This collection contains records of the Evergreen Cemetery, Menomonie, Wisconsin, 1871-2010, which was founded by Knapp, Stout and Company, and later managed by the Evergreen Cemetery Association (ECA), 1904-2009. The Evergreen Cemetery Collection contains three main series: ADMINISTRATIVE, LOT INFORMATION, and NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS AND RESEARCH MATERIALS.
The ADMINISTRATIVE series deals with the founding and administrative functions of the Evergreen Cemetery Association, and the managing body of the cemetery formed by volunteers from the Menomonie community.
The EXECUTIVE AND FINANCIAL sub-series consists of a comprehensive run of meeting minutes and agendas for monthly and annual meetings, 1904-2003, that are organized chronologically. The early minutes include information about the establishment of the cemetery. The series also contains a combination of quarterly and annual financial reports, 1904-2003, intermixed chronologically with meeting minutes and other administrative documents. This sub-series also contains deeds to land additions, 1904, 1913, 1923, 1956, and 1998, and a Rules and Regulations booklet, 1884.
The LAND ADDITIONS sub-series consists of items relating to the occasional land purchases and subsequent development of additions that occurred throughout the cemetery's history up to 2009. These items include maps showing the plans for expansions, land deeds, and applications to vacate and re-plat older plots. One map, entitled “Preliminary, Evergreen Cemetery, 1961” includes lots that are labeled with the surnames of lot owners.
The CEMETERY RESTORATION AND RECLAMATION WORK sub-series includes information about the restoration activities of the ECA, and process of their efforts to get Evergreen Cemetery listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Much of this information is intermixed with meeting minutes and agendas in the EXECUTIVE AND FINANCIAL sub-series, or exists within NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS AND RESEARCH MATERIALS.
The LOT INFORMATION series deals with bookkeeping surrounding the sale and use of grave lots within the cemetery. The information in this series is contained in a variety of bound volumes and booklets that record the dates, locations, and people associated with each lot. Two volumes of Burial Record Books, 1874-1920 and 1921-1993, record the names of recently deceased persons, along with their date of death, age at death, reason for death, date of burial and burial lot number. These records also note the person's marital status and place of birth, along with the names and nationalities of their parents, if known. Entries are organized by date. These books contain indexes in the front, and a separate bound index volume, 1874 - circa 1995, that refers only to the Single Grave Section of the cemetery.
Information about burials in the Single Grave section, 1874-1966, was documented in a book and tablet and organized by cemetery row number. Three volumes of Lot Books contain information about grave lots situated throughout the rest of the cemetery. They record the names and burial dates of individuals, and are arranged according to lot number, though dates overlap between books, and some entries are duplicated. This organization allows a researcher to notice the expansion of the cemetery over the years, as more and more lots were added. It also highlights the practice of multiple intermittent family burials within a single lot. Lot Book 1 contains lots 2-234, mostly even numbers. Lot Book 2 contains lots 2-1840, also mostly even numbers. Lot Book 3 contains lots 1-125, 589-613, 865-1025, and 1075-1197, numbers are intermittent, and mostly odd.
This series includes some information about actions and maintenance associated with grave lots. There is information on which graves were associated with veterans (names and accompanying wars listed), number of lots sold, and which lots qualified for up-keeping or perpetual care.
The final series of this collection contains many NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS AND RESEARCH MATERIALS. The newspaper clippings, circa 1874-2009, include originals, photocopies, and transcripts. They review information surrounding the creation and history of the cemetery, the introduction of new rules and regulations, land purchases or negotiations, events, and the cemetery's efforts to renovate and become listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Some articles give historical information about the town of Menomonie and the lives and business ventures of several of the prominent Menomonie families who helped found the cemetery, including the Knapp and Tainter families. These historical articles seem to be especially concentrated in the 2000s, when cemetery staff were working to prepare for restoration and the NRHP classification, though they also occur sporadically throughout earlier years.
In conjunction with the ECA's restoration goal, this series also contains some historical and demographic research concerning the Single Grave Section of the cemetery. The secretary/executive director of the ECA aggregated demographic information from the Burial Record books, including the gender, age, cause of death, burial date, and nationalities of the deceased buried within this section. Since this is the earliest established section of the cemetery, this information especially highlights the demographics of the people who inhabited Menomonie during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also, through the tallying of factors like age and cause of death, gives insight into daily life during this period.
