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Submitted: 10/9/17 • Approved: 11/29/21 • Last Updated: 12/2/21 • R318218-G0-S3
The first cemetery established by Czechs did not remain wholly Czech. It is called Jindra's cemetery, because it adjoins the homestead of Joseph Jindra, near Crete, Saline County. Mrs. Mary Jelinek of Crete, widow of Frank Jelinek, one of the very first pioneers there, writes:
"The day following the arrival of the first band of settlers, in November, 1865, old Mrs. Krajnik died during a snow storm, as recorded in the history of Saline County. The men made a coffin out of a wagon box and buried the corpse on the bank of the Big Blue river. A few days later the three-year-old daughter of my brother-in-law Joseph Jelinek died and was buried the same way, as was the body of a Mr. Aksamit, who met death by drowning. In 1868 my grandfather died and my father-in-law, Vaclav Jelinek, who did not want him to be buried thus too, donated ten acres for a cemetery. By 1872 five bodies had been buried there. The settlers increased and so the members of the Reading Society (established by Joseph Jindra as recorded in the chapter on organizations) met in our home, about twenty of them, to arrange for the proper founding of the cemetery. They decided to buy forty acres from my father-in-law and contributions to the amount of $600.00 were subscribed. My father-in-law agreed to sell, provided a Czech cemetery be established. However, before a second meeting could be held, Bowlby and Fuller of Crete called and desired that a general cemetery be established, for those of any nationality, inasmuch as there was no cemetery in the vicinity. A meeting was called for the purpose of deciding this, some were pro, some con. Shares were sold at $10.00, officers elected, Bowlby was made secretary. A diptheria epidemic raged among the children at the time and quite a number of new inhabitants were added to the cemetery. During the following three or four years the cemetery was constantly used by all, but about that time Mr. Jesse C. Bickle, whose homestead is part of the site of the town of Crete, donated a portion of his land for another cemetery. He agreed to donate free lots to those who would first bury there and thus many moved there. Bowlby kept the old cemetery and rented twenty acres of it out. After his death his sons considered it their legacy and wanted to sell the cemetery for $3000.00. In the summer of 1926 the matter was tried in court and the cemetery won. There are about a hundred people buried in this first (originally) Czech cemetery in Nebraska.
The Jindra Cemetery, laid out in 1873, was known as Maple Grove Cemetery. It is situated on the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 2, township 7, north of range 4, east of the 6th P. M. Saline county, Nebraska., being approximately one and one-half miles south and east of Crete. The above forty acre tract was conveyed, November 26, 1873, by Wencl Jelinek and Annie Jelinek, his wife, to the directors of the said Maple Grove Cemetery, namely: G. W. Bridges, Charles Little, James Donnelly, J. R. Webster, and E. O. Wallace.
The Riverside Cemetery was platted September 13, 1879. The first addition to this cemetery was platted October 13, 1884; the second, August 30, 1887; the third, August 4, 1888, and the fourth, June 23, 1920.
Mr. Jesse C. Bickle laid out Riverside Cemetery in 1879, it being twenty acres in southeast corner of section 28, township 8. range 4. After Mr. Bickle had platted the cemetery he offered cemetery lots free of charge to those who had people buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, better known to the people of Crete as “Jindra Cemetery.” Quite a number availed themselves of the opportunity and many bodies were removed to Riverside.
The Riverside Cemetery was managed by Mr. J. C. Bickle until his death in 1885, after which his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Bickle took charge until her death in 1900. She willed the cemetery to her brother, Mr. I. F. Hunt, who managed it until 1910. In 1910 Mr. Theo. Haden Sr. purchased the cemetery from Mr. Hunt and is in charge at the present time.
Contributed on 10/9/17 by confederate_wolfe
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Record #: 318218