For more information on the history of North Buffalo Cemetery and those buried there, or any other inquiries, please contact the North Buffalo Cemetery Association at [email protected]

Like many churches throughout the midwest, the North Buffalo Lutheran Church's cemetery predates the congregation itself.

The original parcel of land for the church and cemetery was donated on Oct. 11, 1894 by Peder M. & Olgard (Grove) Tufton to the "North Buffalo River Cemetery Association," of which Ole E. Tangen, H. Jacob Wentzell and Olaus Erickson were trustees. The cemetery is 1.91 acres and is located in the SW¼ of the SE¼ of Section 15, Kragnes Township, Clay County, MN, against the east side of the Buffalo River.

A meeting was held on Dec. 10, 1894 at which the purchasing of planks for a bridge to be built to cross the ditch between the road (120th Ave. N.) was discussed.

With the cemetery being established around Oct., 1894, Olgard Tufton is believed to have been the first burial in the cemetery on Jan. 29, 1895, only three months after she and her husband donated the cemetery land. Three graves older than Olgard's appear to have been moved to North Buffalo in its early years from nearby Concordia Cemetery.

Many Norwegian immigrant families who lived near the cemetery belonged to the Concordia Lutheran Church, located several miles south in Moland Township. There was interest in organizing a church in Kragnes Township, so "North Buffalo River Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation" was organized on Jan. 6, 1896 in the Brendemuhl School across the road from the present church. A church building was built in the middle of the cemetery in 1897. A horse barn was also built, and it was sold in 1938.

In May, 1897, the North Buffalo Church took ownership of the cemetery, and the cemetery association appears to have disbanded at that time. The church soon became known as "North Buffalo Lutheran Church" and likewise the word ‘river' was dropped from the cemetery's name at some point too and it became known as "North Buffalo Cemetery."

The church warden of the North Buffalo Church was responsible, at least in part, for the maintenance and operation of the cemetery during the early years. He was paid $2 for each grave he was asked to dig, and a committee of Peder Tufton, H. Jacob Wentzell, and Thore Larson was elected to dig graves in March, 1899.

A fence was built in ca. 1915, and was later replaced around the 1940s. By the 1930s, a horse-drawn mower and dump rake were used to mow and collect the grass. Several members then purchased rotary mowers and they took turns taking care of the mowing chore.

In 1957, a new church building was built east of the cemetery on land donated by Thilda and Melvin Tufton. The old church building was sold and moved off site. North Buffalo Ladies Aid then voted to make the old church site into a memorial garden, with a planning committee to develop the site, which was named "North Buffalo Memorial Gardens." The planning committee maintained the site for three years, then the circles of the Ladies Aid took turns maintaining the gardens until ca. 2013.

In 1961, the cemetery was surveyed by Robert Roberts, Sr. Lots contain two graves apiece.

Since ca. 1967, the cemetery's lawn care has been hired out. The North Buffalo Church organized a cemetery committee as a standing (permanent) committee of the congregation in 1974, and first cemetery policies were adopted. Graves were hand-dug in the early years, but digging is hired nowadays.

Robert Reff drew up a cemetery map in 1975, and today the map is kept via a computer spreadsheet program.

A cemetery gate was erected in memory of Oliver and Florence Tufton in 1986. A cemetery directory sign containing a map and cemetery policies was donated in 2011, as were gravestones for several of the cemetery's unmarked graves.

Several dozen evergreen trees which had been planted around the cemetery in 1944, were removed in 2008.

The North Buffalo Church owned and operated the cemetery until Jan. 25, 2015, when the cemetery association was reorganized as "North Buffalo Cemetery Association, Inc." The parcel of land on which the church and cemetery lie, was surveyed into two separate parcels, so the church and cemetery could operate autonomously from one another, although control of the cemetery association is still maintained largely by the church members.

The first officers of the cemetery association were Paul Fossum, President and Treasurer; L. Charles Brendemuhl, Vice President; Gary Sauter, Secretary; Stan DeJong, Director; and Jim Powers, Director. Active members of the North Buffalo Church at that time and non-church members who were current lot owners made up the charter membership of the association.

The cemetery association's annual meeting is held at the end of each January in North Buffalo Church.