Oak Hill Cemetery

A few years ago a student claimed that there were Civil War vets buried near his home in a small cemetery. I quickly forgot about it, thinking he was mistaken. However, after this young man brought it up on another occasion, my interest piqued. A good friend of mine, Fred Liljegren, went to the site one day after school and, sure enough, it was exactly what my student had mentioned. Six Civil War vets were buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, formerly known as Scriven. 

This began the Parker Prairie History Club's interest in the abandoned cemetery. The group talked to the township to get approval to clean up and maintain the cemetery. For the past few years, the group has done just that. On top of the maintenance, the group has investigated the history of this interesting spot.

Using dowsing rods (an admittedly unscientific method) it appears that there are far more people buried at this site than the number of markers that are there. While some of this is due to the fact that not everyone had a markers placed at their burial site during the time period when this cemetery was active. However, oral histories indicate that there used to be over one hundred markers. So where did they go? Well that is the mystery. This area may have been used at one point as a pasture. This may have led to damage. It is clear in looking at the landscape that there are unmarked graves. The ground has settled in spots that indicate a burial location. Furthermore, blue flag blossoms- a flower commonly used to mark burial sites- blossom each year.

The cemetery is on donated land that residents could use for burial plots if they grubbed out the tress. It was an active cemetery from the 1870s until the 1930s. Six Civil War vets, including Thomas Costello and Benjamin Rice are interned here. Hanna Foote, the Scriven postmaster, is buried there. According to Spruce Hill Remembered, there was a diptheria epidemic in 1896 and there are at least three documented cases of children who passed who do not have a death certificate on file or a grave marker. Furthermore, Spruce Hill township had a population of nearly seven hundred around 1900. Those who passed away needed a place for a proper burial and Oak Hill fit the bill.