Jug Prairie Cemetery

09/06/2024

Did you know that the son of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States is buried in Madison, Wisconsin with his family at Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison?

Eston Hemings Jefferson and his older brother lived with their families and mother Sally in Charlottesville, Virginia, until her death in 1835.

In 1852 Eston moved with his wife and three children to Madison, Wisconsin.

Eston's sons both served in the Union Army, and the older one, John Wayles Jefferson, achieved the rank of colonel. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, becoming a wealthy cotton broker and never married.

04/06/2024

Annual Cemetery Association meeting is today at 1pm at the Brooklyn TOWN Hall...NOT the village hall.

Everyone may attend who has an interest in the cemetery.

11/02/2023

Interesting markers, featuring recipes that paint a picture of the lives of these people.

Around the world, recipe gravestones tell stories of love, grief, and remembrance.

04/29/2023

Today was the annual cleanup day at the Jug Prairie Cemetery. We clear away the fallen tree branches, rake up the pine cones, and the leaves and burn down the branches that were trimmed and had fallen.

It rained this morning so we will have to make a second attempt on the leaves after they get drier.

04/06/2022

How did it come to be called Jug Prairie?

The cemetery was originally known as “Brooklyn Cemetery” and also as the “Stone Schoolhouse Cemetery”, named for the stone school house that was adjacent to it.

The Stone Schoolhouse later became the Jug Prairie Schoolhouse. The name “Jug Prairie” derives from a remark by one of the early settlers who traveled one day to Rock County to trade.

So many of his neighbors asked him to take vinegar and molasses to Rock County that by the time he reached his destination he had over a dozen jugs in his wagon.

To the jokes of the bystanders, as he drove up to the store he replied, “Oh yes, I come from the Jug Prairie!” and in spite of the good people of the prairie wishing to change the name to “Temperance Prairie”, the name has stuck ever since.