Green's Prairie Cemetery

Green's Prairie Cemetery. . , This cemetery marks the gravesites of the pioneer settlers of York, Adams, and Primrose Townships, who began settling here in 1838. Many were from the New York state, for which York Township is named. Polly Crowel was the first to be buried here in 1845 and Anna Walker was the last in 1917. Tall-grass prairie once covered 5,000 acres of York Township, including the rolling hills you see around you. Because it was a burial ground, the one-acre remnant of deep-soil prairie was never plowed. Less than one percent of such original prairie still exists in Wisconsin. Sixty species of prairie plants that are genetically descendent from ancient stock are found in the cemetery. Yearly burns help maintain the cemetery as it looked in the 1800s when the settlers chose to bury their loved ones here. , William C. Green, the cemetery’s namesake, was the second settler in York Township and first superintendent of Green County Schools. Also buried here is Albro Crowel, the first settler of the village of Postville. The military veterans buried here include one Black Hawk War veteran (James Biggs), four War of 18 12 veterans (Elisha Gorham, Robert Peebles, Nathan Sherman, and David Ash) and six Civil War veterans (Amos Conkey, Rosel Crowel, William Sherman, John W. Stewart, Joel Walker, and John Westcott). Civil War veterans George Thomas and Henry Gorham, whose bodies were lost in battle, also have markers here dedicated at their families’ request. Josiah La Follette’s body, father of Wisconsin Governor and U.S. Senator “Fighting Bob” La Follette, was relocated at his wife’s request to Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery.