Photograph contributor SRB

As with most Iowa counties, some settlements in Ringgold County became ghost towns when they were bypassed by the railroad and rail towns sprang up along the tracks several miles away from what once was a thriving community during Iowa's early pioneer days. Grist mills, saw mills, and other such businesses gradually became obsolete as the rails provided other means of obtaining goods necessary to daily life. Then there was the lure of moving on Westward. As the people pulled up stakes, sold their farms and moved on other settlements were abandoned along with the cemeteries. Listed below are burials that are believed to be in Ringgold County.

INTERMENTS:
ALLOWAY Children
  Alloway Cemetery was located 1/4 mile north and slightly east of the present-day Platte River Cemetery. In the 1920's two small gravestones could be seen along a fence row on the W. H. SHAY farm. But the stones no longer exist, reportedly what did remain were moved by the ALLOWAY family to Platte River Cemetery.

BARKER, Mrs. W. G.
Interment southwest of Redding, Clinton Township, Ringgold County, Iowa
according to WPA records on Charles ADAIR farm in an abandoned cemetery which has been plowed up

FISHER Children
Fisher or Westerfield Cemetery

HATLEY, Mr.
Interment southwest of Redding, Clinton Township, Ringgold County, Iowa
according to WPA records on Charles ADAIR farm in an abandoned cemetery which has been plowed up

IMUS, Florence
Liberty Township, Ringgold County, Iowa

IMUS, Martha
Liberty Township, Ringgold County, Iowa

IMUS Children
Two IMUS children interred close to U.S. Highway 169, Liberty Township, Ringgold County

JACKSON Children
Believed to have been interred in Liberty Township, Ringgold County, Iowa

KEELING, Jim, d. Oct 1872
Interment in Benton Township, Ringgold County, Iowa
WPA states "grave plowed up"
Spelling of last name sometimes KEETIN or KELLING

Lotts Creek Township
Two Civil War soldiers, their gravestones no longer are visible

MERRILL, Will, d. 03 Jul 1884
son of J. T. MERRILL
Interment in the area of the 700 block, east side of North Hayes Street, Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa

MITCHELL, Elizabeth (TARGET)
wife of Ira MITCHELL
Fisher or Westerfield Cemetery, believed to be located near a pioneer trail on the way to Mormantown, a settlement which is present-day Blockton, Taylor County, Iowa
WPA records list interment on Fisher Farm in a family cemetery

MONROE TOWNSHIP
Several pioneer emigrants interred in this township, including:

POOR, Amanda, d. 1857
Interment southwest of Redding, Clinton Township, Ringgold County, Iowa
according to WPA records on Charles ADAIR farm in an abandoned cemetery which has been plowed up

WESTERFIELD, Jim
Fisher or Westerfield Cemetery
according to WPA records on Fisher Family Cemetery on Fisher Farm, Clinton Township, Ringgold County, Iowa

Death Records