Due to Ancestry making ravage site changes, links no longer worked and other information became outdated on the bio page.


I've traveled to the Wood County, Wisconsin cemeteries, then to other counties, submitting names, photos, and biographies to help others learn more about their family history.

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Website procedures, at the time of this writing, in short: an individual's right to privacy disappears when they are deceased. The last name on the memorial must be the same as what is on the grave stone.  Use a period after a middle initial. Don't scan an obituary and add it as a photograph. Don't add a photo of the cemetery to a memorial. Unless you have specific permission, you cannot use someone else's photos. Don't deliberately create a duplicate memorial – although when a person is entering memorials in a specific cemetery they aren't required to search the entire site. A duplicate memorial with a correct known burial location will always be preferred over an unknown burial location. If a member doesn't update a memorial to the correct burial location within 30 days, then that memorial will be the one deleted, even if it was created first. (After 30 days, don't move your Burial Unknown into the correct cemetery and then request that the memorial that was there – now a duplicate – be deleted.)  

All photographs and digital images are granted copyright protection as soon as they are created and all works created after 1978 are protected automatically. A work does not need to bear a copyright notice to be protected.
The copyright of all photos posted to Find A Grave remains with the original submitter. No use of photos for Find A Grave, any other website, or personal use is given without prior consent of the original submitter.
Do not copy my photos and use them on memorials (you are attributing the photos as your own when you use them).  I will allow my cemetery and grave photos to be used elsewhere for your personal use and informational purposes with this attribution:  Keith #46875326 Find A Grave. (Click on any photo to get a larger view, and to see possible captions.) Keep in mind that most Find A Grave volunteers contribute their time (and fuel) towards improving THIS website – not to provide free labor for other websites.

 

Transfers within Find A Grave guidelines only. Requests that are outside of the guidelines (such as aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) will be ignored. Find A Grave's mission is to document cemeteries, "...the goal is not to 'own' every memorial of those to whom you are related." This website can be useful to genealogists, but it's about accurately recording graves, not building family trees.  Because of the quantity of messages that I receive, transfer requests that do not follow the transfer procedure will be deleted without a response/explanation.

Many people use Find A Grave – I can't please everyone.

I am not associated with any cemetery, and have no further information on cemeteries. Additionally, I have no further information on individuals beyond what is already shown online – I simply enter data to the memorial taken either from the stone or from an online source.

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"Copying and posting photos originally taken by another photographer is a copyright violation and is strictly against Find a Grave policy...
Any photo that was not taken (photographed) or owned by you should never be posted to Find a Grave memorials. This is Find a Grave's copyright policy, not the interpretation by someone else of how the policy should work...
Consider any photo that you did not personally take (with your camera) as copyrighted, as far as Find a Grave is concerned. The copyright notice is displayed every time you or any other member uploads a photo...
...we will unfortunately have to terminate your account. Find a Grave copyright policy is not an arguable point."
–administrator AJ

"Photograph the grave/gravesite 'in-situ', or as it appears in that moment in time. The purpose is to show the grave as it is, be it dirty, cluttered, broken, or pristine. It is not your job to clean it, clear it, fix it, or decorate it. The graves are not yours to do as you please. Remember, one person's 'good deed' just might be another person's vandalism. Go take lots of photos... but do it like an anthropologist and do not disturb the grave site."
–administrator AJ

The following is a list of the top 10 countries that have viewed this page. Listed in order by most viewed (as of March 2015).

United States
Poland
Russia
Germany
Sweden
Ukraine
France
Vietnam
United Kingdom
Israel


The following is a list of the top 10 countries that have viewed this page. Listed in order by most viewed (as of November 2017).
United States
Russia
Ukraine
Germany
France
Poland
Sweden
Czechia
Brazil
Israel

Who's Alive and Who's Dead -- Actors and Actresses

Click on the above title to go to the website.

Replacement Government Headstones and Markers

"Headstones and markers previously furnished by the Government may be replaced at Government expense if badly deteriorated, illegible, stolen or vandalized. We may also replace the new (or modern) headstone or marker if the inscription is incorrect..." Click on the above title to take you to the website.

HOW CITY LOOKS TO PIONEER OF '73

Mr. [David] Pelow probably attended the first funeral in Marshfield [Wisconsin]. It was at the death of an Indian, who was buried on the raise of ground now occupied by the city cemetery. Mr. Pelow was both mourner and undertaker—with four other men who had taken the Indian to the hill for burial after he had been killed by a white man in a dispute over some trivial matter.
--excerpt from The Marshfield Times; Wednesday, October 04, 1916

History of Woodville Cemetery

[click on above title to go to cemetery]
Late in the 1800's, the owner of the property of the cemetery and the land around it donated the cemetery land to what is now the Town of Linwood. The cemetery was a plot of land set aside for those people who did not have money for a grave for their loved ones. The cemetery was named The Woodville Cemetery.
Over the years a few dozen people were buried there. One of those people was a man named Calvin Blood. Mr. Blood was born in 1825 in what is now the Township of Linwood. He was beat up and bullied much of his youth due to his last name. Mr. Blood joined the Union Army to fight in the Civil War where he served for two terms. One term was with the Wisconsin Branch and the other was with the United States Union Army.
After putting his life on the line for human rights for the slaves, Mr. Blood was given an Honorable Discharge at the war's end. He moved back to this area and met a woman who became his wife. They farmed the land and raised a family. Mr. Blood lived to be 82 years old, at a time when life expectancy was 45 years. The death certificate shows that Mr. Blood died from consumption. This was a respiratory problem. Mr. Blood was burried in the Woodville Cemetery in 1907.
Since that time and more so as transportation became more available, the cemetery and all the homes in the area have suffered from teenage vandalism. The once peaceful cemetery has been ruined with only two headstones remaining.
The cemetery is vandalized nearly daily and there are repeated acts of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, criminal trespass, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct with a motor vehicle, assault, and many more unlawful acts to the cemetery and the surrounding neighborhood.
Mr. Blood's original grave marker has been destroyed and replaced several times over the years so that now there is just a cement slab with his name on it. Over the years it has been found that 99.85% of the unlawful activity and threats to the neighborhood and cemetery have been done by teenagers, mostly boys.
The cemetery has been under 24 hours surveillance for several years. When the teenage boys are prosecuted they have fines ranging from $75.00 to several hundred dollars. The latest attempt to stop the problem is to try and educate the teenagers and, at times, take away their driver's license. There have been teachers from the area high schools who have sent the students out to see the "haunted" cemetery. The cemetery, of course, is not haunted, and, if it were not for the last name of "Blood", hardly a person would visit the cemetery.
TV Channel 9 sent a a Paranormal Assessment team out to the cemetery for a reading. The Assessment Team found no paranormal activity. (See attachment)
Sources: • Portage County Gazette • Newspaper Archives, Portage County • Cemetery and Gravestone Historian, Phil Kallas, Portage County Coordinator • Medical Records • Military Records • Death Certificate • Wisconsin State Old Cemetery Society • Relatives and Descendants of Mr. Blood • Paranormal Assessment Team, Michael J. Wanie, Chief Investigator
--information from cemetery literature

Wisconsin Rapids newspaper article; May 29, 1930

MEMORIAL DAY IN THE FUTURE
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, or as it has
been more commonly called, Decoration Day,
from the fact that after the Civil war it soon
became the custom to decorate the graves
of the men who had died that their nation
might live. Two wars have marred his-
tory's pages since then, and now as the last
of the Union veterans are passing one by
one over the river of silence, the day is
gradually coming to have an inclusive
significance—a day of remembrance dedi-
cated to all our soldier dead.
Only three, we believe, remain alive of
the once strong post of the Grand Army
of the Republic which once headquartered
here. But those who wait are watching
to see what their community is to do in
future toward a Memorial Day observance.
They are anxious lest the younger men may
not so whole heartedly take charge of what
is to them a most sacred service. We must
not disappoint them. It is up to the American
Legion and the few veterans of the
Spanish-American war to carry on the day's
observance as worthily as have those who
inaugurated the beautiful custom.
It devolves upon us as well that we do
our part toward the annual day of memories.
It is not sufficient that we doff
our hats and watch the parade go past and
put out half-staff flags. We must preserve
these memories to posterity by adding yearly
to the beauty of our cemeteries, and
erecting monuments as a perpetual honor
to those who died in the service of the nation
in war, and as a perpetual reminder to
us that we owe to them much that we are
and possess. We are much too prone to
make but a desultory gesture toward observance
and spend the time wholly in holiday
pleasures.
We visited the other day our beautiful
twin cemeteries—Forest Hill and Calvary.
We watched the workmen completing the
system of surfaced roads which wind
among the mingled monuments and the
beautiful trees which spread their protecting
boughs over the graves. Much credit,
we think, belongs to F. J. Wood for his
continuing interest and to Isaac P. Witter,
who has contributed all in all over $5,000
toward the beautification of these necessary
cities of the dead. But, beautiful as
are now the surroundings of the soldiers'
graves, much yet remains to be done.
Only 150 lots are available for future interments,
we are told, and more land should
be secured immediately in rear of the present
cemeteries for future use. City water
should be brought to the cemetery and
piped through it in such a manner as will
enable the convenient care of lots, flower
beds and parking spaces. The hedge, of
bridal wreath, is scant—all too much so for
sightliness, and to preserve harmony with
the ornamental gates now in position. A
new hedge of a shrub which does not winter
kill should be used, and the present
bushes transplanted in more sheltered
spots. Our suggestion would be lilacs of
the common variety, as they grow so easily
and are so hardy.
The total cost of these necessary improvements
is far beyond the means of the
cemetery association, and it should not be
left to the generosity of individuals. The
cemeteries, we believe, should be made a
part of the municipal park system, and as
such, beautified and maintained in perpetuity.
Thus we could, when each recurring
Memorial Day arrives, feel always that we
were fitly carrying on the commemoration
service to our soldier dead. And to each
family whose dear ones lie there beneath
the sod, and who each year bring fresh
flowers with which to honor the memory
of those who have gone before, the knowledge
that their graves will be given continuing
care, cannot but be a source of
comfort and of solace.

Wisconsin Rapids newspaper article; May 31, 1930

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
As the Memorial Day parade passed along
First street north on its way to the cemetery
Friday morning, a bystander was heard
to remark: "Wouldn't it be fine if there
was a tall, bronze monument to our Wood
county soldier dead, located somewhere on
the new part of the courtyard?" Others
have voiced a similar idea, and there is no
doubt that such a monument would add to
the sightliness of the new lawn, which is
now being graded into a graceful slope.
Wood county has had a considerable participation
in the last three wars—the Civil,
the Spanish-American and the World wars
—and it would be a very fine thing to perpetuate
the memories of these men who
died for their country in some such manner.
It is said that enlistments in the Union
regiments in the early '60's reduced the
population of Grand Rapids by a very large
number, and most of us remember how
many left here by enlistment and by draft
during the World war. Not so many went in
1898, for not so many were needed.
It is always good to leave markers along
the way, so that posterity may remember
the history and particularly the patriotic
history of its community. Soldiers' monuments
are to be found in a great many
cities and counties in the United States,
and when properly inscribed add something
worth while and something of educational
value. Wood County is and has been progressive
in so many ways that this idea at least gives us
something to think about.

Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin Area Genealogy

Click on the above link for the McMillan Memorial Library Website.

Damage at Riverside Cemetery

Sometime between March 27 and 28 [2008] , an unknown person or people did a large amount of damage to gravestones at the Riverside Cemetery in the city of Nekoosa [Wisconsin]. Damage consisted of headstones being tipped over and a heavy object being used to break the top portions of figurines off. The damage was to very old, column-like headstones.... Anyone with information on this or any other crime is asked to call Wood County Crime Stoppers at 877-325-7867.