Polk Co. IAGenWeb

The Hopkins Grove Cemetery Complex is composed of four spatially discrete burial areas: Hopkins Grove South (old: ca. 1854 – ca. 1940); Hopkins Grove north (new: ca. 1870s-present); United Brethren (old: ca. 1867 – ca. 1990); United Brethren (new: ca. 1890 – to present).

All of these cemeteries are found within the community referred to as Hopkins Grove so there is quite a bit of confusion around which is which. Often times they are collectively (but erroneously) referred to as ‘Hopkins Grove Cemetery.

The south cemetery at Hopkins Grove is the original cemetery constructed on land settled by Josiah Hopkins in 1848. Tent meetings were held in the timber on Hopkins Property and later a log church was built somewhere in close proximity to the cemetery. The log church was replaced sometime in the 1850s and I believe it also served as a school house. This, I believe, was located on land that is now part of the north cemetery, which was also on Josiah Hopkins land. A steep ravine running into Mosquito Creek separates the two cemetery areas.

Another church was built in 1866 about one mile to the north and a new cemetery was commission (United Brethren old). In the 1870s, the land previously occupied by the old church and school was used for interment. So by the late-1800s three separate burial areas are in use. Hopkins Grove South and North, and the Old part of the United Brethren Cemetery directly behind the UB Church. As the high ground behind the church filled, burial plots were established to the north of the church. This forms the most recent division of the United Brethren Cemetery (UB New). By the time the new section of the UB Cemetery came into use, fewer people were being interred at the South Burial Ground at Hopkins grove. Only two of the cemeteries have received new interments within the two decades. U.B. New and Hopkins Grove North.

Evidence uncovered in my studies strongly suggest that social upheaval caused by the Civil War and ideological/political divisions within the community were driving forces behind the abandonment and segregation of the dead.

I provide a much more detailed interpretation/discussion, and history of these cemeteries, and the Hopkins Grove community in a four part report series entitled: Gone But Not Forgotten. Copies are on file at the State Historical Society Library, Parks Memorial Library Iowa State University, Rod Library University Northern Iowa, Main Library University of Iowa, the State Genealogical Society in Des Moines. Copies are also on file with the Hopkins Grove Church, the Polk City Public Library, and the Big Creek Historical Society.

Map of North Burial Ground (N.B.G.)		Map of South Burial Ground (S.B.G.)
Click to enlarge Maps Submitted by Daniel Higginbottom