By Sara StrongRock County cemeteries offer a permanent record of birth and death dates, and a peek into the lives of former residents, with epitaphs like "beloved mother" or "gone home."Rock County Historical Society President Betty Mann will talk about local cemeteries in an open meeting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, in the Hinkly House museum. Mann said cemeteries are important from a record-keeping standpoint, but also because they are a place to pay respect to people’s lives.Some cemeteries, like one in Springwater Township, are small and have no records. Another, in Rose Dell Township, has an inordinate amount of children’s graves.One of the stories Mann will share Saturday is of the Blue Mound Church, northeast of Luverne. It was first built west of the railroad tracks.Mann said, "I never have found out why, but the people wanted it on the east side of the tracks."In 1884, church members got their wish when a tornado, at the time called a "cyclonic storm," came through. It lifted the church off the ground and planted it on the east side of the tracks. The saying at the time was that the incident was remarkable because it "never broke a window, never sprung a door."The church still stands where the tornado placed it, and a new cemetery was plotted next to the new location back in the 1800s. However, the original cemetery is still in place on its western location.Besides the interesting, unusual or even spooky cemetery tales, Mann said cemeteries have their practical place in history."At the Historical Society, we are trying to find lists of people buried in cemeteries," Mann said.Some of the smaller cemeteries or ones that are no longer active don’t have clear records of who’s buried.Anyone with family burial information that wouldn’t be found in cemetery records is asked to share it with the Historical Society."We have many cemeteries throughout the county and most are well taken care of," Mann said. "We are fortunate that in Rock County, they are not only well-kept, but there are services and flowers and flags all over on Memorial Day."Those graveyard traditions may not be common forever.Not as many people are buried as they used to be, because of the increased use of cremation. Some families choose to bury cremains, but others forgo the tradition of tombstones altogether. The custom of giving people a permanent resting place is not as typical as it used to be.Those who are buried today, though, are likely to have more on their tombstones than previous generations. Now, tombstones often include birth and death dates, names of children, full-color photos, dates of weddings and many other details. Early markers sometimes just had a last name, leaving it up to the imagination, or oral family history for people to know who is buried.The Historical Society ran into that problem with the tombstone for Philo Hawes, the founder of Luverne. He and his wife are buried under a marker that says only Hawes, and their children’s names are listed on their markers.In order to mark the first names of Philo and his wife, the Historical Society and the cemetery have to get permission from a direct descendent.The Historical Society will also have a program by Vance Walgrave in May on the moving of the American Reformed cemetery to Maplewood.
