Salem Cemetery

Salem Cemetery

Benton #3  45350  255th Ave.

On the 12th of June, 1873, Adeline and Francis M. Wilson sold the cemetery site for $50 to the Salem Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church.

This is why the year “1873” is inscribed on the plaque that marks the cemetery entrance, although the burial ground itself is about 25 years older.

Soon after purchasing the land, Salem Methodist Church was built in front of (west of) the cemetery and, during 1875, the cemetery was replatted as Salem Cemetery into 52 lots, each 9 by 41 feet with space for eight or nine graves. Since there are no graves at Salem that seem out of place, it is likely that the new plat followed at least partly an earlier one.

Salem remained an active Methodist congregation until the 1930s and its members administered and maintained the cemetery during those years. 

The Methodist congregation had faded by the 1940s, however, and the church was closed for a time. It was reopened by community residents during the 1940s, but took a Baptist turn and declined to accept Methodist preachers. As a result, the Iowa Methodist Conference during 1947 sold the church and church grounds to what became known as the Salem Community Church. The cemetery was deeded to the Benton Township trustees who assumed responsibility for its care.

My goodness it's a beautiful morning here, although cool. Kirksville, Missouri, and smaller places in Adair and Sullivan counties took a hit from tornadoes overnight --- three reportedly killed --- and that's too sad and too close to home for comfort.

I headed out to Salem about 9:30, having declared myself officially back in the cemetery business --- the box of notes devoted to the Salem project finally turned up in the garage yesterday. So the Salem blog has received a few modest updates and more will be forthcoming.

That's Great-great-grandfather Jacob Myers in the foreground here, listing slightly, with his two Hickle grandchildren, Jacob and Rosa, immediately in front of him.

Since that project is fairly well under control now, I've been eyeing Ragtown Cemetery, also in Benton Township and just a couple of miles southeast of Salem, and wondering if I should do that one, too. We'll see.l.

It's going to be hard to stay in side today, where the most work is needed (what a mess), so I probably won't. I managed last night to get the big computer reassembled although not configured for this new-fangled Internet connection and it's now possible to at least walk into the downstairs bedroom and upstairs study --- almost impossible a day or two ago. So some progress is being made.

Posted by Frank D. Myers at 10:42 AM