PARK AND CEMETERY 
166 
HOW AN OLD CEMETERY WAS IMPROVED. 
Oakwood Cemetery of Redwing, Minn., has ac- 
quired a reputation for beauty. It has no magnificent, 
costly structures. Its beauty comes solely from those 
common homely items of hill and dale, tree and lawn, 
and — chiefest of all — cleanliness. 
The white settlers began their burials there in 1854. 
In 1864 it was platted into lots. Records of burials 
began to be made in 1868 — not the scratch of a pen or 
pencil before. Wearied of the all manner of slovenliness 
and vicious methods existing in the cemetery, the city 
put it under the care of a board of trustees in 1889. 
The thirty-five years of go-as-you-please had left their 
mark on everything. Over 800 lots were graded up 
too much leaning to wrong end up. Fully two wagon 
loads of tin cans — tomato to gunpowder — were fished 
up and sent to the dump — to be mourned by some even 
to this day. How in the world did you effect this great 
change? asks the surprised visitor. We simply took 
the matter of plan and ornamentation into our own 
hands to secure uniformity, trimmed the trees, smooth- 
ed the bristling earthworks into undulating lawns, in- 
duced grass to grow everywhere, and — primest of all 
efforts — tried to keep everything clean. Seventy of 
those copings have disappeared under gentle though 
much pleadings — and yet we have retained the power 
of speech. Further, all those fourteen years of missing 
VIEWS IN OAKWOOD CEMETERY, REDWING, MINN. 
like army earthworks. A lot was not acceptably “fixed” 
until it had a forest tree at each corner — one lot 12 by 
25 feet sported twelve fir trees. There were seventy- 
two copings, of all conceivable designs and dilapida- 
tions. When Mr. X would grade his lot he got earth 
by digging a hole in Y’s lot. Y in due time would re- 
coup himself out of X or Z, leaving in exchange arm 
loads of roots and litter. Moles, gophers, woodchucks 
and the town dogs put in their time on the other holes. 
If there was a bright plat of good grass, why, that was 
just the place to burn brush and truck, — and no plat 
escaped. One hundred and twenty-six monuments 
postured through all the degrees of slant from a little 
burials, picked from contemporaneous records and 
other available sources, have been brought into the 
register in their regular order together with distance 
measurements of all known graves. 
We do not like to venture on the topic of how little 
money we have expended yearly, for the intense study 
of economy is painful, — hurts the feelings. But, while 
city cemeteries commonly have yearly pay-rolls rang- 
ing into the thousands ours have reached only the same 
numerical notch in the hundreds. Yet, as a result, we 
have more exactly the beautiful rural cemetery. 
One of the Board. 
