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Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery

Contributor: 
Cottonwood County Historical Society
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Color image of a memorial inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, August 25, 2013.

Memorial inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, August 25, 2013.

The Carson Mennonite Brethren Cemetery, surveyed and platted in June 1900, has 185 recorded burials as of 2017. Some graves have been relocated from other sites.

One half-acre of land for the cemetery of the Carson Mennonite Brethren Church (initially known as the Bingham Lake Mennonite Brethren Church) was originally donated by Heinrich Ewert of Carson Township. It was platted in June 1900, and the plat was certified by a surveyor, endorsed, and filed with the Register of Deeds in Cottonwood County on December 8, 1900. The cost of surveying the cemetery was $5.00; registration of its deed was $.90. The south section of the cemetery, added in 1958, was donated by David H. Ewert, son of Heinrich, who lived on the property after his father’s passing.

Oak trees surrounding the cemetery and adjacent churchyard create an atmosphere of quiet reflection and tranquility for the final resting place of loved ones. Many grave markers are etched with scriptural and spiritual expressions of faith.

John K. Dick, the first cemetery sexton, took responsibility for upkeep of the burial plots and grounds in the early twentieth century. David H. Ewert served as caretaker of the cemetery from 1920–1944.

At a business meeting on December 28, 1944, trustees agreed to send letters to loved ones of those buried in the cemetery and request donations for cemetery maintenance. Until at least 1950, burial plots were furnished without charge to church members and their families.

Although the cemetery’s first recorded burial was of Susan Eytzen in April 1908, Anna Funk Wiens, who died in 1904, is also buried there. There may have been initial burials before 1908 that cannot be confirmed. Some burials listed with a date before this may have been moved from initial burial sites when Carson Cemetery became available.

Beginning in the 1920s, David H. Ewert kept records of burials as caretaker of the cemetery. Families unable to afford permanent grave markers used wooden ones instead. As markers deteriorated, Norman Ewert, David’s grandson, preserved his grandfather’s notes by welding the vital information onto disk blades. Completed disk blades, serving as temporary markers, marked grave sites until permanent markers replaced them.

After the Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, south of Mountain Lake, was abandoned to widen County Road #1, thirteen bodies were moved to the Carson Cemetery and reburied in about 1947. By 1990, 154 burials were recorded at the Carson Cemetery; by 2013, the number had risen to 180.

Upon closure of the Carson Mennonite Brethren Church in 2005, the cemetery was deeded to Community Bible Church of Mt. Lake, Minnesota—also a Mennonite Brethren church; Wes Kroeker became sexton. He designed a memorial marker and had it erected at the entrance of the cemetery in 2013. A dedication of the memorial took place on September 15, 2013. Kroeker presented a brief history of the cemetery, and former pastors John Klassen and Herb Schroeder led a devotional and dedicatory prayer.

As of 2017, 185 bodies are interred in Carson Cemetery.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Annual Report, 1990–1991. Hillsboro, KS: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies (CMBS), 1992.

Kroeker, Elaine Ewert. A Culture of Call: The Story of the Carson Mennonite Brethren Church. Hillsboro, MN: Free Press Books, 2014.

Mountain Lake Mennonite Brethren Church and Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Record Book, 1877–1944. Hillsboro, KS: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies (CMBS), 1980.

Related Images

Color image of a memorial inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, August 25, 2013.
Color image of a memorial inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, August 25, 2013.
Color image of the tombstone of Anna Funk Wiens inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, March 13, 2013.
Color image of the tombstone of Anna Funk Wiens inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery, March 13, 2013.
Color image of Norman Ewert, ca. 2013, with a disk blade he made as a temporary tombstone for the grave of Anna Funk Wiens inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery.
Color image of Norman Ewert, ca. 2013, with a disk blade he made as a temporary tombstone for the grave of Anna Funk Wiens inside Carson Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery.

Turning Point

In 1900, Heinrich Ewert donates one half-acre of land for a burial ground for members of the Bingham Lake Mennonite Brethren Church (later known as Carson MB).

Chronology

1900

Land for the cemetery is surveyed and platted.

1900

A discussion to fence in the cemetery is held November 8, but construction does not proceed.

1900

The cemetery’s plat is certified by a surveyor, endorsed, and filed with the Register of Deeds in Cottonwood County on December 8 at a cost of $.90.

1908

Money received from payment for land on which the cemetery south of Mt. Lake was located is allocated for expenses in moving remains to the Carson MB Church cemetery on October 28.

1920

David H. Ewert begins his tenure as cemetery caretaker. He is assisted by A. K. Dick, J. J. Reimer, and P. Thieszen.

1939

A fence is built around the cemetery.

1943

Ewert’s tenure as caretaker ends.

1958

A new area, south of the cemetery, is added to the property.

2005

Carson Cemetery is given to Mt. Lake Community Bible Church in November.

2007

Berry Friesen collects funds to purchase and erect a tombstone for Anna Funk Wiens.

2013

On September 15, a dedication ceremony is held for a memorial erected at Carson Cemetery.