Liberty Cemetery
Liberty Cemetery is the largest of the urban cemeteries, with more than one hundred
graves, and has the most recent burials. This cemetery is located seven miles
south of Medicine Lodge on Highway 281, then one mile east and three-quarter mile
south. The first recorded burial in Liberty Cemetery was May 1878, a sixty-seven
year old woman. Although known by three names through the years (Newkirk, Gerlane
and New Liberty), the cemetery was officially designated as Liberty Cemetery on
the quit claim deed given July 24, 1899, by Charles D. and Docia H. Newkirk. Legal
description of Liberty Cemetery is NE corner of SE1/4 31-33-11 . The majority
of rural cemeteries were never deeded out and remain private, untended and almost
forgotten burial places. Names ascribed to them were derived from the land owner
or families buried therein.
(Information from pages 28-29 of Chosen
Land - A History of Barber County, Kansas ©1980)
© 2002 Ed Rucker for KSGen Web Project
