History:
The First Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Cemetery preceded the building of the church by several years, but is located on the same land as the Church.
The cemetery has accepted burials since 1879 and will continue into the future as requests are being accepted at the present time. Those buried in the cemetery are mostly of Welsh descent and were part of the past Postville, Nebraska Welsh community that was located a short distant away and surrounding homesteaders.
The earliest recorded burial in the Postville Community was John Williams, August 21, 1879, at the age of 36. This was followed by three burials in 1880. They were buried in a plot of land that was near the main wagon trail and where the present cemetery is located today.
There are four known burials in the cemetery before the 1881 Articles of Association By Laws and Constitution were written to form the First Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church and four years before the building of the wood frame church. On July 10, 1884, David and Mary Thomas deeded two (2) acres of their wild prairie land to the church for the purpose of a cemetery and for the building of the church.
It is not known when the cemetery was first laid out. Burial lots were indicated by burying pieces of iron and wooden stakes. The cemetery was laid out with intermittent East-West and North-South twelve foot walk ways.
The earliest recorded burial was August 21, 1879 as John Williams at the age of 36 years. It is not really known when the first burials were made but in the area where this headstone stands several depressions are seen in the soil that indicate a grave sites. In 1966 Leonard Thomazin of St. Edward, Nebraska surveyed the cemetery for additional grave sites. The surveyor followed the original layout, upon completion of the survey a map was drawn.
During a recent time of cemetery maintenance, ground level head stones were found eight inches below the soil surface. It is believed that these and other possible graves, were covered by dirt during the early 1930's when the lack of rain caused the dirt to be blown by the winds that blew across the great plains of the United States during the great dust bowl years.
Postville Cemetery