Lakeside Cemetery
"Lakeside Cemetery History
Land chosen for cemeteries in the early days was often land that was of poor soil, located on hills,and unsuitable for farming and so it was donated. The ..."
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"Lakeside Cemetery History
Land chosen for cemeteries in the early days was often land that was of poor soil, located on hills,and unsuitable for farming and so it was donated. The Lakeside Cemetery encompasses all of these.
On March 27, 1917, Riley Gardner and his wife, Frances, deeded about five acres of hilly, clay type soil, overlooking Rainbow Lake to the L.D.S. Church. The first grave was that of toddler Urna West. She was born December 29, 1917 and died July 20, 1919. Many headstones date from this era because of a flu epidemic. Many graves are out of place in the older part of the cemetery because of a lack of a map and surveying.
The early graves were dug by hand, often taking two days to complete. When the ground was frozen, fires were built over the site to melt the ice so digging would be easier.
On April 26, 1961, Dr. Arnold and Mildred Dysterheft donated two additional acres north of the cemetery to the L.D.S. Church. These additional acres were to be used for a cemetery with no restrictions as to race or religion. This added about 800 more gravesites.
In 1968 the hog wire fence and cedar fence posts were replaced with a chain link fence. Water was installed with faucets paralleling the first road at about the same time. A new road was built and a new gate was installed after 1992. Russell Whatcott designed and built the sign as his Eagle Scout project in 1992.
There was no charge for burials for many years. Then a $10.00 fee was charged. This was later raised to $25.00 and then raised to $100.00. Because of requests from Phoenix, Tucson, etc. for burials, the charge for out of school district was set at $300.00 and graves could not be pre-sold. For current cemetery fees, see the fee schedule above.
In 1965, at the request of C. Lloyd Rhoton, who was the Bishop of the Lakeside Ward of the L.D.S. Church, Kent Rhoton began surveying and mapping the cemetery. After three summers of fieldwork, which included trying to correlate all previous plats and history into an organized plat as well as platting new gravesites, a new plat was created.
Royal Rhoton and Hal King built the maintenance and storage building. The flagpole was installed at the same time. The V.F.W. takes care of the flag ceremonies.
In 1992 there was an average of 5 burials per year. Currently there are about 30 burials per year.
The Town of Pinetop-Lakeside took over the cemetery in July of 2000."
