Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery

Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
 
Section 4 - Centerville Township - Turner County - South Dakota
 

    
 A  view  of  the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery

The Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery is approximately 4 miles to the northwest of Centerville South Dakota.  It has been long abandoned and no families still reside in the area.  At one time it was hoped that a church would be built some day.  There is an equally long abandoned railroad right of way near the cemetery and that may have helped bring folks to the area, but the cemetery is now in the middle of a large soybean / alfalfa field.

The aerial photo below actually has a somewhat fallen down barb wire fence around the dark green region with a gate in the southeast corner next to the alfalfa field.  The wild brome grass, hollyhocks, lilacs, and scrub trees have taken over the cemetery area without any semblance of order.  The ground is very uneven and only a handful of broken grave markers are still laying within the fenced area.  The first burial was apparently Jacob Keller in 1882, followed in 1892 by his wife.


An Aerial View of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery 

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The Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery information database consists of 3 parts.

This information was prepared by Ken Tiahrt ([email protected]) with the generous assistance of Sherree Schmiedt and may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use.  Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires written approval.

1.  A Cemetery Map

An approximate map of the cemetery showing the cemetery outline gives the user a physical setting.   A specific location for a given burial plot can not be found using this information source, as there is no lot and plot map available.

2.  A List of Burials

A listing of the burials at Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery – Section 4 – Centerville Township – Turner County, gives the individual names that are available in 2010.  This listing also gives the date of birth and date of death when available. 

3.  Photos of Grave Monuments

In general photos are not available for the grave markers in this cemetery.  The accuracy available with the records in this document is acceptable for most genealogical purposes, but should be used with care.  There are only photos related to 3 graves available at this time.  If anyone happens to know of additional grave marker photos please contact the web site author.  Use your browser return icon to exit from a photo and go back to this page. 

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Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery Burial Record as of 2010

Section 4 - Centerville Township - Turner County - SD

Last Name First Name Birth Year Death Year Lot Grave Photo
Johnke baby 2 29
Johnke baby 2 28
Jenter Wilhellmina 1877 1902 2 17
Jenter baby 1908 1908 1 17
Devers Johnnie 1908 1908 1 13
Kock Emielie 1890 1905 2 25 3a,3
Kock Harry C 1899 1905 2 23 2a,2
Kock William 2 39
Kock Carl W 1910 1910 2 40
Keller Jacob 1823 1882 3 3
Keller Mrs Jacob 1832 1892 3 2
Hoeflinger baby 3 5
Peterbaugh George 1825 1888 3 10
Peterbaugh William 1863 1898 3 14
Stecker Alfred 1892 1906 4 17
unknown 2 7
The grave where this marker should be located is unknown, it has no name on it.       4

The second photo for each of the Kock children was apparently taken after assembling two broken marker pieces, thus hopefully showing the original appearance of the markers.  These 4 photos were found on another web site, and were not recently taken within this cemetery for this web page,

Monument photo 4 was taken for this web site in the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery and matches in style and age a monument at Norwegian Pioneer Lutheran (Haugen) Cemetery near Tea, SD

The names shown on this list are all related to people who homesteaded in the 1870's and 1880's within 5 or 6 miles of the cemetery.  There were at least 32 children born in the early 1900's to families with these last names who had homesteaded in South Dakota, this record only permits firm identification of a very few as being interred in the Salem Evangelical Cemetery.