Stepping into History

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A TRANQUIL trail for an evening walk or morning jog? Somewhere close to town with plenty of wildlife viewing, yet surrounded by local history? Riverside Memorial Cemetery Manager Ryan Smith can recommend the perfect spot.

While a cemetery may not be the first place that comes to mind for a walk, Smith and the cemetery staff want to encourage you to do just that.

“Cemeteries were developed as places for people to gather,” Smith said. “They were once a popular spot to picnic, or to spend time. It’s okay to come out and enjoy the peace and solitude, to walk your dog or ride your bike.”

Riverside is home to some of Aberdeen’s earliest history, and the final resting place for a number of notable citizens. The cemetery has a developed walking tour, featuring 21 marked stops with fascinating stories. Smith is hoping to update the walking tour to highlight even more local history.

Some of the notable Aberdonians buried at Riverside include:

David Rowlands

Rowlands was the first recorded burial in the cemetery, in July 1886. Just 28 years old, he was suffocated by noxious gas while digging a well.

Matilda Jewell Gage

Gage had several famous family members. She was the niece of L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It’s been said that Matilda and her sister Dorothy heavily influenced the character of Dorothy Gale in the story. Gage was also the granddaughter of Matilda Jocelyn Gage, a famous women’s suffragist and abolitionist who co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Emil Victor

Victor was the only person ever hanged in Brown County, executed after killing four people. A 1909 newspaper called his crime “one of the most diabolical in the criminal annals of South Dakota.” Victor made plans to rob J.W. Christie, a local grain buyer known to have a large amount of money on his farm. While Christie milked a cow in his barn, Victor attacked him with a hammer. Victor also killed the neighbor’s teen son, who was helping in the barn at the time, before shooting Christie’s wife and 17-year-old daughter. The next day, Victor was arrested at a barbershop in Aberdeen. He was executed a few months later.

Alice Lorraine Daly

Daly ran for governor of South Dakota in 1922, as the first female gubernatorial candidate in America. She received a quarter of the vote and came in third. Daly was also the first woman to speak before the state senate in 1919 and fought for women’s right to vote.

Brown Brothers

The Brown brothers claimed to be the oldest business firm in Aberdeen, operating various businesses starting in 1881. In 1927, they opened a shiny new bank, which almost immediately went bankrupt. Shortly after, an anonymous vandal took revenge by dynamiting the family burial plot. A blackened slab is all that remains to this day.

C.F. Easton

A banker and cattleman, Easton might be most renowned in Aberdeen for his home. Easton’s Castle, a Queen Anne Victorian still tucked away on the end of Second Ave., was once painted green prior to Easton’s son Russell, bricking it over with yellow brick in 1904.

Ben Young

Young drowned while swimming with friends in Wylie Lake in 1913, when his daughter Minka was only two years old. Minka’s life took another tragic turn when she was assaulted as a teen. She was forced to give up the baby girl from the resulting pregnancy. Minka searched for her daughter Ruth for more than 70 years, finally reuniting with her when the adoption records were unsealed in 2006. Their story was the focus of a book called The Waiting.

Alva Aldrich, Andrew Melgaard, Sophus Anderson

Aldrich served as mayor of Aberdeen and donated land that eventually became some of today’s city parks, including Wylie Park. Sophus Anderson and Andrew Melgaard are also buried at Riverside and donated the land that became their namesake parks.

Minnie Schense

Schense safely birthed South Dakota’s first quadruplets in 1931, making national news. Tragically, she died of a heart attack just two years later.

Dr. James Berbos

Berbos delivered the first surviving set of quintuplets in the United States, at St. Luke’s Hospital in 1963. The Fischer Quints, four girls and one boy, became a national sensation. The son was named James after Dr. Berbos.

Pastor Harold Salem

Salem founded the Christian Worship Hour in 1979, telecasting his church service on a single TV station. Eventually, his sermons were broadcast on 100 stations around the world, reaching 48% of the world’s population. He died in 2020 at the age of 79.

Riverside Memorial Cemetery has been recording burials for 140 years. That kind of history means a lot to Smith.

“We’re caretakers for people who built our community,” Smith said. “We want the cemetery to look as nice as it can to pay respect to all who are buried here, and to honor their history.”

Smith wants the community to know it’s okay – even encouraged – to spend some time wandering the grounds.

“People might be afraid to walk through the cemetery or step around headstones,” Smith said. “It’s not disrespectful to do that; we appreciate the consideration, but we encourage people to come out and enjoy the property.”

After 10 years of taking care of the cemetery, there are a few spaces that have grown on him.

“My favorite area of the cemetery is the far south end. It’s calm and peaceful, away from traffic noise, and Foot Creek runs nearby so we see frequent wildlife like deer and foxes,” Smith said. “There are also interesting stones and monuments to look at while walking through the older part of the cemetery, like the LaMont obelisk, the Mathews Mausoleum, and the Easton family stone. These older stones have so much character, and they have stood the test of time.”…

• Riverside Memorial is open from 8:00 AM to sunset, year-round. Cemetery walking tour brochures are available at a kiosk outside the cemetery office, as well as a public directory of all cemetery occupants. An online burial search is also available at www. aberdeen.sd.us/153/Riverside-Memorial-Cemetery.