Scotch Ridge Cemetery History

SCOTCH RIDGE CEMETERY is in the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 18 of Allen Township. The Scotch Ridge United Presbyterian Church sits on the west of the cemetery and is in Greenfield Township.

The land on which the church and cemetery sits on originally bought from the government by D.D. Cummings. Mr. Cummings later sold portions to B.F. Wadsworth and Thomas Thompson in 1856 and to Pete Schooler in 1863.

On January 3, 1865 for the sum of $30.00, Peter Schooler and his wife sold approximately two acres of land for the United Presbyterian Churchyard. On April 28, 1865, William Hastie and his wife, for the sum of $25.00, sold one acre of adjacent land on the east side of the church for the beginning of a cemetery. On November 5, 1898, Jacob Piffer and his wife sold land east of the original cemetery, to be used as an addition to the cemetery, for $100. In 1971, one acre was acquired for an addition to the cemetery along the north edge. $1500 was paid to Virgil Dickeson and wife for the land.

Early burials in the new cemetery included the infant children of Thomas Scott Brown and Nancy Applegate Brown. The Scotch-Irish immigrants at Scotch Ridge were proud of their Scotch heritage, and several gravestones have information of the county [shire] in Scotland from which they had come. In the beginning burial plots were granted only to members of the Scotch Ridge United Presbyterian Church, but this practice has been eliminated now for many years.

Scotch Ridge United Presbyterian Church started on August 13, 1853, when Robert McElroy rode to Chariton to get the first charter. The original members were William Vance, J. McElroy, Andrew Hastie, William Runciman, Elizabeth Runciman, William Hastie, John Wood, Mary Wood, Mrs. William Vance, Mrs. J. McElroy, William McBride, Mr. Ray, Nancy Ray, Margaret Ray, Josiah Hanby and Elizabeth Hanby. The first church building was erected in 1857 at a cost of $1,000. The present building was constructed in 1885 and cost $4,000.

Other early settlers to the Scotch Ridge were Mr. Brumhall, arriving in 1849, Thomas Hastie, arriving in 1853, Thomas and Peter Schooler, arriving in 1856, and Thomas Ledlie, arriving in 1871.

A Memorial Park in remembrance of Donald Ledlie overlooks the highway as it goes past the church.

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 Scotch Ridge Cemetery.