Ott Cemetery, Hamilton, Kansas

Ott Cemetery, also known as Hamilton Cemetery, is small rural cemetery located in rural Greenwood county near the declining city of Hamilton. There has not been a burial at this cemetery in over 100 years.

The bleak landscape is dotted with less than 60 gravestones laid out in no particular order. Many others are buried here in unmarked, or once marked, graves.

The oldest gravestone here is for a child named Hannah Criswell who died in 1866. The next few to be buried here were members of William Ott’s family. William homesteaded the land in 1858 and donated a portion of it for a cemetery.

William Ott

William Ott (Wilhelm Johann Ott) was born in Germany in 1829 and came to America in 1850 when he was 21 years old. The German immigrant first settled in Illinois and then Ohio before coming to Kansas in 1858. It’s said that he walked from Ohio to Greenwood county driving a cow and carrying a pair of shoes, some seed potatoes, and a Bible.

William settled in an area now known as Hamilton (once called Fullerton) in Greenwood county. He received his homestead certificate signed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1869.

“East half of the north east quarter of section fourteen and the west half of the north west quarter of section thirteen, in township twenty-four south of range eleven east, in the district of lands subject to sale at Humboldt, Kansas containing one hundred and sixty acres.” Source

William was involved in many aspects of the small town. In addition to providing the community with a burial ground, he served as School District 43’s treasurer and Hamilton’s city controller at different times. He was also heavily involved with the Methodist church; the first fundraising effort for the church was in the form of a supper at the Ott farm, and William was one of the men who built the church in 1884. His life was said to have been “one of intense religious experience.”

William owned most of the land south of Hamilton in 1903, outlined in green. The cemetery is circled in blue. Source

William had a large enough farm to be used for Greenwood county’s first county convention in August 1862. An 1877 map showing all of Greenwood County shows his farm outside Hamilton, one of just a few farms in Janesville Township large enough to appear on a map of that scale. An illustration of his farm was included in L.H. Everts’ 1887 map of Greenwood county.

Dave Rumsey Map Collection

William’s name appears on the list of men who served with the Greenwood County Militia in 1863. These jayhawkers manned Fort Montgomery in Eureka and, with weapons furnished by the federal government, they protected Kansas against border ruffians and bushwhackers from Missouri.

William was married three times. His first wife Caroline, also a German immigrant, died shortly after giving birth to their second child in 1867. His second wife Drucilla died in 1880 from typhoid fever and left “a family of twelve children.” He married his third wife Irene when she was 47 and he was 55. She died in 1904 after suffering for seven years with an undisclosed illness that rendered her unable to walk.

William met and married all three of his wives in Kansas. All of them lived and died on his farm and all of them are buried here in the family plot.

William Ott family plot

William got sick around 1894, and he gave up farming and sold all of his livestock and farming equipment. The rest of his life was spent alternating between relaxing at home and traveling to visit friends and relatives.

When William died in 1909, school was dismissed early for his funeral. The old stone schoolhouse was said to be the second in Hamilton and it was often called “Ott’s School” as it was at one time located on Ott property. One of his daughters, Daisy, was teaching there at the time, and there were at least nine Ott children attending the school that year.

Democratic Messenger, Eureka, KS, March 4, 1909

William died in 1909 at age 79 and was buried at Ott Cemetery in the family plot with his three wives.

Other Otts at Ott Cemetery

This pile of gravestones in the corner of the William Ott family plot is for William’s father Michael who died in 1875, his mother Eva who died in 1867, and his brother Abraham who died in 1882.

Nora and Ollie Ott were twins who died three days apart a few months after their first birthday in 1881. They were probably children of William and Drucilla, but the only record of their births are these stones. Drucilla died less than three months after these twins were born.

Thomas Waverly Ott is in a separate plot from William Ott’s immediate family. He was William’s nephew, the son of his brother Fred and wife Etta. Thomas died of “bowel complaint and convulsions” in 1892. His parents are buried in nearby Janesville Cemetery, and no one else appears to be buried near him.

Other Gravestones at Ott Cemetery

William Goodnight was an early pioneer in Greenwood county, settling here as early as 1859. He mustered in with the 11th Kansas Infantry, Company H in August 1862 at Topeka, Kansas. Goodnight’s burial here was well-documented, but the VA shipped a “replacement” gravestone for him in a different cemetery 100 miles away. You can read more about that here. Goodnight’s wife Eliza and father are also buried here, but their graves are unmarked.

Charles Swain Lawhon died after sustaining injuries from a fall at age 81. He was said to be “a good citizen and highly respected.” Like William Goodnight, Charles also has a replacement gravestone, but it’s here on his grave.

Original gravestone.

Replacement gravestone.

Bertie Wheeler, 6 months, 30 days.

Nelson Edwin Sandberg, 1 year, 11 months, 2 days.

Most of the graves at Ott Cemetery are in good condition, but the grave of infant twins Ina and Paul Myers has been completely destroyed. The babies died within a month of one another in 1889.

Paul’s name is on the other side of this broken gravestone.

Henry Hamilton Hicklin has one of the oldest gravestones in at Ott Cemetery. He was the son of a doctor and served with the 36th Indiana Infantry.

Peanut butter crackers for Henry, 47 years, 11 months, 12 days.

“Thy will be done.”

Potential Unmarked Graves at Ott Cemetery

The History of Greenwood County Vol. I reminds us that early Kansas cemeteries marked graves with “native stone or wood” and how “time has a way of changing things left in the wind and weather.” Likewise, if original burial records for Ott Cemetery existed, they have also been lost to time.

There are quite a few people buried here in unmarked graves. Some believed to be buried here have no grave marker and the only record of their death is a sentence in the newspaper.

Frank and Ella Marshall’s baby died in 1883 and was said to be buried at Ott Cemetery. Frank and Ella are buried at Graceland Cemetery in Meade, Kansas, but there’s no marker or memorial for their baby at either cemetery.

The Greenwood County Democrat, Eureka, KS, July 26, 1883

Old Father Gilman died in 1888 and was said to be buried in the Ott Cemetery. I couldn’t figure out who Old Father Gilman was. There was an early settler named John Gilman who has a special land grant signed by Abraham Lincoln dated 1861, but he died decades later and his burial location is known.

The Madison News, Madison, KS, May 18, 1888

Mrs. Justin Benchat died June 13, 1891 and was said to have been buried in Ott Cemetery, but there is no gravestone for a Benchat here. Mrs. Benchat’s first name may have been Florin.

The Eureka Herald, Eureka, KS, June 19, 1891

A man named C.V. King died December 4, 1891 and was said to be buried in Ott Cemetery. This man was probably Charles Vernon King from Illinois, and if so, the family had just relocated to Hamilton in 1889. Charles was just 44 when he died.

Democratic Messenger, Eureka, KS, December 11, 1891

Harriet “Hattie” King died in the fall of 1892, less than a year after her father. She was also said to be buried in Ott Cemetery, probably next to her father, but there is no gravestone for her or her father, and no signs of a King family plot.

Democratic Messenger, Eureka, KS, September 30, 1892

Albert Lawhon, son of Brice Lawhon, died from lung fever in March of 1893 and was buried at Ott Cemetery. There is one Lawhon with a marked grave, but it’s not Little Albert.

Democratic Messenger, Eureka, KS, March 24, 1893

Two babies died in Hamilton in August of 1893 and both were buried at Ott Cemetery, but there is no gravestone or marker for either of these babies.

Democratic Messenger, Eureka, KS, August 11, 1893

The Burt family lost another baby in 1894 who was also said to have been buried here somewhere in an unmarked grave. There is a Burt baby in Greenwood Cemetery who also died in 1894, but his father was not D.M. Burt.