BY JIM HANSEN
This search began with a photo request located on findagrave.com for 28-year-old Anna Christine Flint Jacobs. Since the burial was reported to be in the Monroe United Methodist Church Cemetery, which is close to Walnut, we decided to pursue the request, verify the information and get a photo taken if a stone actually existed. Since Anna died in 1881, early in the existence of the cemetery, we decided to review the lot owner records as a starter. There were no records for Jacobs or Flint. There was no obituary in the 1881 Walnut News. We did find a Shelby County, Iowa death record for Annie Jacobs. The death record gave Monroe Township as the place of death and place of burial. At first thought, the above mentioned cemetery seemed to be the only cemetery in Monroe Township. However, on the western edge of the township is the Cuppy’s Grove Baptist Church and Cemetery. Since it has a Harlan, Iowa address, the thought of it being in Monroe escapes many of us. Upon reviewing the 1915 Shelby County History book, we found Anthony Jacobs as the second pastor of the Danish Baptist Church at Cuppy’s Grove. We thought it highly unlikely a Baptist pastor would bury his wife in a Methodist cemetery when he was pastor elsewhere. To verify the Jacobs history, we searched the 1880 Federal Census for Shelby and neighboring counties in Iowa. We found this young family in Atlantic, Cass County. Upon reviewing the Weekly Telegraph of Atlantic dated June 1, 1881, we found the short obit: “Mrs. A. Jacobs, wife of the Rev. A. Jacobs, formerly of this city, died at Cuppey’s [Cuppy’s] Grove Monday, of quick consumption. She leaves two children. She was buried in the Cuppey’s [Cuppy’s] Grove cemetery.”
We were now ready to see the cemetery record book and visit the cemetery. The record book listed Anthon Jacobsen, but no Jacobs. It had a correction of “REV” written over Jacobsen, which we hoped was referring to Pastor Anthony Jacobs. It was. We were then shown lot #2 in the cemetery. There were no stones on the eight burial spaces in lot #2. We dowsed the area and found one burial, that of Anna Jacobs. We placed a temporary wooden cross and flowers and took a photo of the gravesite. We added the photo to findagrave and had her memorial corrected to Cuppy’s Grove Cemetery.
Rev. Anthony Jacobs served as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Harlan, Iowa from December 31, 1881 – January 1, 1883. He died in 1929 and is buried at Waupaca, Wisconsin.
JH