Mother is my eagle-eyed cemetery spotter. In the scores of times we had driven to Perry County, I had never looked to the left just south of County Road 524 off Hwy C to spot the cemetery on the hill. It turned out to be the Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery, established in 1918.
One of the first things that caught my eye was that there were four freshly-dug graves side-by-side. Had there been some kind of tragedy that wiped out a whole family all at once? No, the graves had different names on them and different, though recent, dates.
I quickly discerned the pattern: unlike most cemeteries I’ve visited, these graves weren’t grouped by families, they were in chronological order.
First grave dated 1919
It didn’t take long to confirm my suspicion. The first grave in the southwest corner of the first row was dated 1919, and all the graves to the right were in date order. The only other place I had run into that kind of order was in a cemetery in Frohna, another German community.
Meticulous details
I give the cemetery credit for keeping good records.
Plenty of room for expansion
There is no shortage of room for more arrivals. Later on, we’ll show you photos from a cemetery right across from the Immanuel Lutheran church in “downtown” New Wells.
Click on the photos to make them larger.