CONDITION

Four Mile Cemetery is well kept.  Each July 4^th, a Homecoming & Annual Decoration Day is held and the cemetery is cleaned, freshly decorated & repaired.

HISTORY
written by Betty Ann Gunderson Vowell Freeman; transcribed by B. Miller, 1999

The cemetery has graves that date back to 1846 and interments here consist of mostly Norwegian/Americans who came to Kaufman County in the 1840's.  The oldest listed grave is that of Johan Heinrich Staach with listed birth year of 1815 and death year of 1846.  There is a deed from Elise Warenskjold, (pronounced Vanshaw) for two acres of land, more or less, to be used for a "grave yard" and to "build a place of worship".  Elise Warenskjold came to Texas from Norway in 1847, and to Four Mile in 1848.

During the Civil War, a pastor from the Norwegian Synod up north came to Four Mile and had a number of committal services in the cemetery.  Funerals are recorded as far back as 1849 in the old record book.  The church record book is in Norwegian and in very poor condition, but Martin Jenson and his wife, Valborg, translated the book into English, and Dorothy Albertson made mimeograph books of 98 pages, and these were available on the 4th of July 1964 Homecoming.  Copies are now in the Dallas Library, Clifton Museum, Clayton Library in Houston, the American Lutheran Archives and other places.

OTHER INFORMATION

Four Mile Prairie, is a community cemetery, but "Four Milers" take great pride in it.  The cemetery is owned by Four Mile Lutheran Church, according to Martin Jenson, in his book, "Four Mile".

All Names are noted from "Recordings of the Names Who Died at Four Mile Prairie and Where They Lie Buried ", from the Ministerial Records of the Four Mile Lutheran Church.

Location:  East of Prairieville on Van Zandt Co Rd 2607.

MARKED GRAVES

UNMARKED GRAVES