Rosedale Cemetery
Jeff
Adams tells a story of his great grandparents Joel and Ariana Moore,
English folks, walking the prairie in 1888 and stumbling upon three
children’s graves. They say a prayer for Lela Houghting, 3 years old
(1875), Birdie Alford, 1 year old (1881) and Hanna Stevens, 8 years old
(1888). They purchased 240 acres of prairie including the land with the
burial plot. Then between 1888 and 1889, the burial plot grew to 7
graves with six being children and it was named the Highland Cemetery.
It was most likely associated with the Underwood Post Office nearby.
The
early records are lost but the paper trail picks up in May of 1902 when
the cemetery meeting minutes note a $2.00 increase from $3.00 to $5.00
for five plots. Later minutes of 1903 mention fencing and neighbors
building a heated tool shed that served as a meeting site for many
years. In 1926, the cemetery goes broke and the name officially changes
to Rosedale Cemetery on January 28, 1928. Perhaps because of its close
proximity to Rosedale, that had a house, church, parsonage and a
one-room school. The cemetery went broke again in 1931 but the locals
kept it going with a $5.00 donation from each plot owner.
The
cemetery has 27 veterans’ graves but only one died in wartime; Gerald
Adams, grandson of Joel and Ariana Moore, killed just a month before
WWIII ended. Three of the graves are Civil War veterans. Descendents
of many of the earliest settlers still live in the area and care for the
cemetery.
Source Jeff Adams, area resident and descendent of Joel Moore.
Located North of Doniphan – Highway 281 to Rosedale Road and 2 miles west.
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