Crossroads Cemetery, Appanoose County, Iowa

Earlier this summer I made a quick trip to Iowa with the intent of photographing soooooooooooo many cemeteries.  The weather and health got the best of me, however and I was only able to take a couple hundred photos of Crossroads Cemetery and Philadelphia Cemetery, which you can find at Iowa Gravestones.org.

One of the things I love about old country cemeteries are the flowers.  This old gravestone from Crossroads Cemetery is from 1882.  Remarkable how well preserved it is.  Maybe someone in Appanoose County can pick up where I left off and finish taking pictures?

By the way, word is that the Appanoose County genealogy society is taking up a collection for newspaperarchives.com to scan all the old Iowegian newspapers.  A worthy cause to help us find those missing puzzle pieces in the county. 

UPDATE (02 Sep 2011):  I received a comment about this from Bill Hawkins over at the Jerome Journal blog. I had received a notice in my Appanoose County Genealogy Society newsletter about the digitization effort, so it led to my confusion as to who was really behind the effort. Here is a link to an article in the Daily Iowegian: 

Historical Society to digitize all Centerville newspapers

"To kick off the project, Kris Koestner of J&K Market made a $500 donation for the project. Connie has sent out letters to several local people and businesses that she thought would have a keen interest in the digitized newspapers. If you would like to help with this project, your donations will be gratefully accepted. If you want to help, just call Connie Stater at (641) 856-5426 or come to the museum any weekday between 1-5 p.m."

 "The potential for the digitization was originally suggested by Appanoose County Genealogy Society President Gary Craver. He has spent thousands of hours at the library, pouring over microfilm doing genealogical research. The possibility of doing the research from his home was really appealing, so he contacted Heritage Microfilm to get a quote. It was very expensive, and he didn’t know how the money could ever be raised to accomplish it.

But that’s where Connie Stater came in. Board member of the Appanoose County Historical Society, Connie had been using the hard-bound volumes of the old Iowegians at the museum to do research on the beginnings of the Majestic Theater now being restored by Morgan Cline. Those old newspapers are brittle and crumble easily, making them very difficult to use.  She, Gary, and some other members of the Historical Society sprang into action, looking for grants and other ways to raise the needed funds for digitization."

Also of interest is the inclusion of the Southern Iowa American: 

"The Appanoose County Historical Society has undertaken the task of having all of the Centerville newspapers digitized. This will include pre-Iowegian newspapers dating back as far 1857 and going all the way up to the present. This will include the Daily Citizen, the Centerville Journal, The Southern Iowa American (the Ku Klux Klan newspaper), the Semi-Weekly Iowegian and the Daily Ioweigan up through 2010."