Viborg Rose Hill Cemetery
City of Viborg - Section 2 - Daneville Township - Turner County - South Dakota
Viborg Rose Hill Cemetery Entrance Gate
Brief Cemetery History.
During the early Dakota Territorial years a community called Daneville was established a short distance south of where the
present City of Viborg South Dakota is located and it lasted nearly 30
years. Daneville was ultimately relocated to the site of Viborg as so
frequently happened in the west because the railroad passed through Viborg rather
than Daneville in 1893. At about that same time Danish Lutheran
churches were being established in Viborg, Swan Lake and Spring Valley.
A Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church was also established in the
Viborg area before 1880.
The Rose Hill Cemetery land was deeded to this church by
Niels Simonsen in 1880. In 1882, Niels was the 5th person buried in
Rose Hill and Niels is the person in the Rose Hill Cemetery with the earliest birth year,
1811. There were four burials on the Rose Hill
property before 1880. The first was Marie Jensen in 1847, the
second was Marten Melgaard in 1875, and Niels wife, Maren Simonsen, born
in 1813, was buried in 1877 as was Mete Nelson. The property
clearly had a good start at providing a necessary service to the
community, and by 1905 there were nearly 50 burials. The
first Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church, was apparently founded in
Cambridge, Dane County, Wisconsin in 1855 and a traveling reverend was
located in Dakota Territory by 1860. There was obviously a great
deal of cooperation between the Scandinavian people and their churches in
the Viborg area and in 1930 operation of Rose Hill Cemetery was turned over
to the Rose Hill Cemetery Association, and it became a community cemetery
which it is today. |
The Rose Hill Cemetery information database consists of the short history
given above, a cemetery map, a complete list of burials and photos of all grave monuments
currently in the cemetery.
This information was prepared by Ken Tiahrt (tiahrt@montana.edu) with the generous assistance of the
cemetery sexton and may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use,
including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires
written approval.
A Cemetery Map.
A map of the cemetery showing the individual lots in
relationship to the adjacent City of Viborg Roadways, Main Street and Dane Avenue, gives the
user a physical setting.
A List of
Burials.
A listing of the burials at Rose Hill Cemetery – Section 2
– Daneville Township – Turner County, gives the individual names in alphabetic order. This listing gives the date of birth
and date of death when available. The block and
lot number using those numbers on the above map, and the plot in the lot are
also given. The user should note that the manner in which the lots and the
plots are numbered in each block is given on the map.
Photos of Grave Monuments
**UPDATE NOTE - October 2018 -- The cemetery list does not contain any tombstone photographs. Thankyou for understanding. Anyone wanting to donate personal tombstone pics is encouraged to do so on the following dedicated site for that purpose: South Dakota Gravestones Project.
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