Excerpt from the Silver Creek Story published 1952 by Blanche Swindell
In the 1850's when everyone was young and healthy, there was no
thought about a cemetery. In 1859 the Bruce family lost a baby.
Because there was no cemetery, the child was buried on the family
farm. Shortly after the baby's death a cemetery was secured and
properly laid out. The land for the first cemetery was given by
Anthony Swindle from his farm. Then James Robinson added to the
cemetery on the south side, from his home farm. Later on Alex
Robinson, James's son who inherited his father's home place, gave
another addition to the south part of the cemetery. The very first
grave made in the "burying ground" was that of Mrs. Bruce, mother of
the infant whose small body was buried on the family farm. Later Baby
Bruce's remains were moved to the regular cemetery. All the first
caskets were made by John Lendrum. The diptheria epidemic of 1865
caused seventeen deaths in the community.
The Silver Creek Cemetery Association is an organization which handles
all matters pertaining to the cemetery. There is never any faltering
on the part of this association. The fine administration of its
business; the excellence of its work in the care of our cemetery; the
vision behind its whole plan — all these attest the wisdom of the
government of this Association.

Excerpt from Silver Creek Church Quasquicentennial 1867-1992
Edited by Donna (Robinson) Wolmutt and Marilyn (Robinson) Meline

Fellowship and service and honoring the dead . . .
The beautiful grounds surrounding the Silver Creek church are filled
with life - the lives of the pioneer settlers and their descendants.
They live on in the memories of all who walk through the peaceful
graveyard.
The words written in the Silver Creek Story 1952, tell the history of
the cemetery most eloquently:
"...but we love our old grave stones. There is the one that has at its
top a little sliding marble door behind which was once a clear
photograph of the woman whose loved ones sought thus to keep her human
presence with them a little longer. Now the strong face of that
pioneer woman is only a blur - if you push back the marble door to
look. The slabs showing the clasped hands, the marble sheaf, the
broken tree, the recumbent lamb above a baby's couch - all these we
cherish. "
Excerpt from Centennial Anniversary Book, 1967
"Historically speaking, our cemetery is a tapestry in marble and
granite. On this little piece of earth are the visible tokens of our
remembrances of people who lived here, a whole lifetime or a shorter
span of years. . .
"...Deep-lettered on these stones are the brief designations that tell
of men, women and children who once lived among us. But deeply planted
in the community are tokens of the experience, the strength of
purpose, the accomplishments of the persons who sleep here eternally.
The remembrances that live in the community are something like
immortality, whereas the lines in marble and granite are subject to
wind, weather, and time. The stones serve to remind us of many a thing
not to be put into letters.
"In Silver Creek Cemetery are graves of a little group of men and
women who more than a century ago crossed the stern Atlantic to set up
homes in a new world. Most of them came from the north of Ireland.
Many were the great-grandparents or grandparents of us who live now.
They had a vision and somehow found matching courage to bring their
dreams into reality.
"There are in Silver Creek Cemetery four stones that mark the graves
of Civil War soldiers who survived the war and came back to their
holdings in a united republic. Also there are new stones that show the
burial places of soldiers of the late wars.
"There are some old, old stones that call to memory the ravages of
disease that took off quickly many a child or older person in the days
when there were almost no doctors or other medical help. In the year
1865 a diphtheria epidemic caused seventeen deaths in this single
community. Some stones mark the graves of a few who came here as
strangers within our gates, but who stayed for all their time....
"All this belongs to the century that has passed. The first grave was
dug here in 1865 for a Mrs. Bruce whose moldering stone stands near
the west fence of the cemetery. We who today mark this centennial
recognize that we are now making the history of the second century
which is just dawning. The days will come and go and this, our
seemingly modern way of life, will have slipped into the chronicles of
long-gone times.
"The land for the first cemetery was given in the early 1860s by
Anthony Swindle from his farm. Then James Robinson added to the
cemetery on the south side, from his home farm. Later on, Alex
Robinson, James's son, gave another addition to the south part of the
cemetery. In 1958, the Cemetery Association used bequests to the
cemetery fund to acquire another acre of that same farm from its
present owners, James and Phyllis Schulte.
Every Memorial Day descendants from far and near come to decorate the
graves with flowers. Those who can't come personally send plants to
place upon the neatly manicured graves. In its annual Memorial Day
salute to veterans, the American Legion Post of Ryan participants make
the Silver Creek Cemetery the final stop of the day for coffee and
home-baked "goodies" with appreciative members of the community.