History of the Marshall Cemetery

First Settlers Arrive

The first settlers on the present site of Marshall were W.H. Langdon, C.H. Whitney and C.H. Upton. They arrived in June 1869 and built sod shanties for homes. The village of Marshall was platted in August 1872 when the Winona and St. Peter Railroad was established through Lake Marshall Township. Marshall became official when the Act of Incorporation for the Town of Marshall was approved on February 17, 1876.

Marshall Cemetery Established

The Marshall Cemetery was established soon after the arrival of the first settlers (the earliest burial we have found in our records occurred in 1871) and was overseen by the Lake Marshall Township Board who had laid out the original blocks and lots and planted some of the trees still present in the cemetery today.  By the mid 1890’s Lake Marshall Township no longer wanted the responsibility of maintaining the cemetery.

At the request of the Township Board, the Marshall Cemetery Association was created as a nonprofit corporation on October 29, 1897. The Lake Marshall Township donated the entire 40-acre plot of land the cemetery was located on to the Association, to be used for burials and to generate income to maintain the cemetery into the future. In 1937, the Cemetery Association added another 9 acres along the south side of the cemetery. Those 49 acres comprise the extent of the cemetery as it exists today. Currently, approximately 30 acres of the cemetery property have been developed for burials.

Interesting Facts

There are over 5,200 people recorded as buried in the cemetery as of the end of December 2025. Each has a story to tell.  Here are some of them.

The first person found in our records to have been buried in the cemetery was Lyman D. Wright who died in 1871 at 70 years of age. He was buried in Block 15, Lot 9, Grave 1. When his daughter died in 1932, his name was added to her family monument (Block 15, Lot 9, Graves 7 & 8) and a permanent marker was placed on his grave. However, both monuments incorrectly state he died in 1877

The oldest person (based on date of birth) known to be buried in the cemetery is Martha Gibbs (1789-1874) in Block 15, Lot 6, Grave 6.  This does not mean she was the oldest, only the oldest one that we have determined thus far in searching our records. Martha was born in 1789, two years after the U.S. Constitution was written and in the same year that it became the governing document of our country. She was 10 years old when George Washington died in 1799. She was buried prior to the establishment of the Marshall Cemetery Association. (In those years, Lake Marshall Township Board was managing the cemetery, and our records have very little data from that time period.)

Major John Winslow Blake is the only Marshall co-founder to be buried in our cemetery (Block 21, Lot 12, Grave 2). John W. Blake was born in 1839 and grew up in Wisconsin. He was educated at Milton Academy and the University of Wisconsin and, by profession, was a civil engineer. When the Civil War broke out he joined as a private for three months and then re-enlisted for three years. By the end of the war he had risen to the rank of Major.

In 1872 Major Blake joined the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company as a civil engineer and assisted in the location and construction of the Winona and St. Peter Railroad from New Ulm to South Dakota. Major Blake was at the home of Charles H. Whitney, post master of Lake Marshall Township, when Mrs. Whitney was asked to determine the name for a new town that would be developed here. Her choice was “Marshall”. Major Blake moved from Chicago that same summer and bought the land on which part of Marshall would be build. He continued to live in Marshall until 1891 when he moved to Dalton, Georgia.

A proud veteran of the Civil War, Major Blake was also one of the founders of Marshall’s D. F. Markham Post No.7, Grand Army of the Republic.  He requested that upon his death in 1903, his body be brought back to Marshall and be buried here with his G.A.R. comrades.

In 1882, Andrew and Anna Nelson lost five children in two months due to scarlet fever: on Feb. 27th, Willie A., age 7, and Marie Josephine, age 9; on March 4th, Custer Daniel, age 2, and Louis J., age 13; and March 13th, Clara Emilie, age 14. There were 14 deaths recorded in 1882, and 9 were from scarlet fever. The Nelson family monument is located in Block 31, Lot 10, Graves 4-8.  The children’s graves were not marked. 

Harriet Tucker (1819-1908) is credited as one of the founders of the Institute for the Blind at Faribault, Minnesota. In 1864, while riding in a stage with state Senator J.V. Daniels, Secretary of State David Blakeley, and eventual Lieutenant Governor Thomas Armstrong, she planted the idea of a school for the blind. With their help and by writing letters to other senators, the school became a reality two years later. At that time, she was elected by the trustees of the institution to be the first principal. Her monument is in Block 10, Lot 11, Grave 2.

Military Veterans

The Marshall Cemetery is the final resting place of over 530 American veterans, as of Jan 1, 2026. While many served honorably during times of peace, our veterans include:

  • 1 War of 1812 veteran
  • 70 World War I veterans
  • 60+ Korean War veterans
  • 97 Civil War veterans
  • 200+ World War II veterans
  • 40+ Vietnam War veterans

There are two veterans from the war of 1812 buried in Lyon County; one is buried in Russell and one in our cemetery. Thomas Hicks was first buried elsewhere in 1873 or 1874 (probably in the original Catholic cemetery) and was moved here in 1911. (Block 50, Lot 3, Grave 5.)

There are a nearly 100 Veterans of the Civil War buried here. The Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of Union (Northern) veterans of the Civil War was organized in 1866 in Illinois. By the 1880’s there were more than 400,000 members across the U.S.  Marshall’s D. F. Markham G.A.R. Post No.7 was active well into the 1930’s.  Under the large tree near the center of our cemetery, an area was originally reserved for members of the G.A.R. However, many Civil War veterans chose to be buried in family plots and their markers can be found throughout the cemetery.  In April 1941, Markham Post member Pvt. George S. Mead became the last Union Civil War veteran buried in Lyon County.  He rested in an unmarked grave in his family plot (Block 25, Lot 7, Grave 5) until the summer of 2025, when the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War worked with the Cemetery Board to honor him with a proper headstone and special G.A.R. star recognizing him as Lyon County’s last Union soldier. (Note the old cast iron or newer black and silver G.A.R. stars at the graves of our Civil War veterans.)

George Mathews was a member of the D. F. Markham Post No. 7, Grand Army of the Republic and is buried in the area reserved for members (Block 24, Lot 6, Grave 2).  On George’s headstone is a record of his service to our nation. It shows that he was already a veteran of three separate wars prior to serving in the Union Army in the Civil War (called the “War of Rebellion” on his monument). He first enlisted in 1840 and fought in the Seminole war in Florida for five years. In 1847 he re-enlisted for the Mexican war.  He served again briefly during the 1862 Indian Uprising in Minnesota, before enlisting in the 1st Minnesota Mounted Rangers, serving in the Civil War. Over his career, Mr. Mathews enlisted five different times and received six discharges.

Two of our veterans died in the fighting in World War I. Luther Snapp (Block 48, Lot 8, Grave 2) was killed in action on July 28, 1918, and was buried in France. Earl Jackson (Block 56, Lot 9, Grave 1) was killed in action on October 7, 1918, and was also buried in France. After the war, at the family’s request, the bodies were brought back to Marshall for burial. The funeral service was handled by the Luther I. Snapp Post of the American Legion on August 7, 1921. The funeral was so large that it was held outside on the courthouse lawn. You can see pictures of the funeral procession at the Lyon County Museum.