Hopeful history
Mount Hope Cemetery creating online database to research gravesites
By James Wynn
Staff Writer

One of the greatest resources Lander has for its history can be found in the place where all the old town founders have gathered: Mount Hope Cemetery.
Now, thanks to a grant intended for the preservation of history, that history can be shared with the rest of the world.
Mount Hope Cemetery is in the process of creating an online database that can be used by family and researchers to find information on almost every individual buried within the cemetery gates.
“We have a complete map of the cemetery, separated into plots,” said Field Iiams, assistant sexton at Mount Hope. “If someone was looking for a particular name, they would type it into the search engine, and it would bring up all people with that name in the cemetery.”
Looking for an example, Iiams typed the name of a Lander famous son, Stub Farlow.
“It brings up every Farlow in the cemetery,” Iiams said. “Then you scroll down until you find the right Farlow.”
Once clicked, a screen popped up with some rudimentary information on Farlow, including birth and death. But the most important thing brought up under the name was where the old wrangler was buried.
“It will direct people right to the spot,” Iiams said. “It’s really simple.”
Though still in its infancy, Iiams and sexton Dick Hudson both have big plans for the future capabilities of the site.
“What we would like to see are families bringing in or sending us information on the person,” he said.
That information could be any kind of history, including obituaries or military documents, which Iiams and Hudson would include in the information about the person on the screen. They also hope to have photos included with the information.
“We will also eventually have photos of the headstones,” Iiams said.
Not only will the new online database be helpful to the public, but the staff at the cemetery will benefit as well.
“Before, if anyone wanted to find a gravestone, they would have to come up to the office and we would look it up manually,” Iiams said. “Then we would take the person out and show them where the site is.”
Currently and previously, all records on individuals buried in Mount Hope were kept in a series of files in the main cemetery office.
“If someone would want a copy of those records, we would have to take it to city hall and make a copy,” Fields said. “This way, we can just print out the information either here or the person can do it at home.”
Previously, any time a new plot was added, staff at the cemetery would have to make a new map of the cemetery.
Since that map, which still hangs on the wall in the office, tells staff what plots are empty and which are filled, anytime a grave became filled it would have to be updated.
“Now it can all be done online,” Fields said.
The creation of the database began in July of last year. However, finding funding for the project was difficult.
“There really aren’t any grants out there for cemeteries,” Fields said. “The software for this is pretty pricey. I think it employed seven people to set it up.”
However, working with Community Development coordinator Gary Michaud, the grant came through.
“Once we got the grant, the city went ahead and let us do this,” Iiams said.
The family history part of the online information is going to be key in order for the database to reach its full potential, particularly in the older section of the cemetery.
For example, one resident of Mount Hope was buried known only as Mr. Stump. His death is written as August 26, 1902. But there is no record of his birth or anything else.
According to Iiams, in the older part of the cemetery there are a lot of open spaces between graves without headstones on them. But that’s not because those plots are empty.
“We know that there are people buried there,” Iiams said. “But that’s about all we know.”
Over time, or because of the early burial practices of the earliest pioneers, headstones have been lost, destroyed or misplaced.
Originally, the land where Mount Hope is now located was a private cemetery owned by the International Order of Odd Fellows. Many of the early graves in Mount Hope originally were buried in a cemetery called Baldwin Field. Baldwin Field was across the highway from the original cemetery where Fremont Motors is now located.
“We have a lot of unknowns,” Iiams said. “We know there are people buried there, we just don’t know who they are. It’s hard to go off of something like that.”
With the database, however, Hudson and Iiams hope that family members may be able to provide additional information.
“Like in the case of Mr. Stump,” Iiams said. “Maybe someone will see that name and say, ‘he was a great uncle, I have some information about him.’”
With help like that, Iiams believes the database eventually will be used for historical research as well.
“We have around 8,000 people buried here,” Fields said. “We are putting all those names into the database. If people have any information on someone buried up here, bring it up, we will scan it and put it in there.”
Iiams believes that the Web site, which can be found at www.maps.ramaker.com/lander, will not be fully complete for few years.
But, while the process will be ongoing, the end result will be well worth the hours that the cemetery staff is putting into the project.
“It will be a secondary place for safekeeping of records,” Iiams said. “It will be an ongoing process, but it will be continuing history.”