Not forgotten: Years-long effort helps preserve county’s history

Not long ago, many of the county’s citizens worried that its
history was being lost.

Old cemeteries and burial sites were plowed over to make
way for farms. Records of the area’s early settlers were often
lost, destroyed, or simply nonexistent.

So the county commission asked then-clerk Marquette
Eilerts to take on a years-long project, a book that would list,
organize, and identify family and public cemeteries and grave
sites in the county.

“Family Cemeteries and Grave Sites Located in Marion
County” maps the locations of 85 cemeteries, including
township, church, and family burial plots.