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The first meeting of Austin’s “Mite Society and Cemetery Association” was held at the home of Mrs. J.L. Clark. The group met alphabetically (according to their last names) every two weeks at the homes of the one hundred members.  Each attendee paid dues of ten cents a meeting, or twenty cents a month.

At this initial gathering, the folks decided to have the men (note the women were not included) buy a piece of land.  The Mite Society promised to surround it with a fence. (And does anyone know what the “Mite” society was?  Sounds like a disagreeable bug infestation.)  A subscription paper was passed among the businessmen and twenty of them agreed to each purchase a lot for $5 apiece.

In the mid, 1800s, Austin was a village of only four hundred people.  They were generally a happy community except for one major drawback.  They had no place to bury their dead.  If you’ll excuse the pun, it was a grave situation. Regretfully, the town’s deceased were simply laid to rest in a vacant lot. (Under the ground, I hope!)  One of the first people to be buried in Austin was Chauncey Leverich.  Everyone in town agreed there was an urgency in getting him in—deeply in—the ground.  You see, Chauncey had been murdered!

But, then, Chauncey may have deserved it!  Everyone would have agreed that he was a snarly, churlish, black-hearted sort of fellow who people dreaded in the worst of ways.  These character flaws were particularly accentuated when Chauncey imbibed, which was often.  Even those who called him a friend gave him a wide berth when he was drinking as the booze brought out the demon in him.

Pity his wife, a most patient and godly woman, who found it necessary to sometimes hide from her husband for days, lest in his fits of intoxication he might take her life.  Yet, Chauncey was a reasonably well behaved citizen when sober.  He was, for example, a strong partisan politician who almost always won whatever contest he was in.

One of the first settlers in Mower County in 1853, Chauncey constructed the first frame house in the village after he built a sawmill and cut his own lumber.  The Austin folks accused him of “putting on aires as framed houses went down before the corroding of time.”  (In oth

Meanwhile, in 1856, Chauncey opened a saloon.  One day two patrons, by the names of Silvers and Oliver, became intoxicated, obnoxious and unruly.  Chauncey ordered them out.  The two men, now ferociously incensed, were left standing in the middle of the dusty street.  They began shouting, ordering Chauncey himself to come out.  As Chauncey stomped out through the swinging doors, Silvers struck him with a steel wagon spring.  (Not sure what that is, but it sounds painful.) After a week of stubbornly tottering on death’s door, Chauncey succumbed.  Silvers and Oliver were arrested.  One paid $2,000, the other $1,000 … big money 169 years ago.  Nothing more was ever heard of them.

As you can conclude by these dramatic events, Austin began to realize it truly needed to create a proper burial ground.  But it wasn’t until six more years that this actually happened.  It came about due to a few fervent Austin women (up with the girls!) who banded together and discussed the important needs of the village.  They unanimously organized a city meeting and proposed what would eventually become the Oakwood Cemetery.

At that meeting a committee was selected to study the possibility of using the Baudler farm.  With all the members in agreement, the women found the land suitable and offered to purchase five acres at the cost of $100.  (This cash was already in the chairwoman’s reticule as it had been previously raised by the twenty men who each pledged to buy a lot for $5.)  Therefore, the deal was struck on the spot. Following this acquisition, the land was initially cleared by the women although a few men assisted … men!  After that, each plot owner was responsible for maintaining his own space.

Sadly, the first burial in the new cemetery was that of young Katie Clark.  The nine-year-old had died of diphtheria, the first case in Austin.

As the need increased, the Oakwood Cemetery Association bought another 160 acres of land from the Adler farm that adjoined the cemetery on the other side.  The land was obtained and then professionally graded with the old unsightly grave mounds leveled.  Then flowers were added creating a beautiful setting.  It soon became one of the most well-kept and peaceful cemeteries in the state.

But, well before this occurred, on March 7, 1904, the trustees again met.  At that meeting they were authorized to erect a chapel and a vault.  The cost for both was not to exceed $5,000.  They were built and dedicated in the same year.

About this time, the families of the folks buried in the Baudler Cemetery—adjacent to the Oakwood Cemetery—decided they wanted their grave sites to be incorporated into Oakwood. At a meeting on November 12, 1904, it was announced that $430 had already been subscribed for this purpose.  Seventy additional dollars, however, were necessary.  This proved to be no problem and soon the $500 acquisition of the remaining unsold lots on the Baudler Cemetery were purchased.  The board of trustees stepped forward and offered to take over the care of the newly expanded cemetery, lots, alleys, streets, etc. for a payment of $2.000. Additionally, N.F. Banfield graciously declared that he would take on the responsibility of seeing this done.

Soon after, the old fence was torn down and both cemeteries were joined.  Work began at once to create a sanctified place for Austin’s deceased loved ones.   A few months later the cemetery association made the decision to purchase four rods (rods??) of land that adjoined the east side of the Baudler Cemetery for which they paid $75.  This area became a dedicated resting place for Austin’s dead war heroes.  Their bodies were respectfully exhumed and reburied in this new peaceful setting.  In 1907, an impressive soldiers’ monument was erected.

Because of the early care and action of our citizens, the folks in Austin have always known that they have a peaceful and beautiful place to be, in the end, put to rest.  R.I.P.