Cemetery tells Stillwater history - Stillwater, OK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

Stillwater's cemetery is Fairlawn Cemetery, and it's located on the southeast side of town: south of Highway 51 (6th Ave.), and east of Hwy 177 (Perkins Rd.).

Article text:

It is a sad fact that sometimes a cemetery is all that is remains of a once-hopeful town, and you will find a number of these scattered around rural Oklahoma.

Fortunately, Stillwater has thrived since its founding in1889, but its Fairlawn Cemetery helps recall much of its 126-year history.

Located on today’s East Sixth Avenue, Fairlawn Cemetery was founded very soon after Stillwater was established. Among the new town’s builders was Louis J. Jardot, who homesteaded in today’s southwest Stillwater.

He also founded a brickyard and built several early buildings. Among them was the Opera House, now the Antique Mall on Ninth Avenue.

Sadly, his little daughter Grace was one of the first people buried at Fairlawn.

Jacob Katz, another Stillwater pioneer, was a German immigrant who came to town in 1894 and founded Katz Department Store. Older residents remember him and his business fondly. Katz was buried in the Jewish section of Fairlawn in 1968, but his building, which now houses Brooklyn’s, has continued to serve Stillwater.

Many of our streets recall other city pioneers – Duck, Husband, Hester, Dryden, Arrington and McFarland – to name a few. A pioneer of another type who rests at Fairlawn is Jessie Thatcher (Bost), the first woman to graduate from Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Oklahoma State University.

Likewise, Ray Pence, the Stillwater fire chief who helped establish Stillwater and OAMC’s national reputation for modernizing fire protection, is buried there.

Fairlawn also testifies to Stillwater residents’ service in our nation’s military. A rectangular section set apart by a low stone wall and marked with a flag pole, two field pieces, and a stone eagle honors those who served in World War I.

One of them was 21-year-old Pvt. Ray Wesley Wilson, Company D, 80th Infantry, who died at Camp Logan, Houston, Texas, on Oct. 3, 1918. If you walk through the cemetery, you will see numerous headstones noting many others from Stillwater who served in our nation’s wars.

For example, Maj. George M. Berry, United States Air Force, served in the Korean War and World War II. Abner D. Bell served in Company L, Territorial Volunteer Infantry, during the Spanish American War.

The majority of Stillwater-area settlers were from states loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Most served in federal units raised in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan; but a few veterans were in units from as far away as New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The relative scarcity of Confederate veterans’ graves at Fairlawn is not surprising. To earn his Eagle rank, John Erickson of Boy Scout Troop 818 headed the project to erect a monument in memory of Civil War veterans. It provides their names, home states, and service to the Union or Confederacy. Listed among them is Mary J. Ross, a nurse, and John W. Thatcher, Sr., a Confederate veteran and the father of OSU’s Jessie Thatcher (Bost). Probably the senior veteran buried at Fairlawn was Sgt. Robert Tucker (1823-1907), Company A, 9th Illinois Infantry, who served in the Mexican War (1846-1848).

Fairlawn presents the visitor with many reminders of Stillwater’s history and the people who helped make its present. Here are many of the teachers, political leaders, business people, civic club leaders, athletes, authors, soldiers, Scout leaders and homemakers who contributed to the town’s character and growth.

There are several good books about Stillwater that recall its people and history. Fairlawn in its own way is another one.

Mary Jane Warde is a historian with the Payne County Historical Society.

Type of publication: Newspaper When was the article reported?: 08/27/2015 Publication: Stillwater News Press Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Society/People

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