Resurrected cemetery full of surprises

When St. Joseph Parish in Grafton took over the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in the Town of Grafton last year, members thought there might be about 100 graves there.

They were wrong.

A recent survey done with ground penetrating radar by Accurate Underground Verification revealed that in addition to the roughly 111 graves with headstones, there are also 65 unmarked graves on the north end of the cemetery and a grave — and possibly more — in an overgrown area on the east side of the graveyard, Debbie Krueger, a member of the parish cemetery committee, said.

Some of those unmarked graves likely once had a wooden marker that has since disintegrated, she noted.

The survey also revealed that there’s a lot of open land on the west side of the graveyard, she said.

“It’s been a very interesting process,” Krueger said. “It’s really fascinating when you walk through there.

“We found gravestones in the wooded area we didn’t know about. We found out that in the old days, people buried people kind of randomly. The lines of graves aren’t straight.”

And, she said, they discovered that not everyone is buried right where the headstones are located.

“With some of the older graves with headstones from the 1800s, the man was buried in the middle of the headstone but his wife was buried way off to the side,” Krueger said. “I don’t know why, but he (Todd Szymkowski, president of Accurate Underground Verification) said he finds that often in old cemeteries.”

Krueger said the parish undertook the survey of the cemetery as it looks toward the future of the once neglected graveyard —  a future that could include reopening the cemetery for burials.

But for now, the parish has a simpler goal in mind.

“We don’t want it to look like an old broken down cemetery anymore,” Krueger said. “It’s part of our parish. We’re bringing it back.”

The first step, she said, will be to get rid of a lot of the brush and buckthorn.

They will also begin to mark the unmarked graves, probably with crosses, Krueger said.

“They deserve to be recognized,” she said.

The cemetery committee is researching ways to clean gravestones and repair broken stones in preparation for a September work session involving the entire parish, Krueger said.

“Some of the stones have toppled over, and we need to dig them out and right them,” she said. “We’re going to get some expert advice on that.”

The goal, she said is to get the cemetery looking good as the parish kicks off its 175th anniversary in November.

That’s a big step forward for the old cemetery, which was established in 1846 on land donated by Johann and Anna Elter to the German Catholic Union Society and served members of St. Francis Xavier Church — popularly called Town Ten Church because it was 10 townships north of the Wisconsin-Illinois border.

By the end of the 1800s, both St. Francis Xavier and St. Joseph parishes were well-established, but through the years membership at St. Francis Xavier declined. Eventually it became a mission church affiliated with St. Joseph Church.

By 1943, as maintenance costs mounted, the church was sold, but the cemetery was still owned by the German Catholic Society. But eventually the society itself faded away.

Then, in 2012, the Town of Cedarburg sent St Joseph’s information indicating it owned the cemetery. It didn’t, but that inspired the parish to see what it could do to take over the cemetery, a task embraced by parish director Brenda Klein. But first, Krueger said, the cemetery committee needed to be reconstituted — and that took time.

To do that, the parish needed to find five descendants of people buried at the cemetery — a daunting task considering the age of the graveyard — to take possession of it and then transfer ownership to St. Joseph Parish. 

  The process took less than a year, Krueger said. The parish took ownership last May and rededicated it on July 31.

The earliest date of birth for someone buried in the cemetery is 1792 or 1799, Krueger said, and the earliest date of death found was 1844 — before the cemetery was founded.

“We’re not sure if he was moved there later or what,” Krueger said.

  Krueger said that since the parish has taken over the cemetery, Aaron Carney of Jackson, who is a descendant of the Elters, has indicated he is interested in helping out with the project.

“People are really interested in this, and that’s wonderful,” she said.

“It’s a sweet little cemetery. It’s so quiet out there.”