Aubry Pioneer Cemetery
This is an archived index from the Digital Cemetery.
Address
191st and Metcalf Ave
Stilwell, KS
Aubry Twp, Johnson Co.
GPS Location
38° 46' 54" N, 94° 40' 03" W
38.781666, -94.67083
GoogleMap
Legal Location
Section 6, Township 15S, Range 25E
About the Cemetery
In the 1850s, some of the first land in Johnson County to open up was the land along the Missouri border that was on the outskirts of Black Bob Shawnee tribal common land in the southeastern part of Johnson County. The first land purchase in Aubry was to William H. Brady in Feb 1857, and many settlers quickly followed. The Town of Aubry was surveyed and a town company formed in March 1858, and the Township of Aubry was organized shortly after, on May 11, 1858. The first school, the top priority of the new community, was built in the summer of 1858 and served as the school, church, and social center of Aubry. In May 1859 the Christian Church was formed and the first formal church building erected.
The original section of the Aubry cemetery shows signs of past neglect, though it is maintained today with great care. While some stones are unreadable from the sandblasting wind, a number of stones are obviously missing. There are many large gaps between stones and it is believed there are a number of unmarked graves in this Old Section. The original records for the Aubry Cemetery were destroyed by fire years ago and the names and locations of the unmarked graves are lost to history.
As no records survive, we do not know exactly when the Aubry Cemetery was officially established, but we can find clues to its beginnings. In William G. Cutler's book "The History of Johnson County", published in 1912, Cutler tells us the first death that occurred in Aubry was a son of A. Purley in September 1859. Though we do not find a marker for this child in the cemetery, we do find a memorial for James B Franklin, d. 27 Feb 1862, aged 53 yrs, 11 mos, and 19 dys.
There is a total of 3 births recorded in the 1790s, with Thomas Short, 1784 - 1876, having the oldest recorded birth in the cemetery. The person with the oldest calculated age is Volle P. Tracy, Feb. 1 1887 - July 26 1993, approximately 106 yrs old. There are two other calculated ages over 100 years old.
Index
Photographed and transcribed by: Linda K Lewis, 16 Jul 2006. This is a complete transcription by reading and photographing the gravestones.
Surname Index [A-G] [H-O] [P-Z] [Unknown]
