Cemeteries, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

Ancestry US

There are, at this date (1884), four burying grounds used by the people of Prairie du Chien. These “silent cities” have buried, within their numerous vaults, a history, which nothing but eternity can reveal. Within these sacred enclosures lie buried the joys and sorrows of two generations of pioneers. Here rest the remains of many a bold adventurer and frontiersman, and by his side has long since decayed the mortal part of scores of gallant soldiers. Here the pioneer has of times bent over the coffined form of a darling child, who lived but to lisp, perhaps a single word, then was plucked like a spring flower and transplanted into a better world; others have grown to young man and womanhood, and then been laid low by disease and finally placed beneath the green sod which has been moistened by tear drops from the eyes of a dear father and loving mother, for many a year. Then in time, they too, have been subjects of disease, pain and death, and put away at rest by the side of their children so dear. Funeral procession after funeral procession has slowly coursed its way to these burying grounds and deposited the loved ones from out the home circles of this city, and monuments have been reared to their memory, until to-day, these “silent sentinels” stand one against another, as it were. The oldest of these cemeteries is one of the three Catholic burying grounds used by the pioneers. This is situated just north of the city, and contains the remains of many of the departed dead. The only public and non-sectarian cemetery in the place is located in the southeast part of Lower Town. This contains about eight acres of ground, and was laid out on land owned by John S. Lockwood, in 1842. This cemetery has been properly cared for and presents to the passer by an index of the culture and refinement of the city populace. Besides the public cemeteries, there are numerous private burying grounds in and about the city, where rest the remains of many of the pioneers of Crawford county, some of which are on the highest bluffs east of, and overlooking the city. There are also several interments on land enclosed in what is known as the officers’ cemetery, on grounds reserved by the United States. This is near John Lawler’s residence, and contains the bodies of soldiers and their families, who died at this point when Prairie du Chien was yet a military post.

History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin: Together with Sketches of Their Towns and Villages, Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens ; History of Wisconsin : Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic Races, and a Brief Account of Its Territorial and State Governments, Part 1. Crawford County (WI): Union Publishing Company, 1884.

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