Also known as the Old Runeberg Township Cemetery

This cemetery is located near the center of Section 34 in Runeberg Township, Becker County, Minnesota. It is situated upon a ridge where an old pioneer trail used to run. When the section boundaries were resurveyed prior to 1900, the pioneer trail was no longer used and by about 1901 the cemetery was abandoned. The last known burials were in about 1901.
A family named Knisley bought the adjoining property in the early 1900's and claimed the cemetery as part of their land. They destroyed the markers on the graves and claimed it was part of their pasture property. I do not not know at this time if any of the markers survived.
There was at one time a list of about 50 names of people interred in this cemetery, but the last time it was remembered being seen was in about 1938. A man named Arnold Miller and a few others in the area researched records, obituaries and other media and composed a list of what they felt was pretty accurate of the people buried here.
This list is thus subject to error. All interments were approximately from the late 1870's to about 1901. Most dates were lost with the records.

Cemetery is located somewhere near the middle of Section 34 in Runeberg Township, about 4 miles south and 2 miles east of the town of Midway.

This information was gathered from a public document at the Wadena County Historical Society.

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On Dec 26, 2011, I was able to locate the cemetery. It is covered with brush and trees and has not been maintained in at least a hundred years. I trampled through the underbrush and fallen trees zig-zagging back and forth looking for any old stones. I was able to locate three, one being original, the other two obviously having been placed more recently.

There is a street sign pointing to the cemetery at the intersection of Laitinen & Makela roads in Runeberg Township. There at one time was a road going from that intersection to the cemetery but has since grown over with brush and has several fallen trees across it. It is approximately 3/8 of a mile (2000 feet) walk through brush, rocks, and fallen trees to get to the cemetery entrance located at a corner fence post.

Walking through the cemetery I noticed several 'sink holes' that appeared to be sunken graves. This cemetery was once used for pasture by a local family back when they owned the adjoining property and I think that may have helped to make the sink holes deeper than normal.

~Jim Childers
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From A Pioneer History of Becker County
Chapter XLVII. History of Runeberg Township By Eber Hought:

"The town of Runeberg at the present time, (1906), has a population of 410 and casts a popular vote of 100. Has one church, one cemetery, four school districts and four schoolhouses; and two sawmills were running all the past winter.