The Clinton-Garfield Cemetery

Photos by Helen D. Gunderson.
Click on any photo for a large view.
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Entrance to the south addition of the Clinton-Garfield cemetery. The entrance monument is still standing. Most of the markers in this addition are flat to the ground for ease of maintenance. A few trees in this section were damaged. The white flag poles were also damaged.
  

Until a few years ago, there was a fence around the cemetery and a cast iron gate with the name of the cemetery across the top of the gate. A new monument was substituted for the gate. It was blown over in the tornado.
  

In addition to local volunteers, a crew of inmates dressed in orange apparel was brought in from the correctional facility at Rockwell City to help with the clean-up efforts on Sunday and Monday. Some of the inmates had chain saws and cut down damaged trees. Others raked and picked up debris.

It was amazing to see all the equipment at work: various heavy duty, earth-moving equipment and dump trucks from the county, John Deere loader tractors owned by area farmers, and a skid loader. The heaviest equipment was used to uproot and carry away the stumps of cut down trees.
  

Jim Hansen, chair of the cemetery board of trustees, supervises the removal of a tree. He and his wife Sharalyn have indexed the entire cemetery and posted the information on the Internet.
  

A view of the cemetery at the end of the work session on Monday. Taken from the new section of the cemetery. The Pro Cooperative grain elevator is in the distance.
  

A view of the central part of the cemetery on Monday. The flag pole is at the left. The marker and knoll for the veteran's memorial is on the horizon line in the middle of the picture. It is the area where the community has gathered for Memorial Day services.

Clinton-Garfield Cemetery on May 31, 2004. The Rolfe cemeteries were beautiful on Memorial Day despite the fact that the tornado wiped out most of the trees and damaged tombstones in the Clinton-Garfield Cemetery and St. Margaret's Cemetery. Thanks to the workers who cleared the downed trees and debris. Thanks, also, to the people who put out crosses, flags, and flowers and to those who planned and conducted the Memorial Day service. The beauty of the day had as much to do with the indomitable spirit of Rolfe area residents or visitors, who value community and ritual, as it did with the sunshine, well-groomed green grass, and handsome monuments.

Memorial Day 1980 and the canopy of large cedar trees at the Clinton-Garfield Cemetery southeast of Rolfe. May their spirit and the memories of our strolling beneath them, as they witnessed us in our grief and other troublesome moments, listening to the laments of our hearts and yearning to restore our souls, not be forgotten.