A Weekend Looking for History

This weekend’s adventure was a visit to a nearly 160 year old cemetery that I had been researching on Newspapers.com over the past week. I’m currently in the process of attempting to locate my great grandfather’s grave. He passed away from the flu in 1920, and per his obituary in a local newspaper, it was mentioned his body was moved from Iowa to Wisconsin in February of that year. Thus far, however, I can not determine where his remains were placed. Hence my discovery of a site called Campbell Cemetery, and wow, lots of history to be found!

Nestled within the Mississippi River Valley in Wisconsin, this graveyard has quite a storied past. No one really knows how many people are buried here as records were lost in the 1800's during a wild fire rampage. It is believed there are some 27 US military veterans buried in this place; the cemetery also holds the remains of paupers, Norwegian farmers, and old city residents from a bygone time. Burials here were discontinued in the 1940's.

Plagued by vandalism, grass fires, corpse robbing, and lack of maintenance for many years during the early 20th century, Campbell Cemetery today is a actually a place of gentle beauty and serenity. My daughter and I took to the area to find some historic artifacts and grave sites of historical interest. First up was this mortar that was placed on this site in 1898.

I also found an old photo from 1917 showing the mortar onsite:

It's remarkable to touch something that was at the battle of New Orleans and Vicksburg, all those years ago! Hattie was most impressed:

I then read through my Newspapers research that two veterans from the War of 1812 were buried on this site. The names pf the men were Benjamin Sly with the New York Militia and Malthiah Collins of the 2nd Infantry Regiment. Sly passed in 1885, and Collins passed in 1876. I was not able to find either’s grave markers, however.

There are supposedly some 27 veterans from the US Civil War buried here too, but again no one knows exactly who or where they are located here. You can still see quite a bit of ruin from the days of vandalism and weather decay:

This is a historic place, no doubt. Given the fact that nobody really knows who is buried at this place, there is likely a lot more history and stories that will be hidden forever. Who knows, there might very well be veterans buried here from the Revolutionary War...

It would be interesting to take some etchings of the older headstones here in the future for research. When you see something like this:

You do wonder what was this person did for a living, his family, his background in the area, and what kind of life he might have had. Cemeteries...they are a profound thing! I also noticed these white foggy patches on these photos when I looked at them after the fact...all the photos at the end of the adventure seemed to have them. Now I'm starting to freak myself out!

And I never could find the site of one Perry Brinstad. His body was stolen in September of 1932, and later dumped into the Mississippi River. It was suspected his body had been exhumed by a medical student given the type of incisions found on his corpse. What a different time...

And there it is...an October adventure for dad and Hattie. In one of the old articles referencing the cemeteries dilapidated state, it mentioned the number of scab trees that had been growing unchecked in this space in the early 20th century. Just maybe one of those trees indeed survived, and continues to guard the space for the years to come. I hope so anyway...and just as the little trip took not more than hour of the day, it is a friendly reminder to me to just get outside and explore. There is so much history everywhere if you take a bit of time to look for it.

That's it for this weekend's fun; hoping everyone out there is having a safe and enjoyable weekend!