Nebraskaland

Nebraskaland November 2020

NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.

Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1303636

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November 2020 • Nebraskaland 47 The bones were buried later in a communal graveyard. The practice of cemetery burial by these prehistoric people indicate their deep regard for the afterlife." By this point in the day, with the light fading, I caught myself speeding to read one more marker before I headed back to my real world. The Ox- Bow Trail welcomed me in Ashland, marking the route that carried thousands of settlers West beginning in the 1840s and a quick history lesson on a body of water that had been an afterthought for years. "Just west of here was an important ford across Salt Creek, where limestone ledges form a natural low-water bridge." Before I fi nished my drive home, I refreshed the app and was given an entirely new set of markers a short distance away, including the Armour and Company Icehouse northwest of Memphis. The discovery was a well- needed escape for me. The following afternoon I needed another short adventure after we couldn't throw strikes. I found myself at the New Pennsylvania Cemetery just east of Gretna. I read the marker, as I had the others on my brief adventure, but then went even farther and started walking through the cemetery. Headstones from the 1800s littered the area, some fi ghting to stand upright and others leaning against the closest tree. Then I saw a small row of fi ve headstones, each equal in height and symmetry, and I reluctantly walked toward them. Between the 1870s and the early 1890s, A.J. and H.F. Rishel tried to start or extend their family, yet at least fi ve times they lost a child — from birth all the way through 7 years old. With an 11-year-old, 8-year-old and 1-year- old, each with their own distinct personality, of my own, I couldn't help but realize my own sports stupidity, where throwing strikes and catching pop fl ies didn't mean as much as it did 10 minutes before. What fi lled my thoughts now were questions. Who were these people? Did they have other kids who lived? Were the parents buried there? If not, why? Upon returning to my house, I found myself researching the Gretna Public Library and ancestry.com looking for answers as well as other knowledge about those buried there. I came to fi nd out 72 people are buried in the New Pennsylvania Cemetery, yet only 53 are marked. In a sense, I had visited two mass gravesites in the past two days, with a lot more questions than answers in my mind. It was an adventure in the truest sense of the word. It was mysterious, thought-provoking and intelligent. And it was in my own backyard. Or, as far as I wanted to drive across Nebraska. N The New Pennsylvania Cemetery is a remarkable display of Nebraska history in my own backyard of Gretna. Th The Ne P w Penn l sylvania Cemetery is a rema k rkabl ble di di l splay f of N b Nebraska hi histor i y in my own backya d rd f of Gretna.

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