FLINN CEMETERY
NE 1/4 Section 7, Township 16 North, Range 8
Prentice Township

   

   

More Cemetery Overview Photos

---

East of Prentice and within sight and sound of that village is Flinn Cemetery. It is possible to see this cemetery from the highway, although it is nearly a quarter of a mile from the road. Dense growth and briar bushes discourage a person from entering. Trees have fallen from old age and high winds, and damaged many stones. Although the cemetery was cleaned a number of years ago, it is obvious little additional effort has been expended in maintaining this cemetery.

UPDATE - Earl and I visited this cemetery on 26 March 2008. We found that the dense growth and briar bushes have been cleaned out of the cemetery, but there were numerous large old trees which have fallen in several places within the cemetery. In some cases, the trees fell directly on tombstones and smashed them to pieces - we located as many of the pieces as we could and pieced them back together as best we were able. There are several piles of branches and trees within the cemetery - evidence of someone cleaning in the cemetery and leaving them to dry. We found most of the stones, with the exception of the large ones, down and in some cases, buried as much as 6 to 8 inches beneath the ground. I doubt if the Mary Bennett stone had seen the light of day in 75 or 100 years. Most of the burials in this cemetery also have foot stones which was what enabled us to find many of the stones whose pictures appear here. This is a very very old cemetery with a number of burials dating from the 1830s and 1840s.

While you may be able to spot the cemetery during the winter months from the highway, I doubt that you would know it was there during the summer when the crops are up and there are leaves on the trees. It is approximately one quarter to one half mile from the nearest road and sits surrounded by fields and pasture land.