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A medium sized lock-n-lock with a few small trade items and a TB to start it out. This location has some history behind it and is pretty isolated from other caches, so it will definitely take a special trip to get it. There is a paved road to within about one-half mile of the cemetery.
James H. Geist, Sr., the son of German immigrants, came to Kansas from Ohio where he had served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was wounded and captured at the Battle of Chickamauga (Georgia) and sent to Libby prison in Virginia. Later, en route to another prison, he escaped by jumping from a train then wading down a creek to throw off tracking dogs. When the dogs finally picked up the scent again, they followed it to a "negro cabin." However, he and the other man he escaped with were hiding under a large meat barrel, throwing off the dogs yet again. They traveled from cabin to cabin until reaching Ohio about two weeks later. Several years after the war, he came to Kansas and homesteaded at Iwacura. He passed away at his home from complications of his war wounds in 1915, having survived a brutal war, dysentery, a broken leg, starvation, relocating his family to another state, operating a farm, and the deaths of four children under 6 months of age. It is almost unimaginable the amount of hardship he suffered in his life. Geist is interred at the Iwacura cemetery along with his wife and several of his children. His youngest son, Lewis, inherited the property, where he lived until his death in 1987. He was one of the more recent interments at the site.
In looking for the cache, you will be visiting the Iwacura community cemetery. Iwacura was not so much as a town ever, but a collection of farms and homes over a wide area. Bloom Township, where Iwacura is situated, had a population of 762 in 1880. However, in those days, travel to the nearest towns such as Vining, Clifton, Morganville and Idana were considered too far to go for mail by horse and buggy. Therefore, a post office for the community was established on March 24, 1882. James H Geist, Sr., my great-great-grandfather, was appointed postmaster. His post office, such as it was, was housed in the log home where he had homesteaded in 1876 about one-third of a mile northwest of the cemetery. A frame house later replaced the log home, but it burned down and was replaced by another, which still stands today. The old foundation of the rock barn on the site can also still be seen if you drive up the road just north of the cemetery. The post office for Iwacura was discontinued in 1894 following the implementation of rural free delivery in this part of the country.
The southeast corner of the old property was donated for the setup of the Iwacura United Bretheren Church and cemetery. The church was removed sometime around World War II, but the foundation still exists today. It is almost hard to imagine attending services in a church on that site, as the foundation is quite small. About half of the burials in the cemetery are relatives of mine. The rest are other residents of the Iwacura community.
I hope you enjoyed this little piece of my family history and hope you enjoy this quiet, peaceful piece of land.
This cache is placed in memory of those ancestors laid to rest there, none of which I ever met, but who all played such an important role in shaping who I am today.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
srapvat