Pioneer Cemetery Project

 

THE PIONEER
CEMETERY PROJECT

Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas

 

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HISTORY GOAL OF THE PROJECT PHOTOS HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE BURIALS

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Project.  The Pioneer Cemetery, located on US Highway 160 on the east edge of Wellington Kansas is like every other cemetery, and like no other cemetery. Each cemetery tells its own story about its people and their lives and about the times they lived in.  And each cemetery has a mystery - or two.   

Who were these sturdy pioneer folks, these first settlers that came to help start a town and settle the land?   Answering at least some of these “Histories’ Mysteries” are just some of the goals of the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society. 

The Pioneer Cemetery tells many stories:    

The infant whose father was a newspaper man in Wellington, later moved to California and became a Sheriff;

The story of a mother, father, and child killed by typhoid, leaving behind one newborn child and two other children to be adopted by an Aunt and Uncle, only to lose the Uncle later when he was thrown from a buggy; and

The man who was murdered because he was a material witness in a trial. 

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Legends abound, and the cemetery also has many mysteries: 

What is the original name of the cemetery?
What were its original boundaries? 
When did burials stop?
Who was Thomas Dixon, “colored soldier?” What part did he play in the Civil War? Why did he come to Wellington and Sumner County? Did he really die in April 1872? Did he come with family and/or friends?  Where was he originally from and what was his part in the Civil War.
Who was the Confederate soldier? How did he come to be buried in a small cemetery with six Union soldiers, one of them black?
Were tombstones really thrown into the creek so cattle could graze along the creek?
Did a flood really wash away many of the cemeteries’ early residents & their stones?
Who is the ghost who walks the hall of a nearby building?

It is the hope of the Sumner County Historical & Genealogical Society and several concerned citizens that we can answer some of these questions, and restore the Pioneer Cemetery, provide as accurate a list as possible of the people buried in the Cemetery, and honor those early pioneers.

By Sherry Kline

                                 


                                

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HISTORY

PHOTOS

BURIALS

GOAL OF THE PROJECT HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE
 

Also visit the Sumner County Historical and Genealogical Society
or the Chisholm Trail History and Genealogy Center

This page was created for the SCHGS by J Scheel. 
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