St. Columba Cemetery

St. Columba Cemetery a historical document in earth and stone.

Until a second cousin from TN found my family tree online, I hadn’t realized how much historical information is buried in the St. Columba Cemetery.  The first sixteen Irish settlers are entombed there.  The relatives that were born here or followed them from the home country found their final resting place here. German immigrants followed the Irish settlers so the area became a Iriah/German settlement. Conception Abbey monks are entombed in this sacred place along with Fr. Powers the missionary who served the Reading Colony, as this place was known early in its history.

Originally Fr. Powers along with several supporters from Reading PA acquired 20,000 ac of land from the federal government in the southwest corner of what is now Nodaway County.  This is a story within itself.  His goal was to find a place for Irish immigrant farmers fleeing the potato famine of Ireland so they could do what they knew best—farm.  He made connections with a group of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Engelberg in Switzerland to establish a monastery to minister to his Irish settlers and the later the German settlers. The “New Engelberg” Abbey was established in 1873.  I was once told the Irish sat on one side of church while the Germans sat on the other side.  Sermons were delivered in English and German to accommodate all parishioners.

St. Columba parishioners are still finding their final resting place at St. Columba Cemetery. People are coming from near and far to search out information about their ancestors.  Some have found relatives they didn’t know existed.  I knew from others whose genealogy information I have copied that my great grandmother was a Corcoran. Little did I know I would one day be contacted and become very good friends with descendents of her brothers.  I have met and become friends with John and Mary Corcoran.  John and I are second cousins.  There is a once removed in there someplace, but I am not sure where.

John and Mary have retired from professional careers to become family tree researchers.  They have found other Corcoran descendents who trace back to John 1813-1903 and Mary Cahill l822-1909 Corcoran buried in St. Columba Cemetery.  John is a descendent of John Corcoran, my great grandmother Johanna Corcoran Farnan’s brother.  Patricia Corcoran is a descendent of Patrick Corcoran another of Johanna’s brothers.  Pat is from CA while John and Mary are from TN.  We Corcorans met in the St. Columba Cemetery to try to figure out where the Corcorans began and how they may have gotten so scattered.  John and Pat discovered another descendent of a Corcoran family originally from Conception.  Eileen met us at St. Columba Cemetery to see if we could find a connection between her Corcoran ancestors and our Corcoran ancestors.  Thank you to Fr. Allan Stetz, St. Columba Parish priest, for his time and patience we found both marked and unmarked resting places of relatives.

It is very enlightening to see and appreciate something I passed every day as I walked to Mass from the Immaculate Conception grade school on the north side of the cemetery to the Conception Abbey Basilica through someone else’s eyes or through the lenses of a researcher. I walked past my ancestors resting places and never knew it.

Twelve adults and four children arrived in these former hunting grounds of the Fox and Osage Native Americans April 20, 1858. William Brady, John and Bridget McCarthy, Jeremiah and Berthea Sullivan, Philip and Margaret Growney, Michael and Margaret Fagan, John Growney, Thomas Riley and Edward Riley are name one will find in the St. Columba Cemetery.  Their graves and those who followed are part of the historical site we call St. Columba Cemetery.  I would liken it to a primary resource document.  Many of the founding families’ descendants have moved away or like me do not know their ancestors.  Many of the stones have decayed and become unreadable or simply crumbled.  One such unreadable stone is that of the first original settler to die.  His is the site of the first entombment in the St. Columba Cemetery.  Recently relatives have added a small stone with his information, while leaving the original small stone-- history written in stone.   Do more of us need to think about taking care of our relatives resting places?  This is not the job of the cemetery care takers.  They do an excellent job of mowing and weeding the site.  Many of the 2000 plus persons entombed in St. Columba Cemetery have no markers. 

How does one go about taking care of this primary resource document in earth and stone?

·         Be aware of damaged conditions of loved ones stones when visiting the cemetery.

·         Be aware of where ones loved ones are entombed.  I guess this would mean one needs to know who in our families helped settle the Tri-C area.

·         If moss growth is a problem on the stone, there is a product that can easily clean those stones without damage to the stone.  One can order this product and spray the stone or inquire about having someone do it.  If there are other problems contact the parish to ask for advice. 

·         The parish priest can give you important information about who to contact for help. 

Perhaps it would be good to spend money on repairs instead of flowers that last a few days to about two weeks.  Cemetery rules say anything not attached to the monument should be removed two weeks after Memorial Day. Adornments not attached to the monument make upkeep difficult.

 If you live away from the Tri-C area and want information about possible relatives buried in the St. Columba Cemetery try www.findagrave.com.  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GSsr=161&GScid=2150561&CRid=2150561&pt=Saint%20Columba%20Cemetery&   This site has over 2000 listings for St. Columba Cemetery. If you have done research and/or taken photos of loved one resting place it is easy to add that information to this site.  There are local people on that site who will take photographs of your relatives’ site.  Contact St. Columba Parish with questions. 

We should all work to keep this historical document in prime condition.