ROCK ELM – The Pierce County Historical Association, in collaboration with the Poplar Hill Cemetery Association, has installed two detailed kiosks at the cemetery, helping visitors find their loves ones and learn more about its history.

Located of 560^th Avenue just outside of Rock Elm, Poplar Hill is the third largest cemetery in Pierce County. Currently, there are 1,976 people buried there.

PCHA volunteers, led by Julie Huebel, worked closely with the Poplar Hill Cemetery Association, scanning cemetery records and including them on the Findagrave website. The Rock Elm Old Settlers funded the project while PCHA volunteers designed and researched it; Cemetery Association President Jim Schneider installed the sign infrastructure in November and the signs were put up in early May.

“It’s the biggest cemetery you’ve never heard of,” Huebel said, adding that Pine Glen in Prescott and Maple Grove in Ellsworth are larger. Greenwood Cemetery in River Falls is in St. Croix County. “It took awhile to put the signs up, because there was so much data to sift through.”

Huebel said it’s common for people looking for their ancestors’ graves to contact the PCHA for help. They kept a stack of Poplar Hill maps at the history center because it was hard for people to located their loved ones. Huebel is making it a mission to research and document the locations of graves in Pierce County, with plans to install kiosks and maps at each one.

“The Rock Elm Settlers’ mission is to take care of the graves of the original settlers. We’ve donated money to the local cemeteries,” Huebel said of the PCHA. “I love a cemetery. My husband and I always stop at cemeteries.

Huebel credited volunteer Barb Wyatt, of River Falls, for her fantastic research on this project.

“She has no connection to Rock Elm, but she did 75% of the research, spending hundreds of hours,” Huebel said. “We were working on this for over a year and a half, the research part.”

They scoured the cemetery’s big, handwritten book of burial records and matched it up with information on Findagrave.

“Researchers and genealogists have been using this website for many years. I encourage everyone to go look up a family member and see what information you can gain from it,” Huebel said. “It's all user entered, so the information for each person can vary, but you will likely find a photo of their headstone, and then for some you can find a photo of them, a copy of their obituary (either a photo or transcribed), links to their spouse, parents, siblings, and children. So much helpful information when researching ancestry, it's the first place I look just to figure out where a family lived and then learn what I can before going to other sites.”

The new kiosks contain a QR code to Findagrave, which is a free website.

Huebel said one challenge has been that many graves are unmarked. Some stones have been damaged by falling trees, weather or simply swallowed into the earth. Sometimes people were buried on family farms or land but had a stone at the cemetery. Others were moved from the original Rock Elm Cemetery (off Highway 72) once Poplar Hill became the main burial site in town.

“There were a lot of people buried on farms,” Huebel said. “That’s what made the research so difficult, there was a lot of gray area. A lot of children were buried on personal land. Records get lost and there was a while the cemetery association wasn’t active.”

Huebel said Poplar Hill Cemetery Association still has the original paperwork and takes a lot of pride in its preservation.

“People need to donate money to cemeteries,” she said. “It costs them $14,000-$15,000 to mow the lawn each year. The money from selling lots will eventually run out.”

Rita Sanford and Roberta Holcomb conducted a cemetery inventory in the 1980s, which was useful in the research. Unfortunately, many of the stones have degraded since then.

Inventory done in the 80s of what is visible. Rita Sanford and Robert Holcombe.

According to an early history of Poplar Hill Cemetery, written by Frank Alexander in 1900, settlers George Shaw, S.J. Fox, John P. Whipp, Levi Holcomb, M.C. Guest, S.O. Sewell, James Collett, C.A. Hawn and Leonard Wilson met on April 10, 1874 to form the Poplar Hill Cemetery Association, named for a grove of poplar trees near the site. C.A. Hawn purchased 2 acres of land for the cemetery, costing $24.

The group hosted a logging bee and people came with ox teams from all around to assist in clearing the land. They hired J. J. Schulthess of Plum City to survey the property for $10 and lay out 192 lots at 220 square feet each, that could hold up to six bodies. The first person buried there was War of 1812 veteran Adam Hawn, father of C.A. Hawn in 1876. Another tract of land was purchased from W.S. Cheney at $1 per acre once the original plots had nearly filled.

Those interested in purchasing a plot at Poplar Hill should contact Doug Claflin at 715-639-2117. A single plot (6x10 feet) is $350, while a family plot (24x10 feet) is $1,400. The cemetery also accepts donations for maintenance and upkeep. You can make a donation by sending it to:

Poplar Hill Cemetery

220 W. Shaw Ave.

Elmwood, WI 54740

Huebel hopes more cemetery associations reach out to PCHA for help in documenting the graves and scanning the records.

“It’s crazy how there are no back up copies,” Huebel said of many records. “We really value documenting that stuff.”

The next cemetery on her list is Sacred Heart/Farm Hill south of Elmwood, which currently has 655 graves.

To learn more about PCHA, visit piercecountyhistorical.org