The location of the Lydia Lutheran Cemetery (German) is in the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of section 27-20-36.

An indenture made January 28, 1905, is recorded on page 555, in Volume 15, in which Tamme Rewerts and Frances Rewerts gave the German Lutheran Church a strip of land in the northwest corner of the northeast quarter of section 27-20-36, containing six acres more or less, 80 rods east and west by 12 rods north and south, one acre of which was to be used for a cemetery with the stipulation that the land would revert to the owner, should it cease to be used for church and cemetery purposes. Hugh Glenn was register of deeds at the time.

In the big prairie fire that swept through this community in the spring of 1916, the church building burned to the ground. It was never rebuilt. Some of the people whose relatives were buried there wished that all should not be lost and sent money to fence the cemetery. Local people built the fence as requested. Interest was lacking and little care was taken of the site. Fences filled with weeds; all the land was cultivated around the cemetery. Along came the dirty thirties and dusters filled the enclosure, leaving nothing but a large dust pile.

With the organizing of the Wichita County Cemetery District, care of cemeteries became on of the board’s responsibilities. The fence around this cemetery had been bulldozed into a pile so that the dirt would blow away. At this time or soon after, while Arthur Kuhlmann was a county commissioner, he asked the county road department to come down and scrap the top soil to the side in order that the graves might be located, as there were only three with markers. By moving about 12 inches of dirt to the side the graves were easily distinguished. We located 15 more unmarked graves. To be an abandoned cemetery, all graves would have to be moved to another place. The cemetery board had a cable fence built around the portion where the graves were located and bought stones to mark each grave.

In the church register we find listed on page 197 in the records of deaths the following: (Some of the writing is hard to decipher since it is written in German.)

Henis Fischer, died July 24, 1907

Elisabetha Langlitz, died June 21, 1907

Hanna Krom, died August 4, 1907

Edmund Winick, died June 18, 1907

Samuel Scheuermann, died August 26, 1908

David Scheuermann, died July 5, 1908

Elma Holstein, died May 30, 1909, moved to Leoti

Heinrich Hartmann, died February 15, 1911

Scheuermann Baby, died April 10, 1911

Elsa Hannemann (twin), died May 10, 1911

Lea Hannemann (twin), died December 17, 1911

Adam Lautenschlager, died August 21, 1913

Matie Lisbeth Holstein, died November 26, 1916, moved to Leoti

This still leaves five graves unaccounted for, and we trust a few mistakes have resulted from our translations.

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