Unknown Cemetery 3 Vanishes Without a Trace

Codename: Ensign Cemetery

Last Seen

SW quarter of Section 29, Township 13S, Range 25E, 6 PM
Oxford Township, Johnson County, Kansas

This cemetery was located near 110th and Lowell, just south of I435. The cemetery is alone in 1874, but in 1886 is shown with a church. Daniel Ensign owned several large tracts of adjoining land on both sides of Antioch Rd., including some of the current Corporate Woods land.

Visitation

Today this area has business buildings and parking lots and is near to the Farmers Insurance corporate headquarters seen from I435.

Maps

1874 Atlas, Johnson County, KS, Oxford Township, pg. 88 ( D Ensign )
1886 Atlas, Johnson County, KS, Oxford Township ( Daniel Ensign )

1874 Atlas
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1886 Atlas


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What type of cemetery is it?

Cemeteries in the United States can be classified into several general types. These types aren't always mutually exclusive, and sometimes a cemetery transforms from one type to another over time.

Knowing the type of cemetery you are studying helps you to better understand the community, social, and possibly religious aspects of those interred within.

Public Cemetery

Public cemeteries are usually owned by a city, township, county, or some government entity and are open to the public for burials and for visitation.

Private Cemetery

Private cemeteries are usually owned by a corporation to make money. Modern private cemeteries are often restrictive in what may be placed at the grave and the type of markers allowed.

Church Cemetery

Church cemeteries are not always located at a church but are owned by a church. Church cemeteries are often open to the public for burial and visitation.

Family Cemetery

Family cemeteries are located on family-owned land when they are first started, and used to bury loved ones and friends. As they are on private land, and often not located near a road, they are not open to the public and permission is needed to visit the cemetery.

Lodge Cemetery

Lodge cemeteries are owned and operated by a fraternal organization or lodge, such as Knights of Pythias, Mason, and Odd Fellows. Lots at lodge cemeteries were offered at a low cost to members and their family and sometimes were open to the public at a higher cost.

Customary Cemetery

Customary cemeteries are those formed by a settlement or group of neighbors, with no real ownership or legal entity. Often times there is no sexton or maintenance - each family takes care of their own. Today these types of cemeteries are typically not legal.

Ethnic Cemetery

An ethnic cemetery is specialized to a particular ethnicity or sect, such as Quaker, or native Indian. These cemeteries are not open to public burial and are often not open to the public for visitation.


Mass Burials

Mass burials were common in times of disease or disaster. Other events that caused mass burials include the removal of old cemeteries to make way for growth.

What's new in 2007

See the new digital cemetery site - the most up-to-date source of Johnson County KS cemetery indees - at http://cemetery.cottonhills.com Post your comments here and let me know what you think of it!

Thanks to the volunteer efforts of Richard Knabe, the old Pleasant Valley Cemetery in western Johnson County is under a transformation. Richard is cleaning up the cemetery and unearthhing fallen and grown over stones. Many of the stones that have been lost since the 1970s were found as well as a couple that were not previously recorded.

Pleasant View Cemetery has about 40 new entries - some previously missed and some new.

I made many corrections to the smaller indexed cemeteries by checking them against the Johnson County Cemetery Index from the 1970s and was able to identify a few stones that are almost completely illegible.

Thanks to volunteers Carol Rollins, Kim Baker, and Kathy Ross, there will soon be a lot of additions.

- De Soto Cemetery, Kathy Ross - indexed and doing final additions - almost there!
- Edgerton Cemetery, Kim Baker - indexed but many illegible stones require another visit
- Spring Hill, Carol Rollins, Kim Baker - half is published, but another quarter is indexed

Unknown Cemetery 2 Vanishes Without a Trace

Codename: Starr Cemetery

Last Seen

NW quarter of Section 5, Township 15S, Range 22E, 6 PM
McCamish Township, Johnson County, Kansas

This cemetery is located along the old Trail near Edgerton. The cemetery is marked on Starr land on the atlas, so I call it Starr Cemetery just to have a better name than Unknown 2. There are members of the Starr family interred at Edgerton Cemetery.

The railroad, and later, Old 56 H cross this land in the approximate location of the cemetery.

Maps

1874 Atlas, Johnson County, KS, McCamish Township, pg. 60 ( J Starr )

1874 Atlas