Leoti Cemetery

Map of the Leoti Cemetery-click on the thumbnail below to view a larger version then use your browser's back button to return to this page. This map isn't very clear or good quality as it was reduced from a much larger map and then scanned for this web page.

At the register of deeds office in Leoti, Numeral Index Volume 36-1 A refers us to Miscellaneous Record Book A, page 65. There we find the following: A tract of land 953 1/2 fee by 933 1/2 fee containing 20.4 acres in the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of section 19-18-36 donated and conveyed by Leonard D. Cowen and wife Ella to I.O.O.F. Lodge, Number 297, of Leoti, Kansas. The date was June 23, 1887. It was recorded by Thomas F. Calhoun, Wichita County Register of Deeds.

On April 16, 1889, the trustees of I.O.O.F. Lodge, Number 297, deeded the above plot to the I.O.O.F Cemetery Association, recorded by J. D. Donnel, Wichita County Register of Deeds.

The first marked grave is that of James D. Callahan, who died in 1884 and is buried in circle 5, lot 4, space 4. To the north in the alley is a grave of Joanna Callahan, who died in 1887. I judge that she was buried before the cemetery was plotted, but not necessarily so because others have been mistakenly buried outside their given plot.

This a beautifully plotted cemetery laid out in a wagon wheel design. No doubt the person who designed it came here in a covered wagon.

We did find in the Sheriff Deeds, Volume 10, page 189, that Sheriff John H. Edwards sold the cemetery mentioned above to W. B. Washington on November 19, 1891, for $832.83, giving him a tax deed.

The cemetery continued to carry the I.O.O.F. name until October 18, 1934, when Hershel L. Washington and wife Helen (heirs of W. B. Washington) deeded it to the city of Leoti.

The city of Leoti gave and deeded the cemetery to Wichita County. It became a part of the Wichita County Cemetery Association. This action is recorded in Volume 38, page 365, Quitclaim Deed Records, following the action taken in to a petition circulated by Lloyd Mathes and John Fisher and signed by qualified electors of the county, which was duly acted upon by the county commissioners: Charles F. Durham, chairman: Glen white and Arthur McCowan, members; Rose Fetty, county clerk, as recorded in the board meeting minutes, dated June 5, 1961.

Picture of the Leoti Cemetery taken April 12, 2000-click on the thumbnail below for a larger version then use your browsers back button to return to this page.