In the last column we checked out the rumor and several reports about the existence of a pioneer cemetery south of Albert Lea.

Friday, January 25, 2002

In the last column we checked out the rumor and several reports about the existence of a pioneer cemetery south of Albert Lea. To repeat what was in that last column, this burial place is the Green Cemetery. It’s located in the small wooded knoll northeast of Exit 5 on I-35, and where County Road 13 crosses the freeway. There are at least five people still buried at this place, plus the possibility of a few Indian (Native American) burials.

Several people also told me that because of this cemetery the nearby highway was deliberately rerouted in the 1970s. A look at a detailed county map and a drive on this part of the freeway from the U.S. Highway 65 crossing (near Hillcrest Cemetery) to the Iowa line seems to confirm this. After all, in this part of the nation, a highway can be routed just about anywhere on fairly level prairie land. The freeways have gone right through big city neighborhoods and even across the middle of farms. Yet, there’s a definite jog to the west on I-35 from Exit 2 (County Road 5) to Exit 8 (U.S. Highway 65).

I have confirmed with Janice Reeder, owner of the Green Cemetery property, that the highway surveyors and engineers became aware of the burial ground on the knoll. The decision was then made to divert the new freeway to the west. Also, this revised routing respected the site of Round Prairie Lutheran Church three miles to the south.

As I emphasized in the last column, there’s a military veteran of the War of 1812 still buried in this pioneer cemetery. His name is Thomas Morrison (1777-1876).

For many years two Civil War veterans were also buried in the Green Cemetery. Their names are Thomas J. Stockdale and E. Willard Parshall.

Stockdale served during the Civil War with Company H, 16th Iowa Infantry Regiment. After the war he came to Twin Lakes to live with his parents.

Between the Stockdale home and the new village was then a pond of water. An old Tribune news article said this &uot;was a millpond nine feet deep. The pond was hollowed out of the earth and used as a water storage pond for a saw mill and later for a flour mill.&uot;

On the evening of Nov. 24, 1866, Stockdale left his parent’s home and went to the nearby village to get some supplies. He evidently started across the ice-covered pond to take a shortcut. He broke through the ice and started to yell for help.

Three young men heard those yells for help and ran to the edge of the pond. Two of them went to a place along the shore where a boat was located. The third man, Parshall, was a veteran of Company G, 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment.

Parshall spotted a wooden plank a few feet away. He placed the plank on the ice and lay down on it. His intention was to propel himself and the plank like a sled toward the drowning man. Parshall became overbalanced when the ice gave way and fell into the frigid water. Before the other two men, and possibly others, could get to the two men in the pond, they drowned.

The decision was made to bury the two veterans in the same grave near the Stockdale home. About a year later they were reburied in the Green Cemetery.

As mentioned in last week’s column, the last known burial in this remote cemetery was made in 1911. During the following years the families of some of these folks buried at this place had the bodies and tombstones moved to Greenwood Cemetery on the east side of Glenville.

On Sept. 15, 1932, the bodies of Willard Parshall and Thomas Stockdale, plus two other members of the Stockdale family, were moved to the Greenwood Cemetery.

Those two Civil War veterans are now buried side by side in the northeast portion of the Glenville cemetery. From the appearance and style of the tombstones, I’d say they’re the same ones which once marked their graves in the pioneer cemetery on the small wooden knoll that caused the rerouting of I-35 south of Albert Lea.

As an added note, those two grave sites at Greenwood Cemetery are marked with metal markers which honors the two veterans who died just over 135 years ago.

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.