Family Tree #7: Pioneer Cemetery Wherigo Cache

Genealogy is my other hobby and it has taken me to almost as many cemeteries as geocaching. A combination of the two seems like a natural fit. This cache will be part of an CONNECTED series of caches in cemeteries where I have a family connection. As always with cemetery caches, please be respectful, no night time caching allowed, and no searching for the cache if there is a service in progress, although that is unlikely to happen in this cemetery.

Pioneer Cemetery, AKA: Cemetery of the Lone Tree, was the original burial ground for residents of Grasshopper Falls in the 1860s and 1870s. There were burials in the cemetery up until 1928, but the cemetery had long been mostly neglected by the turn of the century. "Grasshopper" became a dirty word in Kansas in the 1870s when they turned the sky dark and ate everything in their path during a few growing seasons. The town changed its name to Valley Falls and a well-maintained cemetery was established on the south side of town. Pioneer Cemetery became overgrown and forgotten by most people. There were multiple attempts by different groups over the years to clean up the area, but it has only been within the last ten years that a consistent effort to maintain the area has been established. Sadly, numerous markers have been vandalized and/or lost to time. The true number and location of souls that are buried here is not known.

I have two sets of grandparents buried here. The marker and exact location of my 4th great-grandparents is one of those that has been lost. John Harrison Kennedy was the grandson of a Scottish immigrant who fought in the American Revolution. His wife, Elizabeth Ann Bell, was the great-granddaughter of another American Revolutionary War Patriot. They had at least eleven children and moved to this area from Kentucky. She was said to have been a skilled horsewoman. I do not know where they are buried in this cemetery, but I do have a photo of them and an old photo of their marker. If you care to view it, the photo of their marker and location as it appeared in the 1960s is visible in the image gallery.

John Harrison and Elizabeth Bell Kennedy with an unknown child

The burial location of my 3rd great-grandparents in this cemetery is known and that is where the posted coordinates will take you. Here, you will find the marker for Sarah Nellie Bennett Nevins. Sarah's paternal grandfather and a maternal great-grandfather both fought in the American Revolution. She was the youngest of at least eight children. Her father died when she was two and her mother died when she was twelve. She married John Jacob Nevins when she was 18 and they had at least nine children over the next twenty years. John and at least three of the children are buried in the row extending south from Sarah's marker, but all of the markers have been ravaged by time and vandals. John was killed in a thresher accident on July 4, 1870. Sarah was left with several young children on the harsh prairie and she died eight years later at the young age of 48.