Niles-Sprague Pioneer Cemetery, also known as Granny Sprague Pioneer Cemetery and The Linus Niles and Sprague Cemetery, is a small cemetery sandwiched between the highway and the railroad in Homestead, Iowa, the oldest colony in the Amana Colonies.

The only gravestone at “Iowa’s Smallest Cemetery” is for a child named Mary Wright, the six-year-old daughter of pioneers who settled here in 1850 before Homestead was established, when the area was known as Brush Run.

After spending a few years here, Mary is believed to have “developed a series of abscesses which eventually killed her.” Her original grave marker was painted as a preservation effort.

The history of the cemetery doesn’t appear to have been well-documented, and some of what is shared by locals seems to be rumor. Most locals seem to believe (and repeat) that Mary is the only one buried here. But there were wooden markers here at one point marking other graves.

Some say the other people buried here were removed and relocated, but there is no record of any disinterment here, and no one has an explanation for why Mary would have been the only one left. Her brother said she isn’t the only one buried here.

“The cemetery where she was buried had a great many people buried there. But in the primitive times of which we are talking, only wooden slats were used to mark the resting places of those who were buried there.”

Nate Wright as quoted in The Gazette

There are four PVC pipe crosses across from “The Little Grave on the Right of Way.” These crosses are a silent reminder that it’s not just Mary buried here. There is also an unmarked grave “off in pasture not far from” the cemetery for another member of the Wright family.

The railroad is credited with saving the grave of Mary Wright, but the reality appears to be that they disregarded an entire pioneer cemetery and built a railroad right though it.

“…the railroad company moved the roadbed south and cut through the cemetery, which accounts for [Mary’s] grave being on the right of way.”

Nate Wright as quoted in The Gazette

Mary is mentioned in a book called Ghosts of the Amana Colonies because some people have claimed that a bright blue light can be seen over Mary’s grave just before midnight every New Year’s Eve.

The railroad tracks come extremely close to this well-maintained cemetery.

The Wrights lived near where Mary is buried. The family log cabin and the Wright Stage Station they operated are said to have been where the highway is now.

Highway 6 next to the cemetery.

Why Niles-Sprague? Who is Linus Niles?

In 1811 Mary Jane “Polly” Ferguson married a man named Sanford Niles in Ohio. About four months later, a baby boy named Linus Niles was born. It was alleged that “Sanford and Polly never lived together [and] never recognized each other as husband and wife.” Both of them quickly married other people. But Sanford died in 1813, and Linus apparently received some monetary benefit from that.

Linus Niles died in 1853 and was probably buried in this cemetery that bears his name. After his death, paternity (and inheritance) became a very important subject in the Niles and Sprague families, and in court.

[Linus Sprague] was begotten before, but born after, the alleged marriage. The question to be determined is one of inheritance.

Niles v. Sprague, 1862

The court documents available online state that Polly married a man named Jonathan Sprague in 1813, but a census record from 1850 shows Mary Sprague living with Henry Sprague and and “Alinus” (Linus) Niles in Brush Run, the current site of Homestead.

Brush Run was completely different than Homestead is now. The Amana colonies hadn’t been formed yet, and the first settlers here were “very depraved.” Henry Sprague is mentioned in History of Iowa County, Iowa, and its people as selling “whiskey by the barrel” to Native Americans in Iowa causing “the red men to get offensive.” And other history books don’t shy away from the settlement’s debauched history.

“Brush Run was … the headquarters of drunkards and cut-throats.”

“Brush Run is scarcely any run at all. No creek or flow of water in Iowa county has witnessed so many deeds of love and hate, […] so many drunken revels and fights, so many suicides and murders.”

“A child six years of age was attacked with delirium tremens one day in November, 1857 at Brush Run. The father was in jail at Iowa City for selling whisky, and the mother, in a fit of drunkenness, had recently fallen and killed herself.”

“There were several murders and suicides at Brush Run of which we have not attempted to make mention.”

Source

The court documents state that Polly died in 1852, and her descendants say that she was buried at Niles-Sprague Cemetery in an unmarked grave. While there may be no official record of her burial, it makes sense that Granny Sprague would be buried at Granny Sprague Cemetery. Linus Niles died not long after his mother, and he was probably buried here too.

Based on the murders, suicides, and deaths that occurred in Brush Run, now Homestead, it’s very likely that Nate Wright was correct and that there were “many people buried” at Niles-Sprague Pioneer Cemetery.