Woodstock Cemetery TALES THE TOMBSTONES TELL

Tales the Tombstones Tell - Republican Observer November 10, 1955

               Woodstock

    The Woodstock cemetery is another well kept burying ground and it is, like other cemeteries, the resting place of the pioneers of that section. Fred Neefe was our guide. He is well versed in the history of the area and knew of a majority of the folks buried on the little knoll. Would that we had space to mention each and every pioneer whose names we noted upon the stones. One we did note was that for J. B. Holloway who came with his parents to Richland county away back in 1845 when a few months old. He lived in Rockbridge for years and years, moved to Richland Center, and passed away on February 28, 1939, at the age of over 93 years.

     In the old burying ground are 35 soldiers resting, one L B. Madding, a Mexican War veteran. Buried also in the cemetery are four members of the Neefe family, all soldiers, who include a father, a son, a grandson and a great grandson. They are Charles A. Neefe, veteran of the Civil War, who died October 2, 1906; his son Frank R., Spanish-American war veteran, killed in an explosion in Colorado, November 12, 1912; Dale, a grandson of Charles A., veteran of World War I, who died in September, 1923; and the last to die was Willard Neefe, veteran of World War II. his death being on October 17, 1944. Quite a record for one family but a consoling thought is that they all are resting in the little country cemetery close to the old home; and as the Rockbridge monument said "Dying is but going home."

    Charles A. Neefe, Civil War veteran, was born in Germany on January 1, 1834, came with his parents to America when he was two years old. They first settled in Missouri, moved from there to Grant county and to Richland county in 1846, settling in the town of Orion, and from there Mr. Neefe moved to near Woodstock. There he farmed and in 1879 purchased a saw mill. It was first owned by James and Z. Jones, built in 1857, an up and down saw did the work. Mr. Neefe rebuilt the mill and equipped it with more modern machinery, water power being derived from a dam and mill race. This dam and mill race are still in evidence close to the Woodstock cemetery.

    On another stone it read "Parents good night, my work is done, I go to rest with the setting sun, But not to wake with the morning light, So dearest parents a long good night."

    It was on the grave of Johnnie Weeden, son of A. and G. Weeden, who died in 1885, aged one year, six months, eleven days.

S.F.

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