Snapshots of History: Bever-Grimes Cemetery
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Bever-Grimes Cemetery in northern Ringgold County.
By Mike Avitt
The Bever-Grimes Cemetery is located in section 12 of Jefferson Township.
The cemetery’s location is about a mile and a quarter southeast of Shannon City.
This was also the site of Ringgold County’s first church building in 1858. Frame buildings were not yet being erected in Ringgold County so this would have been a log church.
My, “Cemetery Gravestone Recordings of Ringgold County, Iowa,” book states there are twenty-five known burials in this cemetery and I say “known” because there were times when gravesites were marked with wooden grave markers, which would have disintegrated over the years. There are also occasions when a stone marker would be consumed by the earth. And, possibly, some graves were not marked.
Of the twenty-five burials, sixteen were under the age of eighteen. Of course, the cemetery is called Bever-Grimes because that is who is buried there.
Other surnames are Dunlap, Jones, Shockey, and Shafer. The last burial I find is Rebeka Dunlap who died August 8, 1900.
So, let’s say someone became determined to learn the history of all these folks at Bever-Grimes; could it be done?
To a degree, yes. Four of these folks died after 1871 so their obituaries may appear in the Ringgold Record newspaper. The digitized newspapers go back to 1872.
The town of Eugene was about a mile south of this cemetery so there would be relatives buried there. Grimes is definitely a Eugene name.
Finding obituaries can be tricky.
The Rundel family is buried at Fairview Cemetery southwest of Redding. But, the parents, Hiram and Olive, spelled their last name “Rundel” and their son Daniel spelled his name “Rundell.” Olive died after she fell from a pear tree gathering fruit. She was 71.
There is a book called, “Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold County, Iowa,” published in 1887 that includes about 120 biographies of Ringgold County residents. The biographies are not in alphabetical order and there are some misspelled surnames. But, some important pioneers are included in this volume.
In the January 20, 1881 Ringgold Record is a biography of Manoah “Mack” Schooler, the first white child born in Ringgold County. That was in 1847. The copy quality is poor but it can be read very slowly. Other profiles and biographies also appear in early newspapers.
Back to Raymond Banner’s book, “Cemetery Gravestone Recordings of Ringgold County, Iowa,” published in 2003. There are 46 cemeteries listed with a section on “probable” and “possible” burials and solitary burials such as Dead Man’s Cut. Raymond’s book contains maps, historical information, and notes. Copies of this book can be purchased from Dawn Swanson.
The iagenweb.org/rinngold website has a list of interments for most cemeteries. I use cemetery records to get death dates and then I look for the obituary based on that date.
Also, not every cemetery is located on a hard-surface road, so if you’re going to visit a rural cemetery, keep that in mind.
