Montgomery County Cemetery Directory

 

 

 

Buckner Cemetery

N. W. Wales

Lincoln Twp., Section 4

View submitted Buckner Cemetery gravestones photos in Gravestone Photo Project

Buckner Cemetery Location and Driving Map View Map

Buckner Cemetery Index

 

 

Photo taken by Steve Grosse, Council Bluffs, IA - 2002

 

     Buckner cemetery was registered May 13, 1879, in the recorder’s office of Montgomery County as the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, but is known locally as the Buckner Cemetery.  On November 6, 1876 Jackson Buckner gave an acre of ground to be used as a cemetery.  The cemetery is located three miles north of Wales and three-fourths of a mile west.  The name Pleasant Grove was chosen because of the big grove of Walnut trees, which surrounded the cemetery.  The trees were sold to the United States Army in 1917 to be used for the butts of rifles in World War I.

 

    Mr. Buckner also gave the acre immediately west of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to be used as a building site for their church.  The congregation raised $1,400.00 for that purpose, but in 1879 the church was built three miles north at Wheeler Grove.  This church was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.


   There were 25 burials in Buckner cemetery before it became an official cemetery.  The first burial was William Thompson, brother of Elizabeth Conner, in 1852.  This was one of the first four burials in Montgomery County that year.


   There have been four burials from 1930-1990.  In 1930, a farmer mowed the cemetery for hay and piled up some of the stones.  Until 1990, there have been 108 burials which included 22 infants [two sets of twins], 18 children under age 16, 65 adults and an unknown number of new born babies. In 1990, a group of men cleaned up the cemetery, cut dead trees, trimmed the brush, reset and straightened the stones, repaired the fence and installed a flag pole and bulletin board.

Two people who met with tragic deaths are  buried in Buckner cemetery. 

    D. Lee Buckner took a load of cattle to Chicago in 1903.  He stepped off the wrong side of an El Train and was run over by another train. 

   Chad Thayer was killed accidentally while playing with a gun in 1985. 

 

 

For more cemetery gravestone photographs visit the Montgomery County IAGenWeb Gravestone Photo Project

 

Laura Leighton

 born 1901, died 1921

Lot 59

 

 Hannah O. Leighton

 born 1860, died 1939

Lot 58

Sidnah R. Leighton

 born 1851, died 1946

 

Amanda A. Leighton

 wife of Noah Leighton

died 13 April 1884

 age 68y, 10m, 28d

Lot 36

Lewis W. Leighton

died 1884, age 2y

Lot 58

Amanda A. Leighton

 died 1884, age 2y

 

Noah Leighton

 died 1 July 1893, age 81y 13d 

Lot 36

 

Mary Oliver Smith

born 11 Jan 1897, died 6 May 1897

Lot 59

 Daughter of

David & Emily Smith

~ Submitted by Steve Grosse of Council Bluffs, Iowa

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