Black Cemetery

BLACK CEMETERY is located in the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 28 of Richland Township. To reach the cemetery, follow road "B" south out of Hartford about 2-1/2 miles. Turn east just before crossing the bridge. Continue to the first road going south. The cemetery sits back 100 feet on the east side of the road as you turn south.

Black Cemetery was named for Samuel Black, a veteran of the Mexican War. He gave the land for the cemetery in 1848. He returned from the war to his home in Illinois and rode horseback to Iowa. He entered the 160 acre farm and received the title in 1850. Although the cemetery was laid out in 1848, the cemetery was not deeded to the trustees until December 26, 1860. Samuel and Elizabeth Jane Black conveyed and donated to Samuel Switzer, George Parsons and William Myrick, the trustees and to their successors, and to the public in general, for the consideration of one dollar, one acre of ground to be used as a public burying ground.

Several Civil War veterans are buried in Black Cemetery, including a son of Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Hartman. The Hartman grave is unmarked. Memorial markers are here for Warren and Irving James, but they are not buried here. One died in Andersonville Prison and the other was killed in action during the Civil War. There are indications of about ninety burials, some marked only by foundations of their gravestones.

The cemetery is sometimes referred to as Coon Cemetery because the Coon family owned the adjoining land for about a century.

Cemetery and Death Records of Warren County, Iowa, Warren County Genealogical Society, Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, Missouri: 1980.

View records submitted to the Iowa Gravestone Photo Project for Black Cemetery.