Catholic (Assumption) Cemetery
Hartford, Lyon County, Kansas

The Catholic Cemetery is located about 2 miles south of Hartford, Lyon County, Kansas on Highway 95 and Angus Road. It is about 2-3 acres and is still an active cemetery. It is beautifully kept in this prairie location. I visited the cemetery in mid-August and was greeted by a young stray dog and plenty of giant grasshoppers.

The headstones are remarkably well preserved in the cemetery. There is absolutely no evidence of vandalism, just the ravages of time in some cases. There are many granite stones which will probably look the same in 100 years as they did 100 years ago. Several of the graves had recognition markers, i.e veterans, G.A.R., etc., which were all metal markers stuck in the ground near the headstone. Remarkably these were intact, as were metal funeral home markers used pending placement of a stone. Some of the latter were several years old.

There were two very unusual headstones of a type I had never seen before. They appeared to be sandstone or a similar base and actually glazed white. One featured a scroll on which lettering had been painted by hand then glazed over. Both of these two stones were really beautiful.

In the center of the cemetery is a raised meditation area surrounded by shrubs, which rises about 8-10" from the ground. Rows run parallel to Angus Road. There is room for at least three more complete rows in the cemetery, as well as a considerable number of gaps between plots.

Starting in the northwest corner on the back row and working back and forth, snakewise:

Row 1