in the grounds unless accompanied by a parent. Adopted March 26, 1898.
I suppose the idea was "Drive slow and not disturb the dead".
Now we have cars race through the grounds, one car phasing another, going so fast that they cannot make the turns and as a result run off the drives into soft ground and cut up the lawn.
I hope this has been of interest.
Ben Kastein, Secy.Acquisition
Accession
2011.0400Source or Donor
Judith GatzkeAcquisition Method
Donation
