Many local legends walked through the cemeteries on Sunday

Ground squirrels were not the only ones wandering through the cemeteries of Clarion on Sunday, June 14. The Wright County Genealogical Searchers hosted about 50 people as they presented the lives of 10 people buried in the cemeteries.

The tour stared with a ride on a Clarion-Goldfield-Dows school bus from the courthouse to the cemeteries. The original cemetery was located in the southeast part of Clarion near the location of 1^st Avenue and 6^th Street. With the addition of the King’s Addition in 1870 the city council decided for Clarion to grow the cemetery would need to be relocated. So in 1873 the Clarion Cemetery Association was organized and land was purchased 1.5 miles east of the courthouse. Back when the cemeteries were started outside of town a wooden walk way was built to allow the citizens of Clarion to walk to them.

The first stop was at the St. John Catholic Cemetery to learn about the lives of Jean Lester, Msgr. Slowey, Father O’Donnell, and Joe Tomke. 

Read the full article in the June 18 edition of the WCM.