Strawberry Creek Cemetery, Rio Blanco County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/rioblanco/cemeteries/strawbcreek.txt Contributed by Greg Berthelson...flinx@quik.com This cemetery is located north of intersection of State Highway 64 and County Road 7 at approximate geographical location Latitude N 40 degrees 6.696? Longitude W 107 degrees 107.57?. This excerpt from an article in the June 4, 1964 issue of THE MEEKER HERALD details: . . . those buried in the Strawberry Cemetery and whose names appear on the plaque are: Indianolo Shaw, Raymond Atkinson, Walter Atkinson, Adolph Pinkerman, Lusina Atkinson, Roberta Knettle, Mahlon N. Weller, Emma Janes Weller, Baby of Floyd Brown, Mabel Patterson, Della May Patterson, Chester Shaw, Baby of F. A. Brown, Arnold R. Atkinson, Gertie Brown, Baby McAlary, Edwin Shain.? To which a pioneer Brown daughter added the following details in an email on 27 Sep 2002, re-trancribed here: I have just found your entries in Rio Blanco County cemeteries and want to thank you for an excellent job. I would like to give you some clarification on the Strawberry Cemetery. My grandparents were Floyd and Gertie Brown who homesteaded across the valley on the west from this cemetery and I grew up there. I attended the old Strawberry School for several years that was located just in front of this cemetery. Among the burials there are listed Baby of Floyd Brown: The first one was Harold Brown born 22 May 1922, died 24 May 1922. The second one was Elsie Brown born 24 Jan 1924 died 24 Jan 1924. Gertie Brown was the wife of Floyd A. Brown, born 6 Sep 1886, died 25 Feb 1949 (Floyd Brown married again and is buried in the Petty Cemetery, Noel, McDonald county, Missouri.) Gertie Brown was the daughter of Edward C. Shain and Almira Jane Grinstead. You show ?Edwin Shain? -that is really Edward C. Shain. He was my great grandfather and I knew him. He was born 6 Jan 1861 in Missouri and died 3 Jun 1939. The Ray Shain who donated land for the Strawberry Cemetery and school was the son of the above Edward C. Shain. His name was Raymond R. Shain born 3 Feb 1888 and died 1983. He homesteaded on Strawberry Creek in 1917 at the same time Floyd and Gertie Shain homesteaded their land across the valley. He sold his homestead to Floyd Brown then returned to Missouri. Also buried in the Strawberry Cemetery is Dorothy Mae Brown Miniers, my mother. She was born 21 July 1912 and died 3 June 1988. She was the daughter of Floyd and Gertie Brown and lived in Meeker most of her life. Also buried at Strawberry is Floid Edward Witherell, my brother, born 25 April 1930 and died 14 May 1984. He was a veteran of the Korean War, US Air Force. I believe Thomas LaVern Lenderman (1945-1987) is buried there also. He is the son of Mary Ellen Brown Lenderman and Robert L. Lenderman. Mary Ellen is the daughter of Floyd and Gertie Brown and has lived in Meeker many, many years. And last there also is Douglas Dean Piper, son of Gertie M. Witherell, my sister. He was the son of Gertie M. Witherell and Peter D. Piper. As far as I know, this cemetery is still active and our family has ?unlimited? burial rights there. I remember as a child every Memorial Day, the family went to clean out the sagebrush, filled badger holes, and placed wild flowers on all the graves. I believe my sister Gertie who now owns and lives on the old Ray Shain homestead, has repaired and maintained the fences around the cemetery for many years. My nephew Joe Hefton made a hand carved sign for the gate but I do not know if it is still there. In Volume III of the ?This Is What I Remember? series, starting on page 45 is some of the history of Floyd and Gertie Brown. By the way, his name is shown as Floid, but in reality was Floyd. He preferred and usually used the initials F. A. My brother was named Floid so there would be a difference in their names. Funny how things get mixed up. My grandfather told me he did not like the ?y? in his name because it sounded ?sissy? and that was why he used ?F.A.? on almost everything. I hope this will be of some help to you and maybe make it easier for future generations who are ancestor hunting. I was a member of your Historical Society for a while, but living in Florida I never could attend a meeting. If someone will mail me a membership form again, I would to re-join. My roots will always be in Meeker. Good Luck and keep up the good work. Barbara E. Janowitz, P. O. Box 3928, Ocala, FL 34478 (Pbjanos@aol.com)? Many thanks for this additional detail and color, Barbara! Another burial for Howard James STANDFEST, born 12 Aug 1944, died 25 Apr 2001 in Grand Terrace, San Bernardino, California, was done under the auspices of his brother?s family, who are current residents of Strawberry Creek. Further information may be found in 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 Rio Blanco County Census Transcriptions found on rootsweb.com/~coriobla, (Strawberry enumeration precincts for 1930 were called White Rock) and from archived-to-CD ROM Meeker HERALD obituaries, from the publisher of the Rio Blanco HERALD-TIMES or the Meeker Public Library. Three color photographs of the Strawberry Cemetery have been placed on rootsweb.com/`usgenweb/co/costones/rioblanco referenced here courtesy of Jim Davenport. ***************************************************************************** Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) Archives and by the COGenWeb Project Archives USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial researchers, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for presentation in any form by any other organization or individual. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist. ******************************************************************************