Time Machine: From farmland to burial ground in Cedar Rapids in 1929

During the building boom in Cedar Rapids in 1883, Charles Wesley Hollenbeck built a $4,500, two-story brick house on 80 acres along “The Boulevard,” the stretch of roadway between Cedar Rapids and Marion.

More than 40 years later, most of the land would become Cedar Memorial Cemetery.

Hollenbeck had been lured West during the California Gold Rush before returning to Cedar Rapids. He met Laura Welch, a Pennsylvania woman who had come to Marion in 1859 to care for an invalid uncle. When she returned to Pennsylvania, Hollenbeck followed, and the couple married there in 1861.

The Hollenbecks returned to Iowa and ran a general store in Anamosa for more than 20 years. When they retired in 1882, they moved to the Cedar Rapids farm with the two-story brick house. Charles Hollenbeck and his son, Bert, also opened a jewelry store in the Cedar Rapids, where the population had grown to more than 10,000.

The Hollenbeck farm was a popular spot for picnickers who would travel by streetcars for a day of outdoor fun with swings, hammocks and croquet sets before returning home in the evening.

In 1890, the camp became “Camp Greene,” where several Iowa regiments took turns pitching tents. Iowa Gov. Horace Boies and Gen. George Greene were visitors.

When Hollenbeck died in September 1912 at the age of 81, he was buried in the family plot in Anamosa. His widow, daughters Jennie and May and son Bert continued to live on the farm.

In 1927, a Gazette story reported that Bert had been gored by a young bull when he slipped on wet grass while trying to loosen the bull’s halter on the animal. The bull charged, goring Bert in the knee.

Land, lots sold

In 1929, S.H. Dykstra of Lincoln, Neb., and Carl Linge of Topeka, Kan., bought 60 acres of the Hollenbeck land for about $800 an acre.

The Gazette reported in March the land would be landscaped, at a cost of $75,000, and turned into a modern, “lawn-type” cemetery. There would be no monuments, only markers flush with the ground.

“The land, which adjoins the boulevard to the west, will be made a garden of shrubbery and beautiful lawns,” The Gazette said. “Particular attention will be paid to an elaborate entrance. That portion immediately adjoining the boulevard will not be used for graves. Large fountains will be installed.”

The Cedar Rapids Zoning Commission got in on the act in April, discussing whether it had any jurisdiction over the cemetery — just outside the city limits — and, if it did, should the cemetery be zoned and how wide should the driveways be?

Lot sales began May 1. An expert gardener was employed, and the cemetery was ready for use in the summer.

The Cedar Memorial Park Association was formed. Its first advertisement directed those interested to a “Location of Scenic Charm”: “It is in the north portion of the well-known Hollenbeck tract on the Cedar Rapids-Marion Boulevard, midway between these two cities, accessible at all times of the year by automobile or streetcar.”.

Blindsided?

Despite the advertising and Gazette stories, city leaders by August claimed to have been blindsided by the burial ground.

That assertion prompted Gazette Managing Editor Verne Marshall to expound in his “Current Comment” column:

“This cemetery episode at the city hall where both Zoning Commission and city council disclaim knowledge of how a burial ground sneaked up on them unaware out on Marion boulevard becomes ridiculously interesting,” he wrote.

“You will remember that the Zoning Commission complained to the council for permitting a cemetery to spring up, or down, just east of Kenwood on the attractive old Hollenbeck homesite, and that the council replied to the effect that it, too, had been surprised at the appearance of the project in that neighborhood.”

Marshall noted that reaction raised “a pall” in the newspaper office, which “tries earnestly not to miss too much of the news”

He pointed to a detailed, front-page story March story about the Hollenbeck land being sold for a cemetery.

Marshall went on for several more page 1 inches remonstrating the council, tongue firmly in cheek.

“About the only regrettable feature (of the park) will be the failure of the city councilmen to know of the presence there of so many of their old friends and supporters,” he wrote. “How can they know this when they aren’t even aware of the cemetery’s or park’s existence?”

Linge’s legacy

Carl Linge became president of Cedar Memorial and continued to develop it until his death in 1963.

In 1942, Linge began putting up a Nativity scene at Christmas. In 1947, he added lights to the park’s trees, creating a wonderland people could drive through and view for free.

The light display is no longer undertaken, but the cemetery in now into its third generation of Linge family ownership.

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