A rededication was held on the afternoon of Memorial Day 2005 at the Jacksonville Cemetery located northeast of New Hampton. The cemetery got a facelift during 2004 when the Utica Lucky Fours 4-H Club leaders, 4-H members, Township Trustees, Chickasaw County Cemetery Commission members, surrounding neighbors and friends helped restore the cemetery to a place of beauty. They spent hundreds of hours cleaning, cutting brush, leveling, seeding the lawn and donating the use of their equipment in the restoration process. Once the brush was cleared, a new fence was built surrounding the cemetery with funds donated by Lutheran Brotherhood Branch #884. The stones received a facelift from labor donated by Priscilla Reisner. Mike Magee of Waterloo and Steve story of West Union representing Sate Association of the Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries also assisted.

Lawler Legion Post Veterans Ron Anderson, Jack McKone, Don Blazek
and Norb Shilney began the program with a flag raising.

Mr. Shilney spoke on flag etiquette to the 4-H members and the audience. The 4-H Club members with their leaders, Judy Vsetecka and Carol Hageman continued the program. 4-H members played a number of instrumental music renditions appropriate for Memorial Day. Memorial Day readings were given by 4-H Members Sara and Brian Hagemen, Nathan and Spenser Schmitt followed with taps played on the flute by Ashley Vsetecka. She also read a poem.

Legionnaires at the Jacksonville Rededication on Memorial Day

Commission Member Jeanette Kottke read the roll of burials and told the history of the cemetery. The Jacksonville Township Pioneer Cemetery has twenty-two known burials noting that most of the burials occurred during the years of 1850s to 1880s; the first burial was record in 1858 and the last in 1910. The Roll Call was as follows:

• Bevans, George C.   31 Dec 1842  04 Feb 1863  20y Plattsville WI
• Bevans, Matilda B.   17 Mar 1795  11 Oct 1864  69y 7m 6d Virginia "Our Mother"
• Cleghorn, Ralph Augustus Abt __ 1863   23 Jul 1864  1y 3m 6d s/o J.C. & J.B.
• Cook, Edwin Willis   24 Dec 1847   10 Oct 1863  16y Peter & Lucia C.
• Geeting, Jacob   Abt __ 1801  24 Oct 1867  66y 7m 29d
• *Green, Clarissa J.   Abt __ 1804  19 Apr 1865  60y 8m, w/o Hazzard
• *Green, Hazzard   Abt _ _1807  06 Jan 1867 59y 6m  h/o Clarissa
• Green, Sarah E.   Abt __ 1840  04 Feb 1858 17y 3m  d/o Hazzard & Clarissa J.
• Mabbott, Vivian   Unknown  Unknown Foot Stone WMM w/o (unreadable)
• *Mills, Emma May     12 Sep 1886  25 Oct 1886
• *Mills, Inf s/o R.E.& E.   31 Dec 1882  01 Jan 1883
• *Mills, Myrtle Emily    12 Apr 1890  30 Jul 1890
• *Mills, Viola Jane     01 Jul 1870  08 Aug 1870
• *Mills, Vivian Mable   02 Sep 1871  12 Oct 1871
• Nugent, Albert     Abt __ 1869   01 Aug 1870, 1y
• Nugent, Fanny    Abt __ 1848  05 Feb 1870  22y,  w/o M. Nugent
• Robinson, Laura L.    Abt __ 1801  21 Feb 1864 63y,  w/o Rufus M.
• *Smith, Jane Lobdell Eaton     04 Dec 1823    01 May 1910,  82y 4m 28d
• Unknown, Name      Abt __ 1822    23 Mar 1882,  60y
• Unknown, Cora       Unknown    Unknown age    Stone broken
• Unknown, Mabelle   Unknown    Unknown age    Stone Unreadable
• *Vaughn, Nehemiah  Abt1827  22 Jan 1864,  37y "Co. C 38th Regiment Iowa GAR"

* Hazzard Green was the founder of one of the earliest villages in Chickasaw County in 1854, per the History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, 1883, W.E. Alexander, p286.
* Clarissa Green, 17 year old daughter of the Jacksonville founder is the first known burial of record.
* Mills, Six infants died within a few months of birth. They were the children of Robert and Emmaline Shepard Davis Mills.
* Smith, Services held at the Sewell Home. She was the oldest and also the last person known, of record, to be buried in this cemetery.
* Mr. Vaughn died of malaria during the Civil War.

Also read at the ceremony was an inscription that on the stone monument in the cemetery. "Respectfully dedicated to the old settlers who courageously met the loneliness of a new country waded sloughs, swam streams, breasted the storms of winter and played a part in crystallizing a forming civilization reducing a weed wet wilderness to comfortable homes and productive fields."

Rev. Ken Dethlefsen closed the dedication with a reading and prayer. Refreshments were served to the many who attended the event. Cemetery Commission President Jerry Tieskotter and Treasurer Fred Reisner expressed many thanks to all who donated to the preservation of the cemetery.

Legionnaire pays respect to a Civil War Veteran