Chase County, Nebraska

home                                                     Cemeteries

          Following is a list of the cemeteries located in Chase County, Nebraska.   Our plan is to include a list of tombstone inscriptions for each cemetery, along with a date when the cemeteries were indexed.  Lot owners will also be listed where they can be ascertained, especially in the larger cemeteries.     Family historians and Chase County researchers have Kermit Karns, of Imperial, NE to thank for the work he did in visiting cemeteries and recording the tombstone inscriptions listed here.     Many of these cemetery listings were published in the Kansas City Genealogist, published by the Heart of American Genealogical Society.

   photo by Bill Osler, of Denver, CO

Lakeview Cemetery,
Champion, Nebraska

        The town of Champion was established in 1886.    Christmas Day of that year had the first death in the new town.  It was the 15-year-old son of William Lambert.  The boy was said to have died of consumption.  He was buried in the original Champion Cemetery, which is located where the Scholl Station was later located.

        On December 14, 1889, pursuant to a public call for a meeting to arrange for a suitable burial grounds for deceased persons, a meeting was held in the schoolhouse in Champion.  At this time William H. Kelly was selected Chairman and James S. Bell was selected as Secretary for a committee to find some land.  On December 17, another meeting was held and it was decided to purchase 5 acres of the SW corner of the NW 1/4 of Sec. 29, Township 6, Range 39, at $7.00 per acre from J. C. Hayes.  At this same meeting the Lakeview Cemetery Association was formed and the Articles of Incorporation drawn up.  In January of 1890, Dr. C. O. Adams was employed as surveyor and the ground were surveyed and plotted.  This occurred very early in January, because on January 4, the Trustees met and set the cost of a lot at $5.00 and a $1.00 assessment for paper work and upkeep.

        On January 7, 1890 the first burial took place in the new Lakeview Cemetery.  It was Hugh Hill, a 49-year-old settler, who died from injuries he received from a fall off a freight wagon coming up from Benkelman.  He was a Civil War Veteran who served with Co. I in the 123rd regiment of the New York Infantry.  He, his wife, and four children  had settled on their Chase County Homestead in the spring of 1887.

        On January 18, 1890, it was decided to build a fence for protection of the graves.  William Kelly was selected Superintendent of the fence building.  It was free-range at that time, but the need has not changed.

     There were 26 people reinterred at the Lakeview Cemetery from the original Champion Cemetery.  In 1995 Lakeview Cemetery was designated a native prairie cemetery so that it would remain as it had been established in 1890.

    (This brief history of the Lakeview Cemetery was put together by Vickie Beard, Secretary of the Lakeview Cemetery Association.  May 19, 2001)

    The following tombstone inscriptions were provided by Kermit Karns, of Imperial, and Mrs. Edna Robert, of Champion, Nebraska.  This information was printed in the Kansas City Genealogist in July of 1963.      

  Back                             Top of Page                 More Lakeview

email Linda Banks at: [email protected]
or email Kermit Karns at:  [email protected]