Pioneer Cemetery

Iowa Code 523I.102 - 'Pioneer cemetery” means a cemetery where there were twelve or fewer burials in the preceding fifty years.

With hundreds of tiny pioneer cemeteries in Iowa, the prospect of writing a column about them seemed daunting. Then I discovered an unusual old burial ground.

The Pioneer Cemetery (formerly the Parker Cemetery), one of the oldest burial sites in Eastern Iowa, is several miles southwest of Wheatland in Liberty Township. A trust fund pays for its care.

While marble stones in other cemeteries are worn smooth among the tall natural grasses of Iowa, this little plot is consistently mowed and trimmed.

The reason lies beneath two small granite stones in front of a large granite bench bearing the inscription 'MURRAY A man courageous, generous, gentle and loyal - and his wife and their faithful companions”.

The story begins with a front-page article in the Nov. 6, 1894, edition of The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette.

'A freight train on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad brought a young man and a young woman, whose trip to Burlington culminated in a romantic runaway marriage. The wedding took place at the parlors of the Orchard City house behind locked doors for fear of pursuit. Squire Edmunds officiated. The bride was Miss Bessie M. Dutton, daughter of Jerome Dutton, a wealthy citizen of Wheatland, Clinton County. She is 22 years of age. The groom is John F. Murray, is 23 years old and a son of George Murray of Des Moines.

'They left the young woman's home Sunday intending to go to Davenport, but owing to train connections and dangers of pursuit they kept on to Burlington. Late in the night they reached Keithsburg, and by making a skirmish through the yards they caught an Iowa Central freight train that was coming toward Burlington. They rode in the caboose until they made connections with a Burlington freight train near Monmouth and reached the city early in the morning, still happy and determined.”

Bessie was postmistress of Wheatland - a position she inherited from her father - when a tent show came to town. Among the performers was John Francis Murray, a young musician who had been born in Monroe in Jasper County.

After they were married, John began studying law with the Walsh brothers at Clinton. In 1901 he became a purser on a Lake Michigan steamship. There he met chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Sr. and went to work for him, first in the southeast and then in New York. John was credited with coming up with the name 'Juicy Fruit” for a brand of gum.

While in New York, John came up with the idea to buy engraving plates from music publishers and publish sheet music in daily papers. Murray Music Co. was organized in 1908.

That led to setting up an advertising agency in New York along with the Murray Newspaper Services and Murray Syndicate Cut Service. The latter two were bought by Meyer-Both of Chicago.

His next successful enterprise was the Wyeth Chemical Co. He joined with a few other entrepreneurs and formed American Home Products Co. in 1926. John F. Murray Advertising became the company's in-house agency.

When John died on May 9, 1936, he and Bessie already had determined that they would be buried in her family plot in Iowa. The trouble was, it already was looking scruffy and there was no room for additional burials. The wealthy pair purchased an additional 24 feet to the south and east and presented it to the cemetery association. Construction for their burial site began immediately. The weeds and overgrown raspberry bushes were eliminated. A brownstone fence went up around the cemetery on a five foot underground base, and a stone tool building was erected. The old tombstones were straightened and stabilized and the grounds were landscaped. The iron gate was replaced with a heavy catalpa wood gate that hung on iron hinges made, along with an iron latch, by Wheatland blacksmith John Thompson. Thompson and his wife also are buried at Pioneer Cemetery.

Bessie had a marble bench made in New York in memory of her husband in 1936. It was 12 feet long and four feet high. A flagstone path and a sundial were placed in front of the bench. When the marble began to show wear from Midwest weather, Bessie had an exact replica made of granite.

The Murrays, who were childless, had three Boston terriers, Buddha I, Buddha II and Bully Boy, who are buried at the site. A parrot, Polly, is buried under the sundial.

The first burial at Pioneer was in 1840 when Emmet Gould, who hadn't yet reached his 20th birthday, died while visiting relatives on Rock Creek. Fifteen years later, it officially became a cemetery. Bessie's grandparents Charles and Nancy Pearsall Dutton and her parents Jerome and Celinda Parker Dutton are buried there.

Bessie established a trust fund at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York for the upkeep of Pioneer Cemetery after her death in 1945. She also had intended to establish a pet cemetery, but her attorney persuaded her to establish an endowment that would fund scholarships and lectureships at the University of Iowa. The fund finances four scholarships each year in law, commerce, journalism and advertising.

An $8,000 monument was dedicated in 1976 to commemorate the early settlers in the area.

My husband and I visited the peaceful little cemetery recently. It sits on a quiet corner where two country roads meet. Corn and soybeans grow in fields around it. Vines creep over the wall here and there. The old gate is solid, held firmly in place between two stone pillars by heavy iron hinges. The oldest marble stones are worn almost smooth, but no weeds grow anywhere inside or immediately outside the stone fence.

l Comments: (319) 398-8338; diane.langton@sourcemedia.net