WIPCA Meeting - May 14th, 2011 - SLATES CEMETERY

The WIPCA meeting was held on May 14^th and it was decided we would have a clean-up day on June 4^th at Slates Cemetery which is in Douglas Township, near the town of Kirkman, IA. 

Rex Adams advised that back in the late 1800’s  a new cemetery “Rosehill Cemetery” was formed just west of Kirkman.  Families who had loved ones buried at Slates Cemetery were given the option of having the bodies moved to Rosehill Cemetery or they could leave the bodies at Slates Cemetery.  Today there are 7 known headstones above ground at Slates Cemetery. 

In the summer of 2004 the Boy Scouts cleaned up the cemetery and also laid a rock path through the cemetery.  Today the cemetery is run over with weeds and trees and the rock path has become mostly covered in weeds. (If you go to the website: iowagravestones.org there are pictures of the headstones & how they looked in 2005.)

After the meeting Rita Knights went to Slates Cemetery to take pictures of how the cemetery looks today before any clean-up or repairs have been done.  One of the wooden fences to the entrance of the cemetery had been completely damaged and was laying on the ground, headstones and the pathway were becoming overgrown with weeds. Clean-up for this cemetery could be a summer long project.

(See pictures below) 



Slates Cemetery - wooden fence behind sign is on the ground.

 

Rock path leading to the cemetery.
  



3 Headstones:
Henderson A. Johnson
William A. Johnson
Charles C. Doran (under the stone on the right)



Headstone: Child of W.M. & L.L. Young





Base for a headstone, several broken stones in area.
Possibly one to three headstones in this area.



Broken headstones in area of base headstone.
Names are not readable on the headstones.



Headstone: Catherine Hayes



Another view of the cemetery and walking path.

Base of a headstone.
No name is readable.



Headstone laying next to tree.
William M. Miller



View of cemetery - overgrown with weeds and trees.