Also referred to as the Old Balsamlund Cemetery
This cemetery is located on Section 22 in Bartlett Township, Todd County, Minnesota. In the late 1800's a Swedish Lutheran Church was buit near this location. Accross the cart path (road) was the cemetery. Somewhere around 1905/1906 the church burned down and with it went the records to the cemetery. A new church, Balsumland Lutheran was built two miles north and finished around 1907/1908. A new cemetery was put in place in the churchyard and the old cemetery abandoned.
The last burial in this cemetery, as far as is known, was that of Christine Noringseth in June of 1907. She had two babies buried here and was buried with them.
The land was purchased by a farmer and had grown over with brush and high grass. Several years later, while working the field, his plow shear hit a large rock. When he went to move the rock, he then realized there was an old cemetery located here. Presuming this land was his, he gathered up the headstones and placed them in a pile near a few of the other headstones making for a larger area to use for farm land.
In the 1940's the land was legally deeded to Ernest Manske who later purchased the property. He left the headstones where they were left a small 'island' where the stones were sitting. It is unknown for sure how many were burials actually made in this cemetery. Some of the older farmers thought there were just a few, others thought the total number was much higher. The remains of the cemetery was canvassed on Jun 18th, 1999, and six stones were found that were still readable. Those are the six listings appearing here.
Judging from the number of broken stones and large sections of headstones, I would guess the number of burials to be at least a dozen, and no more than twenty.
The land is till being worked today (May 2012) and as seen in the cemetery picture, the stones still remain on a small island in the middle of a field. The present land owner/farmer has left more room around the stones trying not to further disturb the graves. The island is now about a half acre in size.
I interviewed the present sexton of the Old Balsumland Church Cemetery, Rodney Johnson, on May 26, 2012, and he gave me all the information that was known so far about this old cemetery. He said that at one time, a Norwegian bootlegger was killed and he was buried in this cemetery. Because he was an 'outsider' and not a member of the church, he was buried on the outer edge of the cemetery. His name is not known, he was just referred to as "Nors Tors". The local people still today jokingly tell people going up in that area, "Don't let Nors Tors' ghost get you".
Research is ongoing to find more names of the people buried here.
(Jim Childers 47455615)