Establishment of Elmwood Cemetery; Kirk Studio, 1867

DEXTER, CARD, MUMFORD, HICKLING, VERMILYA, KIRK

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/18/2014 at 05:43:15

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, June 01, 1953
Mason City Centennial Edition, Section 3

BOUGHT ELMWOOD CEMETERY LAND FOR $3 AN ACRE

[Section 3, Page 6] The land on which the Elmwood Cemetery is now situated was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Dexter, who came to Mason City at the close of the Civil War. The purchase involved an 80-acre tract. The Dexters also purchased the lot on which the K. of C. building stands at 2nd and S. Federal. The lot extended south to Willow Creek. The consideration was $60.

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1867: START ELMWOOD CEMETERY

[Section 3, Page 12] Elmwood Cemetery had its genesis as the Mason City Cemetery Association on May 11, 1867, when the group voted to buy five acres from John Dexter southwest of the city. As time went on additional tracts were acquired.

The first officers of the association, which was incorporated the year it was organized, were I. W. Card, president; J. V. Mumford, vice president; R. Hickling, secretary, and George Vermilya, treasurer.

Had Civic Pride

In order to create some civic pride in keeping up the apprearance of the cemetery in those days, the pioneer Cerro Gordo Republican ran this notice:

"Fellow citizens, come out in the name of humanity and common decency and let not the place where we inter our dead be a wilderness and a stigma upon the town. Let it rather be an ornament and a place wherein we shall not be ashamed to show a friend the last resting place of those that were once dear to us."

That exhortation seemed to ring down through the decades. Elmwood Cemetery has been kept in fitting tribute to its dead.

Started Kirk Studio

The year, 1867, had another significance in Mason City history. That was the year H. P. Kirk started the Kirk photograph studio in Mason City. Mason City is indebted to Kirk, a veteran of the Civil War, for many excellent photographshe took, many of which still exist to help tell the story of the pioneers.

During Kirk's career as a photographer, many changes took place in his work. He started business making the old tintypes. This was succeeded by the wet plate process, then came albumin printing out paper. He had to sensitize his own wet plates and printing out paper.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2014