There are 117 Cemeteries or Burial Grounds in Lee Co.  Many of the larger cemeteries are maintained by churches, private associations, the cities or a governmental branch or the Township Trustee.  There are between 70-75 Cemeteries or Burial Grounds that are Pioneer Cemeteries.  A Pioneer Cemetery, as defined by the State of Iowa, is a cemetery having less then six burials during the last fifty years. 

The Township Trustees provide monies for about 30 of the Pioneer Cemeteries.  Some townships provide enough money for good care, but the majority of them don't, they only provide mowing once or twice a year with a brush cutter. Fallen trees, head high weeds and growth, poison ivy and broken stones have nearly destroyed many of these cemeteries. The other 40-45 pioneer cemeteries or burial grounds are now on private property and have been abandoned and are being lost to the elements. 

These Cemetery Listings were obtained from the Old Fort Genealogical Society of Ft Madison and the Local and Family History Dept, Donnellson Library. If you find family members on these lists and can provide names of more burials we would appreciate your help.

If you know of any burials not in these cemeteries, but in a private or family burial ground, we would like to know of these too. Thank you! 

Many people over the years have contributed to these listings, their efforts are greatly appreciated.  Within the last several years, yet another effort has been made to bring them up to date.  Garnett Klinger, Carm Fett and Randy Johnson of Donnellson have led an effort, working with obituaries and news articles to find early burials.  Pat Morrison of Ft Madison has worked with death records and other public records to update the cemeteries. Both Groups have been re-walking the cemeteries.

These cemeteries were chosen to list because they have been lost or abandoned or they are on private property and difficult to get to.  Several cemeteries are under the care of  the Trustees, yet they are almost lost to the elements.  Maybe we will be able to add more Cemeteries later. For Cemeteries not listed here, we have Lookup Volunteers for Cemeteries. 

Note: Dates shown as (24) (28) have been found in various listings or records as being different

All of the Surnames found in the Cemetery Listing
Index of Names
Sorry, not up to date

Abandoned Cemeteries
Bowman
Cook
Denmark
Dover
Dudley
Enslow
Fairview
Henkle
Johnson
Locust Grove
McCracken
McCulloch
McKeehan
New Garden
Old Pilot Grove   
Pitman Chapel
Pitman Family
Tierney
Yellow Banks


Smaller Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

Ally to Hauck
Ally, Ambrosia, Ballinger, Beeler, Blacksmith, Box, Broadway, Bunker Hill,
Conlee, Cottonwood, Creel, Emerson, Frost, Half Breed, Hampton and Hauck

Hayes to Warson
Hayes, Henry, Hoffmeister, Hyde, Kennedy, Lauther, Lee co., Moon,
Oiler, Rudd, Sax, Turner, Van Hynning, Viele and Warson
 

Blondeau Street Cemetery  1844
“The pioneer church of the village was of course Roman Catholic. A lot had been given on the corner of Blondeauand Second streets, upon which to build a church; meantime a house of two rooms was put up on the corner of the lot at the rear and here masses were said, one of the rooms being fitted up as a chapel, the priest living in the other. Weddings were also solemnized in the small chapel, one of which I attended, that of Elizabeth Hunt and Henry Louis [De Louis], my cousin and myself being the only witnesses. . . . 
“The lots surrounding the Church were used as a cem­etery. On one occasion twenty-five men were buried there who were killed by the explosion of the steamboat Mechanic in their endeavors to get off a large rock in the first chain of the rapids, from which circumstance it took the name of Mechanic rock.


Quarry Cemetery
Abandoned cemetery found in the county.  One stone up on the hill reads:  Mary A.  Billups, daughter of E. & E.A. Billiups, 
died: Sept 20, 1859; age 3 years.