New Virginia Cemetery

NEW VIRGINIA (Beymer) cemetery is located in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 28 of Virginia Township. It is one-eighth mile south and one-eighth mile west of New Virginia, Iowa. From Interstate 35 exit on Highway 207 and go east for three miles to arrive at the cemetery.

Land for the cemetery was given by Joseph & Rebecca Knotts in the following Quit Claim Deed:
Joseph Knotts to Trustees of Virginia Tp.
Quit Claim Deed:Know all men by these presents that we, Joseph Knotts & Rebecca Knotts, husband & wife, of Pottawattamie County and State of Iowa in consideration of the sum of five dollars in hand, paid by A. L. Thompson, Lee Gamble and J. F. Hylton, Trustees of Virginia Township of Warren County and State of Iowa do hereby sell and quit claim unto the said A. L. Thompson, Lee Gamble, and J. F. Hylton, Trustees of Virginia Township, the following described premises situated in the County of Warren and State of Iowa to wit: Commencing forty three and one third (43 1/3) rods west of the south east corner of the south east quarter of the south east quarter of sect. (28) twenty eight, township seventy four (74), range twenty five (25), west of (5) fifth principal meridian and running north four hundred and eighteen feet , thence  west two hundred and nine feet, thence south four hundred and eighteen feet, thence east two hundred and nine feet to the place of beginning, containing two acres more or less. And the said Rebecca Knotts hereby relinquishes her right of dower in and to the above described premises.
Signed  this 7th day of July A.D. 1879
Joseph Knotts, Rebecca Knotts
State of Iowa, Clark County
On this 7th day of July 1879 before me, L.W. Ross, a Notary Public within and for said county, personally came Joseph Knotts and Rebecca Knotts, husband & wife, personally to me known to be the identical persons whose names are affixed to the above instruments as grantors and severally acknowledged the execution of the same to be their voluntary act and deed for the purposes therein expressed. In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my official seal at Council Bluffs on the date last about written. L. W. Ross, Notary Public
Filed for Record the 24th day of Nov. 1879 at 2 o’clock P.M., M. W. Judkins, Recorder

The first known death in the new Virginia community was an unknown man, a stranger passing through. He was never identified. Some accounts say that people traveling in a covered wagon left the gravely ill man at a hotel there, where he died. In 1938 Alonzo E. Sayre said that the man died at the home of William Read. Robert Irwin said the man was found in a camp in the draw to the south of the cemetery and was carried to the top of the hill and buried. In any event, the stranger was buried in a cleared area in a spot which became the New Virginia Cemetery. In 1953 a collection was taken and a stone was purchased for the man's grave. The inscription on the stone reads: An unknown Pioneer Man First burial in this Cemetery, 1854 Erected, 1953 By Kind Hearted People
In December, 1854, the first known person was interred in the New Virginia Cemetery. Eliza Jane Stickel died December 6, 1854, at the age of five months and six days. She was the daughter of Nicholas E. and Martha Ann Proudfoot Stickel. Her stone is under a tree in the north central part of the cemetery and the markings on the stone are still very readable. The citizens of the community erected a soldier's monument which stands on the west side of the cemetery drive. The inscription reads: "In memory of the Soldiers Who Gave Their All for Home, Fireside and Liberty. Erected by the citizens of New Virginia and Community." The Honorable William Shane Beardsley is buried in the cemetery. He was Governor of Iowa and was nearing the end of his term when he was killed in an auto accident in November, 1954.

View records submitted to the Iowa Gravestone Project for New Virginia Cemetery.