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Contributed by
Judy Carlson, 2000
One day as my husband and I were returning from Yankton, we drove up by the lake areas and then headed home. We started down a gravel road heading south. I was enjoying seeing country that was unfamiliar to me and suddenly on the side of the road was a cemetery. I had heard of Frankfort Cemetery but had not yet located it. I knew I wouldn’t rest until I researched the history of the Frankfort Cemetery.
John and Lena Buhrow came to Knox County in 1865 to homestead land. At this time their only neighbor was three miles away. Soon other settlers arrived. Hardships and hard times fell on these pioneers. The Metzlers would soon bury their infant twins in the corner of their land where the unbroken sod resisted this interruption.
Tragedy struck the Buhrow family when a prairie fire caught one of their little ones. Her father was unable to save the child as she perished in front of him. To the day that John Buhrow died, his hands and wrists bore the scars of the burns received in putting out the flames from her clothes and hair. She was laid to rest near the Metzler twins.
Prior to 1883 church services were held in homes with a preacher traveling from Yankton, SD. By this time other burials had taken place on the Metzler land. John and Lena Buhrow donated 2 acres of land in Section 33 to the Trustees of the Evangelical Association of Nebraska Conference so that a church would be built near what was quickly becoming a cemetery. A church was built and dedicated in 1884.
In 1887 Louis and Marie Metzler donated a tract of land in the SW corner of Section 27 to the Frankfort Cemetery Association. By this time there were at least eleven burials. Some of those early burials are: Bartz, Brownsroth, Buhrow, Metzler, Mischke, Renner, Schroeder, Sonvam, and Tripp and Zurcher.
Several were added in 1895 due to the diptheria epidemic. One stone bears the names of three children of the Garnjobst family. Alwin age 9 died Jan 7, Ellad age 4 died Jan 8, and Emil age 2 died Jan 16. My heart cries for this mother that lost so much.
There are approximately 120 burials in the Frankfort Cemetery. The church has recently been sold and has been made into a home. It is worth your drive to visit here. It is located 5 miles north of Crofton on highway 121 and 2 miles west.
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