If you want to do history, local history, and especially family history, you are going to have to spend some time in a cemetery. Cemeteries can be treasure troves of information and they can provide countless clues that will lead to the discovery and, ideally, the telling of some good stories.
There are many cemeteries in Marquette County, and they are all dying to reveal their information and secrets and make their contribution to the history of this part of Wisconsin. There are the larger cemeteries in the towns and cities. There are dozens of smaller cemeteries that dot the landscape of the rural areas. There are the little hidden gems that you can’t see from the road, hidden in a clump of trees or in some corner of a farmer’s field. This is a story about one of those cemeteries and of a little girl who is buried there. Her name is Ruth.
On November 29, 1921 “the undersigned citizens of Marquette County came together for the purpose of forming a cemetery association.” The undersigned were Otto Henke, Erwin Jaster, Rudolph Jaster, John Markofske, G. A. Schumann, Wm. Schumann, Theo Zabel, and Wm. Zimmerman. More than likely it was in the home of one of the participants. Where the meeting was held is not known, but the signees were all from the townships of Montello, Mecan, and Shields. They agreed that the corporate name of the proposed cemetery association would be the East Side (two words) Cemetery Association.
A week later, on December 5th, the elected secretary, Erwin Jaster, “went before the village board of Montello to get permission to lay out a cemetery one hundred and sixty (160) rods from the village limits.” Permission was granted. The location chosen was on farmland owned by Rudolph Jaster, and on December 6th, the association board agreed to pay him $175 for it. Full burial lots would be sold for $15 with a half lot priced at $8. In July the following year, a committee of two, Otto Henke and Erwin Jaster, would “see to the plowing and seeding of the cemetery plot to the best of their ability.”
It would be three more years before East Side Cemetery would have its first customer. As it turned out, the first burial lot was purchased by the same man who helped found the cemetery and first plowed up the ground. Little could Erwin Jaster know that he was plowing up the ground where he would soon be burying the body of his deceased adopted daughter. Her name was Ruth Jaster.
There have been some misunderstandings about the East Side cemetery over the years. The first is the spelling. Is it one word or two? The official handwritten cemetery association minutes argues for two words.
Then there is the notion that this is the Lutheran Cemetery. It is true that all the original signees were associated with the Emmanuel, Mecan/St. John’s, Montello Lutheran parish, but the church does not own the cemetery, never has, and has no say in its doings.
Finally, there has been a story that the reason the cemetery was established was that a burial place was needed for the little Jaster girl who suddenly and tragically died. The truth of the matter is that the cemetery was not made for Ruth. It is true, however, that she is the first one to be interred in it. That leads to her sad story.
The Montello Express of Friday, June 5, 1925 sums it up rather succinctly. “A very sad accident happened here Tuesday evening when Ruth, the six-year-old adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Erwin Jaster was drowned in the Montello River just below the first bridge on lower Main Street.” It seems that Ruth along with her father and brother were paying an evening visit to the grandparents (Rudolph and Carrie Jaster) who had moved off the farm and were living in a house along the river. The newspaper article goes on to explain. “The little boy and girl went fishing near the house. The little girl was in a boat which was pulled up onto the bank close to the water’s edge and the boy was some distance from her and did not know she had fallen into the river. When Mr. Jaster got ready to start home, he called both children, but only the boy answered to his call. A search was immediately started for the missing girl, and about an hour later her body was found in the river.” A call to the doctor was too late to be of help. Drowning was listed as the official cause of death with exhaustion contributing. Rev. Paul Hartwig of St. John’s Lutheran Church comforted the family at her funeral on Thursday.
Ruth Catherine Jaster was born on October 26, 1919 and she died at the tender age of 6 years, 3 months, and 5 days. “Her remains were interred in the new cemetery east of the village.”
Little Ruth Jaster’s grave in East Side Cemetery stood alone for only a few months. 60-year-old Emma Timm Hoffmann joined Ruth a little more than a month later in July. It has since been joined by many others over the years. A small, simple stone inscribed with her name and her short life span can be found in the family plot in the northwest corner.
So, if you are driving by or happen to visit East Side Cemetery, be sure to stop and pay your respects to Ruth.
Sources: The Montello Express, Friday June 5, 1925 give the details of the accident. The minutes and other records of the East Side Cemetery Association are currently (March 2021) located in the St. John’s Lutheran Church Archives in Montello. The author also spoke with the late Joel Jaster, wife Terri, and son Ben, who made the cemetery records accessible to the author.
The above story has been published in Our Favorite Tales of Marquette County …Preserving History One story at a Time.
Montello East Side Cemetery 