Elmwood Cemetery - Lindsborg, KS

11/05/2025

It's a wrap for our project to place markers on the graves of Smoky Valley settlers buried in Elmwood whose graves were missing them. We are so grateful to Smoky Valley Community Foundation for two grants, one last year and one this year, to fund the project.

Special thanks to Bill & Carol Gusenius, Elsie & Owen Potter, Ed Pilewski and John Woods for their help in placing the markers last Saturday and to Carol for helping to finish the job yesterday.

10/31/2025

We are ON for tomorrow morning, November 1. If you'd like to help place the final round of pioneer markers please come out any time after 9:00. It will chilly but sunny. Gloves would be good and if you have a square nosed spade please bring it. Many hands make light work. We will have donuts and chocolate milk available.

10/22/2025

POSTPONED - We are postponing this event for one week. We will plan to place the markers on Saturday November 1st.

We have a very short term volunteer opportunity for you at Elmwood Cemetery. Thanks to another grant from the Smoky Valley Community Foundation we have 60 markers ready to place on the unmarked graves of early Smoky Valley settlers.

This coming Saturday, October 25 Boy Scout Troop 120 will once again be helping us out but we'd like to open it up to others. If you'd like to participate, just show up. The official start time is 10:00 a.m. but someone will be there and you can start as early as 8:30. No previous experience is necessary. We know there is a highly anticipated football game at 11:00 on Saturday that many of you are planning to watch so come work off some pre-game jitters.

If you have a spade similar to the ones pictured, feel free to bring it but please put your name on it. You might also want to bring a pair of gloves. If you'd like to let us know you're planning to help, shoot us a message so we will be sure to have plenty of doughnuts. It only takes a few minutes to place each marker so many hands will make it a quick job. Families are welcome.

In case of rain too heavy to work we will reschedule for November 1, same time.

06/13/2025

We’re reluctantly saying goodbye today to Mel Alexander who has done an outstanding job caring for Elmwood Cemetery. He is leaving us in great shape for which we are very thankful. We are in the process of interviewing candidates to replace him. In the interim, please bear with us as the “B team” tries to fill the gap. Thank you, Mel!

06/04/2025

Volunteer Opportunity for All Ages

If you enjoy the outdoors and are good with details, we have an opportunity that might interest you. It could appeal to a wide range of folks from young to old. We are embarking on a census at Elmwood. We have a list of burials in lot number order and as a volunteer you will walk through a section and check off names. While our records are very good, with over 5,000 burials spanning 139 years there is always a possibility of an error and we want to ensure as close to 100% accuracy in our records as possible.

This is not a long-term commitment to volunteer. Your participation can be as much or as little as you’d like and it can be done at your own pace. You can volunteer to take a whole section or just a few rows. While we would like to complete the project in a timely manner, there is no pressure. You can work alone or with a family member or friend - - perhaps it would be a good project for a parent or parents and child or children. It would be a great way to instill the spirit of volunteerism in young people.

To learn more about the project please contact Judy Frantz Pilewski on Messenger or [email protected]

Send a message to learn more

05/26/2025

It was a small but appreciative crowd at the cemetery this morning as American Legion Post 140 Lindsborg, KS conducted the annual Memorial Day service as a light but steady rain fell. Thanks to all who participated and attended. Special thanks to the Smoky Valley High School Wind Ensemble and Adam Keller, Director, speaker Chaplain (Colonel ret.) David C. Fulton and Legion and Auxiliary members who planned and conducted the service.

05/26/2025

The 10:30 Memorial Day service is still expected to be held at this point.

Send a message to learn more

05/24/2025

Wow! Thanks to American Legion Post 140 and all of the volunteers who put up veteran flags yesterday. It is so humbling to see all of those flags. We can never fully grasp the magnitude of our veterans’ sacrifice. 

Post 140 was recently awarded a grant to purchase flag holders for graves without them and to replace damaged holders.

09/28/2024

Boy Scout Troop 120 and family members made short work of installing pioneer markers this morning at the cemetery. Many thanks to David Hay and scouts Nick Hay, Carter McNett and Owen Potter along with Jessica Patterson, Elsie Potter and Bart Oakley. We plan to apply for another grant next year in hopes of continuing the project.

09/11/2024

We'd like to share information about a current project underway at Elmwood Cemetery.

Last fall, as we were working on another project to add missing photos of markers to Find a Grave records, we realized that about 500 or 10% of the plots at Elmwood did not have permanent. markers. Further research revealed that a large percentage, about 40%, of those were for graves of pioneers in the Smoky Valley. The second largest group of graves without markers was infants or young children. They are being addressed in a separate project. Lastly are graves which, for one reason or another, have sadly never had a permanent marker installed or represent a recent burial in which the order and placement is in process.

Earlier this year we applied for and received a grant from the Smoky Valley Community Foundation for which we are very thankful. We are currently in the process of installing permanent markers for the first batch of pioneer graves. In some cases the names of two or more family members are inscribed on one stone. No doubt, most if not all of these graves had a marker of some kind originally. It is even possible that some have become buried but we have done our best to search for any that might be. Just this week we discovered a 6 inch tall granite marker completely buried under 2 inches of soil and sod!

It would have been nice to add a concrete base to the markers being installed but that is just not feasible at this time. Perhaps that can be done later in a separate project.

Over 110 individuals, pioneers and in some cases with their child or children born in the early years of settlement, are represented in this first batch of 60 markers. We will apply for another grant to continue the project in the future.

If you have any questions or would like to be a part of this project or the infants and children project please do not hesitate to contact us.