Exploring Our Area's Cemeteries

The Thorp Courier (Thorp, WI)
November 15, 2006
Transcribed by Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Thorp's History via the East Thorp Cemetery

If the dead could speak, those in the East Thorp Cemetery would have much to say that could explain what may always remain unknown about how they came to rest there. East Thorp Cemetery was likely the first cemetery upon the birth of the new village, and like was often the case; the community’s new inhabitants were more worried about making a future for themselves than documenting the past.

A land records search shows that as early as 1882, when a patent shows that the United States of America transferred land in the area to Francis Fults, a cemetery already existed. The patent already excludes a plot of land that appears to be sacred ground.

Carol (Fults) Schaefer of Frederick, Maryland, whose paternal great-grandfather was Francis M. Fults, through her own family’s genealogy, speculates on the origin of the first little cemetery. The Fults family, along with Ephraim A. Boardman and his brother James Boardman, were among the first families to settle the Thorp area and both families owned much of the land on which the cemetery is located today. In fact, the families intermarried, with Francis’ sister Savilla marrying E. A. Boardman.

Carol discovered in her research that Francis Fults had a child who died of scarlet fever in 1877. Three years later, in the summer of 1880, the Boardman family lost several more in a diphtheria epidemic. The epidemic was so severe that Eddy Fults, Carol’s grandfather, was the only child left alive who attended his school. Thus, the need for a cemetery hit the fledgling community square in the face. What had been a simple family plot on private property was modified to allow for final resting places for the community’s loved ones.

The East Thorp Cemetery’s current sexton, Bill Kaczor, concurs that this could have been the scenario; although no known records exist to support Carol’s speculations. Kaczor says that Ephraim Boardman originally owned all of the 160 acres of land from today’s County Highway X at Cemetery Street west to STH 73 (Washington Street) and north to the Schultz’s Court subdivision. To Kaczor’s knowledge, the James Boardman headstone, placed in 1880, was the cemetery’s first. It sits atop the cemetery’s main hill, looking down upon the original Boardman land in all directions.

Bill Kaczor tenderly cared for the East Thorp Cemetery since 1973. He is today 83 years old and still does his best to work with the documentation of burials. Visiting the cemetery with him is like a walk through history, as he points out the many changes he can remember just in his lifetime.

As the snow falls, Bill points far to the east, along the edge of evergreen trees that provide perpetual shade to the nearby plots. “See that tree there?” he points. “That red oak is one of the largest in Wisconsin. It measures 15’ 9 ¼” around.” Just imagine what a small twig it may have been, back when the town was fresh and new.

“A fence used to be along this road here,” Bill continues, “and up there to the north is the babies’ corner.” Going farther north, to the far edge of the cemetery land, Bill points out two timber posts that mark the cemetery’s boundaries, “I had the telephone company put those in a few years ago,” he explains. “The cemetery’s land goes all the way to here.”

Bill wishes he could provide all the documentation of who is buried in the East Thorp Cemetery, but he recognizes that his list is incomplete. “We have so many people up her without any markers or any way of knowing who they are or even where they are.” He explains that his mother’s brother Carl is one of them. During his tenure as sexton, he has found many discrepancies in past record keeping. “Records were on slips of paper. Things like that happen over the years, and no one talks about it,” he comments, matter-of-fact yet saddened.

However, there are people doing their best to search backwards, struggling through courthouse records, fishing through old Thorp Couriers to find relevant obituaries, tip-toeing from stone to stone, documenting the names on the grave marker that ultimately lead to months of new probing. Stan and Janet Schwarze, formerly of Greenwood, now of Rochester, MN, began the search, with a multitude of volunteers coming aboard enthusiastically. Some of those volunteers, including a primary researcher, Valerie Wattier, left the area years ago, yet still feel a connection that pulls them back. “We’re stirring up a whole crop of people who aren’t necessarily from Thorp but who want to keep Thorp history alive,” Janet commented recently.

Yes, much has changed since Thorp’s founders made their way to North Central Wisconsin, tempted by the stands of trees that promised money in their pockets and food on their families’ tables. Records of the East Thorp Cemetery document ages of births, deaths, old age, tragedies, and epidemics. Surnames have remained, while others have moved on and today are nearly unrecognizable. Death remains, yet life goes on.

The Thorp Courier gives special thanks to Bill Kaczor for his help in providing historical records and memories of the East Thorp Cemetery. Thanks also goes to Stan and Janet Schwarze and their many volunteers whose research, combined with the cemetery records, can provide a clearer, yet unfortunately likely forever incomplete account of all those buried there.

Following is a compilation of the official cemetery records (but not transcribed with this article) and those provided through the Wisconsin Valley Library Service’s study of the cemeteries in Clark County (for which a URL link will be given). Discrepancies between the records have been noted as best possible. To gather more complete information on some of the names listed, check the website at http://wvls.lib.si.us/ClarkCounty, and go to “Cemeteries.” If you have information to provide about the history of the cemetery or if you can add names not listed or correct any information, please do so via the same website.