West Center Cemetery
During our family reunion this past weekend, my brother Caleb and I took a few minutes to go to the cemetery to see the new marker at my mother's grave. My niece Megan and her husband Aaron arrived a little later.
During this little foray, Caleb told me an interesting story involving the cemetery and Theron Schlabach, prominent Mennonite historian and professor at Goshen College. Caleb did not mention this, but they may have been on the faculty at Goshen at the same time.
In a surprising vocational juxtaposition, Schlabach sometimes drove a semi on cross-country trips during the summer. On one such trip he came through the middle of our community on US 50. When he spied the cemetery where my mother is now buried, he stopped and took a picture because he thought it the most representative of all the plain Amish cemeteries he had ever seen. His personal employment history here lists trucking as early as 1951 and as late as 2010, and Caleb didn't say when the picture-taking took place.
During most of my memory, all the markers in the cemetery were made of concrete formed into an upright rectangle shape except for its rounded top. The front face of the tombstones had lettering pressed into the wet concrete, giving the bare minimum of details about the individual whose body lay below. In some cases, the concrete had eroded significantly.
In a quick scan of the data here on West Center Cemetery, the earliest death date I found was 1888, although one almost-certain error said 1818. The error date was listed for one of the 15 children whose remains had been removed from their original burial place in Ford County, Kansas. They were reburied in a common grave with all the other death dates within a few years of 1918. The data collector was Rose Stout, who was on the site on August 20, 2008 to gather the information. At that time there were 357 graves.
I don't recall if there was a fence around the cemetery earlier. If so, I'm sure it would have featured hedge (Osage Orange) posts and some low woven-wire fencing topped by barbed wire. An outhouse in the northeast corner of the cemetery still stands. Also still present are some gnarled hedge trees along the south fence. Probably originally a full row, they were likely planted before 1900, when a one-acre plot was deeded by E. E. Bontrager to the "Amish Church Society of Center Township." The Amish settlement near the center of Reno County in Kansas was launched in 1883.
Changes came to the cemetery over the past decade or so. The cemetery was considerably enlarged, with a hitching rack installed (near the original fence line?) on the west and the north. The areas beyond that serve as parking areas. A chain link fence outlines the perimeter. A drive-through gate on the south side (toward US 50) permits entry of grave-digging equipment and casket-transporting vehicles or buggies.
Most of those buried in this cemetery in recent years have been from the "Beachy" congregations--Center and Cedar Crest. For most of its history this was an Amish cemetery used by the Old Order Amish in the area. Next it was used by both the Old Orders and the Beachys. Now the Old Orders have a cemetery near the Amish Community Building south and east of Pleasantview. The Arlington Beachys have several graves now in a cemetery on their church grounds. Plainview has had a cemetery on their church grounds for many years, perhaps since the early 1960s.
For the sake of keeping good records, the replacement of the old cement gravestones with newer marble ones in recent years is a big improvement, since some of the markings were very close to becoming illegible. These new markers can't compensate for the paucity of some of the original information (one marker says only C. E. B.), but the records that were considered important enough to impress into concrete have now been carved into much longer-lasting marble.
I like that I can now clearly read the names of many of my Kansas great-grandparents--those with the surnames of Miller and Nisly. Going back one more generation, to my great great grandparents are added the names also of Yutzy and Mast ancestors. Some day perhaps someone will see my grave in this place and recognize the name of their ancestor. I'm afraid though that if Theron Schlabach drove through today on US50, he would no longer feel that the West Center Cemetery fits as iconic an image as it did when he first noticed it. For purely sentimental reasons, that's a little sad.
During this little foray, Caleb told me an interesting story involving the cemetery and Theron Schlabach, prominent Mennonite historian and professor at Goshen College. Caleb did not mention this, but they may have been on the faculty at Goshen at the same time.
In a surprising vocational juxtaposition, Schlabach sometimes drove a semi on cross-country trips during the summer. On one such trip he came through the middle of our community on US 50. When he spied the cemetery where my mother is now buried, he stopped and took a picture because he thought it the most representative of all the plain Amish cemeteries he had ever seen. His personal employment history here lists trucking as early as 1951 and as late as 2010, and Caleb didn't say when the picture-taking took place.
During most of my memory, all the markers in the cemetery were made of concrete formed into an upright rectangle shape except for its rounded top. The front face of the tombstones had lettering pressed into the wet concrete, giving the bare minimum of details about the individual whose body lay below. In some cases, the concrete had eroded significantly.
In a quick scan of the data here on West Center Cemetery, the earliest death date I found was 1888, although one almost-certain error said 1818. The error date was listed for one of the 15 children whose remains had been removed from their original burial place in Ford County, Kansas. They were reburied in a common grave with all the other death dates within a few years of 1918. The data collector was Rose Stout, who was on the site on August 20, 2008 to gather the information. At that time there were 357 graves.
I don't recall if there was a fence around the cemetery earlier. If so, I'm sure it would have featured hedge (Osage Orange) posts and some low woven-wire fencing topped by barbed wire. An outhouse in the northeast corner of the cemetery still stands. Also still present are some gnarled hedge trees along the south fence. Probably originally a full row, they were likely planted before 1900, when a one-acre plot was deeded by E. E. Bontrager to the "Amish Church Society of Center Township." The Amish settlement near the center of Reno County in Kansas was launched in 1883.
Changes came to the cemetery over the past decade or so. The cemetery was considerably enlarged, with a hitching rack installed (near the original fence line?) on the west and the north. The areas beyond that serve as parking areas. A chain link fence outlines the perimeter. A drive-through gate on the south side (toward US 50) permits entry of grave-digging equipment and casket-transporting vehicles or buggies.
Most of those buried in this cemetery in recent years have been from the "Beachy" congregations--Center and Cedar Crest. For most of its history this was an Amish cemetery used by the Old Order Amish in the area. Next it was used by both the Old Orders and the Beachys. Now the Old Orders have a cemetery near the Amish Community Building south and east of Pleasantview. The Arlington Beachys have several graves now in a cemetery on their church grounds. Plainview has had a cemetery on their church grounds for many years, perhaps since the early 1960s.
For the sake of keeping good records, the replacement of the old cement gravestones with newer marble ones in recent years is a big improvement, since some of the markings were very close to becoming illegible. These new markers can't compensate for the paucity of some of the original information (one marker says only C. E. B.), but the records that were considered important enough to impress into concrete have now been carved into much longer-lasting marble.
I like that I can now clearly read the names of many of my Kansas great-grandparents--those with the surnames of Miller and Nisly. Going back one more generation, to my great great grandparents are added the names also of Yutzy and Mast ancestors. Some day perhaps someone will see my grave in this place and recognize the name of their ancestor. I'm afraid though that if Theron Schlabach drove through today on US50, he would no longer feel that the West Center Cemetery fits as iconic an image as it did when he first noticed it. For purely sentimental reasons, that's a little sad.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
2:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home