A view of the St. Anthony Catholic Cemetery in Davis, South Dakota
A small group of French settlers from New York settled just east and
south of Davis in 1872 having arrived by a lengthy wagon train trip.
This group of Catholic settlers were served by a priest who traveled from
Yankton to conduct services and by 1893 the St. Anthony Catholic Church
was organized and built in 1894. It was never a large group and
although it survived tornados some members were always moving to other
places, so their numbers dwindled and in 1942 the church was closed.
It was later sold in 1958 and then demolished.
The St. Anthony Cemetery land was bought by the congregation in 1899, on
a site that in prior years had served as a camp for the U S Cavalry
during the Indian uprisings. Various members of the former
congregation have faithfully served as caretakers of this cemetery over
the years and it is considered to be a beautiful, quite and peaceful
place.
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The St. Anthony Catholic Cemetery information database consists of 3 parts.
This information was prepared by Ken Tiahrt in 2010, with the generous assistance of the
cemetery secretary and the photographer, Chet Whitney. This information 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.
1. A Cemetery Map
An approximate map of the cemetery showing the lots in
relationship to the City of Davis access Cemetery Road, gives the
user a physical setting. Very specific locations for a given burial
plot can not be found using this information source.2. A List of
Burials
A listing of the burials at St. Anthony Cemetery – City of Davis – Turner
County, gives the individual names in alphabetic order. This
listing also gives the year of birth and year of death when available.
All lots are intended to accommodate as many as 10 graves. 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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