Wakefield Cemetery
Wakefield Cemetery, also called Butts Cemetery and Butts-Wakefield Cemetery, in rural Butler County has around 100 known burials. There’s a the large monument at the front of the cemetery bearing the name Wakefield Cemetery that shares some of the cemetery’s history. It reads as follows:
David G. Butts, a Civil War soldier, emigrated from Kentucky with his wife Rachel to homestead this land in 1870. This plot was first used in 1873 as a community burial ground.
Their daughter and her husband Minnie and William Wakefield bought the farm in 1906, dedicating the cemetery for public use in 1908.
After the death of her husband in 1909, Minnie operated and lived on the farm until her death in 1970. Her life of 96 years spanned the interval from ox power to man’s walk on the surface of the moon.
This marker is erected in 1971 by Pearl Kennedy and Earl F. Wakefield, children of Minnie and William.
The monument tells a story of resilient pioneers who saw America’s incredible progress in less than a century. The rest of the stones at Wakefield Cemetery give the names, birth and death dates of other individuals who settled here. Some were lucky enough to see the same level of progress that Minnie saw, and others were not.
The Butts
David Green Butts was born on November 25, 1848 in Casey county, Kentucky. He was the second of ten children born to Priscilla Patsey Humphrey and Archibald Green Butts. David was a member of the 13th Kentucky Calvary Regiment, serving the Union Army during 1864. After the war, the Greens left Kentucky for Kansas. The group were likely temporarily settled in Miami county as early as 1868.
David married Rachel Ellen Hermon in May 1870 and together they settled in Butler county in October 1870 a few miles west of Leon. At that time, the town of Leon was just prairie land with a few scattered houses.
David and Rachel homesteaded the land where the cemetery is, “enduring the many hardships of the pioneers. Three times they almost lost everything by fire, but through all they persevered and cheerily made the best of their hardships.” [The Augusta Bugle]
They farmed that northeast corner of section twenty-four in Spring Township for eleven years before moving a few miles east. The Butts grew wheat and oats and raising sheep, cattle, and horses.
Rachel gave birth to thirteen children at their homes in Butler county, eleven of which survived to adulthood. Their third oldest, Minnie, is the one who took ownership of the farm and cemetery with her husband William Wakefield in 1906.
David and Rachel relocated to another plot of land just southeast of Leon after eleven years. This is where they lived until their deaths.
David’s brother, John Humphrey Butts, became “one of the largest and most successful business men of southern Kansas, merchant, banker, lumber dealer, large free-holder and builder and owner of the Butts building of Wichita.” [KSGenWeb] John had his named inscribed on a once-prominent building in Wichita, and his former home in Wichita is on the National Register of Historic Places. He passed on his business and fortune to his son, Jacob Archibald Butts, or J. Arch Butts, who also has a building in Wichita on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Burials
Two members of the Butts family died within two months of each other in 1873, and both were buried on the northeast corner of David Butts’ farm, now Wakefield Cemetery.
The first burial here was six-month-old Crinie May Butts, Rachel and David’s second child. Crinie shares a spot on the family stone with her sister, Myriam.
David and Rachel are buried in the same plot, and their names are on the other side of the family stone.
The second burial here was Logan Butts, David’s five-year-old brother. David and Logan were born twenty years apart, and their mother was 42 when Logan born. He’s buried in David and Rachel’s family plot. David would later name one of his sons Logan.
The third burial at Wakefield Cemetery was Cleopatra Ballow, an infant who was likely a relative of Rachel Butts. An article in the Leon Indicator from 1882 documents a familial relationship between Mrs. J.L. Ballow and Mrs. W.C. (Minnie) Butts. Cleopatra’s stone is behind the Butts family stone in David and Rachel’s family plot.
Also in David and Rachel’s family plot is a large gravestone for Joel Bailey Wood. His daughter, Susanna, married David’s brother William in Kentucky in 1873. Susanna and William were living in Butler county in 1880, but Joel was living in Kentucky. He wasn’t in Butler county very long before he died.
The third and fourth burials here, Luther and Charles Calvert, also briefly lived in Miami county around the same time as David and Rachel Butts, and they would have just arrived in Spring township when Luther died. The fifth burial was for a German woman named Mary Britting. The Brittings were neighbors of the Butts, and they also have a large family plot in the cemetery.
There are quite a few unmarked graves at Wakefield Cemetery, and lack of official records leave many questions about who is actually buried here. Some people who are likely buried here in unmarked graves include:
- Samuel Peter Gahm, son of John Gahm, was said to be “buried in the Butts cemetery near Leon, beside his baby and his father and mother” in 1907. [El Dorado Republican] But he has a marker at Chelsea Cemetery in El Dorado. Samuel’s wife was Sarah Henderson, and her father Isaac Thomas Henderson is buried at Wakefield Cemetery.
- Samuel and Sarah Gahm’s baby, mentioned in Samuel’s obituary who died sometime between 1901 and 1907. [El Dorado Republican]
- Mary Gahm, wife of John Gahm, died in 1901 and it was reported that she “will be laid to rest by the side of her husband in what is known as the Butts cemetery.” [Walnut Valley Times] After her funeral, it was reported that “she was laid to rest in the Butts cemetery. [El Dorado Republican]
- Charles Newton died in Potwin, but it was reported that “he was buried in the Butts cemetery near Leon.” [The Butler County Democrat]
- Helen Edna Schooler died at age 13 from influenza in 1919 and “interment was made in the Butts cemetery.” [The Latham Advisor] Because she lived in Beaumont, it’s likely that this meant the Butts Family Cemetery (now Maple Grove Cemetery), but she has no marker there either.
- The father of F.S. Dawson died in 1879 and was buried in Butts Cemetery. Dawson was “having a monument erected at his father’s grave” at the cemetery in 1906. [El Dorado Daily Republican] But there is no monument with the name Dawson at Wakefield Cemetery.
It’s also possible these individuals were once buried at Wakefield Cemetery and later moved, which isn’t always public knowledge. There was an infant buried here in 1876 that was moved after 32 years to Leon Cemetery.
The cemetery was not dedicated for public use until 1908. This could mean that every burial at this cemetery until 1908 was a friend or family member of someone related to David or Rachel Butts.
Minnie Butts-Wakefield and her husband William are buried here with their daughter, Fern who was just a few months old when she died, just a year after the family moved to the farm. William died just two years later from “paralysis of the brain.”
Minnie farmed the land for over 60 years. She lived at the original family homestead with the cemetery until her death in 1970. Minnie and William’s other children Jay, Earl and Pearl are also buried at Wakefield Cemetery.
Additional Resources
Contributed, Leon Indicator, Jan 6, 1882
Obituary for David Green Butts, The Augusta Bugle, Jul 1, 1915
An Unusual Year For The Joe Butts Family, The Leon News, Apr 11, 1930
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