LOCATION: Across the road west of the Beum (AKA Little Red School House), 1/4 Mile south of the junction of Highways 60 and 283.

This is a small cemetery that was established about 1901. There were three headstones still standing in 1996. In the 1950'S and early 6O'S, there were several more graves marked. In 1910 Harvey Pinkerton owned the land around this little cemetery. E.M. Beum, who settled here in 1900, owned land adjoining Mr. Pinkerton's. Mr. Beum was also a Baptist minister. Church services were held in his home and in Dow Pinkertons on alternate Sundays. We know for sure that the Andy Holt Family buried at least 3 infants here and that the Pope family buried an infant. In the 1970'S Mrs. Emma Pratt recalled that there was an unrelated Holt family that buried a young man. (The only other Holt family found recorded in the area was the Quiller W. Holt family). One headstone reads: C.(Q?) W. AND L.I. Holt Infant. Two graves reportedly belong to victims of the flu: an adult female and an infant. And then we add the unknown new mother who possibly was the last to be placed in this cemetery.

Old Podunk was on the S. E. corner of what was the Beum Land. Old Highway 60 (in earlier days known as the "Abo Pass" or "Abo Trail") passed by this corner taking travelers from the East to the West.

An incident worthy of documentation is the story told by a former nurse for one of Dr. O.C. Newman's sons. She related this story because the Doctor never forgot this incident: "In the "Dirty Thirty's" a typically loaded vehicle that was headed west stopped at old Podunk. A lady was in labor. The yound Doctor arrived, closed Podunk, and delivered the infant on the counter of the store. He went on to another call near the river, and when he returned the lady had died from hemorrhaging. The father requested that the infant be wrapped up in prepared cloths and given to him and was placed in the truck. He also requested burial for the mother. Beum was suggested since it was only 1/4 mile north."

The Doctor recalled many times the scene of the old loaded down truck driving away, and the fate of a new hungry infant was to haunt him for life.

Copyright © 2000 Donna Dreyer
All Rights Reserved.