The following information was collected in 1981 by Southeastern Colorado Genealogy Society members Dixie Winden and Christine Todd. It is available at the Historical Society Museum in Fowler, Colorado.
Nepesta has long ceased to exist as a stage-stop and community. It is listed as a post office between the years of 1876 and 1929; it is located about 9 miles SE of Boone.
Ms. Winden and Ms. Todd have left a description of the cemetery they saw in 1981:
" Located on Highway 50 east of Pueblo 22 miles, at the site of the former settlement of Nepesta, Colorado. . . The cemetery is fenced and contains 4 individual fenced family plots. There is not water available so there is only native clump grass, which is dry at this time of year. The markers are in good shape; evidently the vandals have not been in this cemetery. There are many graves that have been marked only with wooden crosses that time and weather have destroyed. This cemetery is considerably larger than the number of names below would indicate. "
The description is particularly interesting, since in 1999, only a few decades later, it is very changed. The fenced plots remain. But the wooden markers are gone, save two lying prone on the ground. It is most interesting that they mention that the cemetery is larger than their listing would indicate, since at first glance one might be surprised that it is AS LARGE as the list.
Today in 2000, it lies a few hundred feet from the highway. Mr. Byron Griffy of Fowler has been instrumental in working to preserve what is left of the cemetery and its history. The newer wrought iron fence and gate were a gift of Mr. Griffy in 1996. But it is fair to say that the cemetery itself is now located in a cow pasture. If you venture into it, watch for snakes. Besides the fenced family plots, only a few stones remain, although there were certainly many more graves at one time, since historians tell us that local settlers used this cemetery and the one at Rocky Ford to bury their dead, prior to the establishment of the one in Fowler in 1897, at which time some graves in the Nepesta Cemetery were moved to Fowler. Those who know that their families homesteaded, lived and died, in the immediate areas, are safe to guess that their ancestors may be under the ground here in Nepesta. ( Please see the bottom of this page, to see the list of possible burials here. )
Nepesta Cemetery is located five miles west of Fowler beside Highway 50. As you drive from Fowler nearing Mile Marker 344, keep a sharp eye out to the left. You will see the black wrought iron sign standing on a low rise.
DANIELSON Family Plot ( fenced )
YARBERRY, Walter Jr.
DANIELSON, Dorothy R.
DANIELSON, Charlotte
DANIELSON, Nels F.
DANIELSON, Evelyn
Mortuary marker, no name or information
DANIELSON, Henry A.
DANIELSON, Christina DeMary
DANIELSON, A.N.
DANIELSON, Christana
DANIELSON, Annie Mary
DANIELSON, Ethel Anna
CAYWOOD, Susan N.
CAYWOOD, Stephen
ROPER, Alice
|
No BD
b. 8 Mar 1904
b. 6 Apr 1893
b. 1870
b. 1874
- -
b. 1876
b. 1905
b. 26 Feb 1842
b. 15 Sept 1843
b. 1870
b. 1908
b. 1861
b. 1829
b. 1856
|
d. 4 Mar 1902
d. 10 Jan 1906
d. 25 Feb 1901
d. 1952
d. 1960
- -
d. 1951
d. 1945
d. 28 Dec 1904
d. 25 Jan 1906
d. 1945
d. 1919
d. 1911
d. 1904 FATHER
d. 1933
|
POTEET Family Plot ( iron fenced )
POTEET, William M.
POTEET, Eliza Caroline
Unmarked child's grave
POTEET, Fanny Ann
SCHERRER, John H.
SCHERRER, Cynthia C.
|
b. 3 Apr 1844
b. 4 Apr 1848
No BD
b. 11 Aug 1887
b. 1859
b. 1868
|
d. 30 July 1933 FATHER
d. 11 July 1920 MOTHER
No DD
d. 24 Jan 1968
d. 1925
d. 1947
|
KIDWELL Family Plot ( stone enclosure )
KIDWELL, Benjamin F.
KIDWELL, Margaret E.
DENKENGER, Luly Emma
- daughter of J. and M.A.
|
b. 1834
b. 1878
b. 21 Nov 1881
- -
|
d. 1914
d. 1915 HIS WIFE
d. 11 July 1882
- -
|
ERDMAN Family Plot ( one headstone )
There is here a still-pretty white marble headstone, with a globe on top. On it is written " Children of Charles and Christina ERDMAN " . Local historians will tell you that all six children died of dyphtheria in March of 1879. They are :
Charles G.
Minna C.
Ellen M.
Flora E.
Albert I.
Theodor M.
|
b. 26 Apr 1864
b. 3 June 1878
b. 3 Dec 1874
b. 25 Mar 1872
b. 17 Dec 1869
b. 23 Apr 1866
|
d. 13 Mar 1879
d. 13 Mar 1879
d. 28 Mar 1879
d. 17 Mar 1879
d. 17 Mar 1879
d. 15 Mar 1879
|
DALTON Family Plot ( iron fenced )
|
DALTON, Charles E. | b. 1877 | d. 1959 |
FELLHAUER, Anton
JAMIESON, John
- Woodman of the World
SEATON, Thomas I.
BUSH, Hilary B.
TRUE, Eliza C.
KIPP, A. E.
TRUE, Agnes
OWEN, ?
FLEENER
ROPER, infant
MOCK, Robert S.
MOCK, Frances A.
MOCK, George R.
CAMPBELL, Ann E.
NIX, John W.
- Woodman of the World
KEARNEY, Daisey L.M.
SCHNEIDER, Albert
CORNMAN, Harriet T.
- Wife of Frank - Women of Woodcraft
COLLINS, Ruth
COLLINS, Olive Willie
GARSOL, George
MURPHY, Phoebe Jane
MURPHY, Thomas F.
|
b. 18 June 1902
b. 29 Jan 1870
- -
b. 1 July 1829
b. 1875
b. 1856
b. 14 May 1844
b. 1886
No BD
No BD
No BD
b. 1862
b. 1823
b. 1821
b. 30 July 1840
b. 22 Jan 1886
- -
b. 10 May 1911
b. 1833
b. 24 June 1866
- -
b. 3 Aug 1902
b. 1898
b. 1873
b. 1852
b. 1849
|
d. 30 Mar 1903
d. 18 Oct 1908
- -
d. 17 May 1897
d. 1963
d. 1953
d. 14 Jan 1949
d. 1961
d. 1910
No DD
d. 1 Oct 1921
d. 1892 BROTHER
d. 1892 MOTHER
d. 1901 FATHER
d. 15 Mar 1911
d. 14 Apr 1909
- -
d. 24 Feb 1920
d. 1922
d. 2 Aug 1904
- -
d. 1 May 1903
d. 1904
d. 1916
d. 1923 MOTHER
d. 1919 FATHER
|
If you suspect that someone is buried in an unmarked grave at Nepesta Cemetery, please email, so that I may add their name to the list below.
LIST OF THOSE LIKELY BURIED AT NEPESTA CEMETERY
ELKIN(s), Zachariah William
b. ca. 1826, d. 10 Oct 1880
MOORE, Mary Annis (BRILES)
b. 29 Jan 1861, d. 18 Jan 1892
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