WHITE CEMETERY
Des Moines Township

 Des Moines Township, Van Buren County, Iowa
Northeast part of Section 1

 White Cemetery is one of the smaller cemeteries not among those indexed by the Van Buren County Genealogical Society.
You will find a listing of their available cemetery books on their web site.

[Note: The following from 1964 survey]

This cemetery is located in the northeast part of Section 1, Des Moines Township.

This cemetery is a fenced enclosure about 20 feet square. The one stone was found lying outside the fence. No other stones in the enclosure, but there was a large hole about 4 feet deep just inside the fence.

The location is on the old White farm. It is about 1 1/2 miles N.W. of Mt. Sterling.

Burial 1847.

Thomas Blackledge, died 23 March, 1847, ae 66 yrs, 10 mos., 12 days

Copied November 1964 by
Mrs. L. Marjorie Huff Hamlet
and Marion Flake
Typed by Edith Ellen Williams

Addition information was discovered after the 1964 reading by Hamlet and Flake.

Source: Ottumwa Courier, Ottumwa, IA  22 Apr 1940

MT. STERLING STONES

Keosauqua. -- The picture shows stones in what is thought to be the oldest known cemetery established by white settlers in what is now Van Buren county. One of the monuments is over the grave of Mrs. Sarah McFarland, 52, who died September 15, 1830.

Other stones in the cemetery are on the graves of persons who died in 1845 and 1847. The cemetery is on the R. E. Newcomb farm near Mt. Sterling. Newcomb, who bought the farm a year ago from Vic Lee, found the cemetery while plowing. It is obscured by a clump of trees and is surrounded by a fence that is falling to pieces. The farm is known as the Mat White farm.

Another old graveyard existed near the barn on this farm, but it is thought it was used only by Indians.

Inscribed on the stone to the left in the picture is the following: "Sarah, widow of George McFarland, died September 15, 1830, aged 52 years."

The stone in the center contains this inscription: "Alfred Blackledge, died May 30, 1845, aged 20 years, 1 month, 4 days. He is not dead but sleeping."

On the stone to the right in the picture is this inscription: "Thomas Blackledge, died March 23, 1847, 66 years, 10 months, 12 days. He is not dead but sleeping."

The Blackledges are relatives of the Blackledges who have lived in Van Buren county recently. No information is available regarding the woman.

Click here to view above newspaper clipping and photo.

Yet another stone for Mary E. Etzler was discovered and photographed in 2007.

Known burials to date: