Unclear who should care for East Janesville cemetery after church folds

JANESVILLE | Tombstones dot the small space, planted in the ground like bookmarks in at least 65 stories.

Some accounts proved brief, and the markers reveal few details.

Mary Parsons was born in September 1895. She died barely a year later. Hers is the only stone with the Parsons name.

Other monuments in the East Janesville United Methodist Church cemetery suggest more complete lives:

Finding the graves until a recent mowing could be difficult.Last year's bull thistles, shoulder high, choked the East Janesville burial plot, and matted grass concealed low-lying stones. Small trees grow where they should not.

"It's an absolute disgrace," says Lester Peters of Plainfield.

He has no connection to the East Janesville church, which disbanded in 2011. He is not a veteran, but believes in honoring their service. He finds old cemeteries interesting, though, investigates those he discovers on outings.

"I just happened to drive by one day and saw what a mess it was. And I wondered: 'Who dropped the ball?'"

The answer is not clear.

The congregation began when Iowa was young. The territory became a state Dec. 28, 1846, and the 1850 census counted slightly more than 192,000 residents.

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Unclear who should care for East Janesville cemetery after church folds