Posted: 6/20/06
Woman upset with cemetery condition
Argus News Editor
Barb Twite of Caledonia would like to see some improvements made in the Caledonia Public Cemetery.
The cemetery is located behind the old creamery building in Caledonia. Many of its stones are cracked and fallen. Some lean against trees. Two wrought iron fences that enclose headstones are broken also.
Twite would like to see the city put a monument in the cemetery that lists all of the people who are buried there. She would also like to see the wrought iron fences repaired.
Twite said she planned to attend a city council meeting to voice her concern.
ìAbandoned cemetery, that just bothers me,î Twite said. ìHow can a cemetery thatís in town be abandoned?î
Twite wasnít even aware of the cemeteryís existence until the day she was walking with her nephew and he said he wanted to cut through it. That started her curiosity. She said she was mortified when she saw its condition. There is a personal connection too: one of her fatherís distant relatives, Mary Liddy, is buried there.
Most people in Caledonia donít even know itís there, Twite feels.
About the cemetery
The book Caledonia Pride, 1854-2004 has more than half a page of information on the cemetery. The information was gathered from the Houston County Historical Society and city clerk records.
The history book states that plat was recorded on June 14, 1854. The first person buried there apparently was James Abbots, who died on August 17, 1856, at age of 26 months.
But the book also quotes a Works Progress Administration file has information that states, ìThe first burial made was that of Alexander Burk, who was murdered by John and Heny [sic] Rippe of Brownsville, for not being able t [sic] pay for a glass of whiskey, which he drank. He was a young man from Pennsylvania, who had worked around the county a few months. He died 26th Feb 1859.î
Caledonia Pride, 1854-2004 states that the cemetery was used actively until 1876, then had no more burials until two final ones of Mary and William Oxford in 1905 and 1906. However, an obituary for Edward Dorival states that he was buried there on February 17, 1936. The cemetery was called the ìPioneer cemeteryî in the obituary.
Samuel McPhail, who founded Caledonia, was the first owner of the parcel, county recorder Daryl Tessmer wrote in 1984. It was never set aside as a cemetery, and it eventually passed to the city because of unpaid taxes, Tessmer wrote.
Two of McPhailís children are buried in the cemetery, according to local historian Angela Murphy.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com