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Welcome to the Parker Area Historical Society! |
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This cemetery was first known as the Eggelston Cemetery, as the property was carved out of the Eggelston Ranch, and early news articles refer to it as such. Although not the first burial there, Hubert Fonder was perhaps the most well known tenant in its early years and many people referred it as, the Fonder Cemetery. It became the family burial plot of the George McMurdo family, early Douglas County pioneers, and the place is referenced as the McMurdo Cemetery in some writings. The McMurdo family came from Scotland in the early 1870´s, and settled in what became known as McMurdo Gulch. The original fence built in the late 1880´s guarded the spot where seven members of his family lay at rest.
Writings of early residents indicate that there are many more graves there, than were identified by the
1980 inventory by the Smoky Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. They
only identified 13 legible grave stones. The oldest identified was that of Hubert Fonder, who died
in 1871. He was the husband of Miriam Donegan Fonder, who started the Fonder School. The last
known burial there was in 1955.
In 1990 a local developer owning the surrounding property rebuilt the fence surrounding the little
Cemetery and in a Memorial Day ceremony turned over title to the cemetery to the Parker Area Historical
Society. That fence eventually fell apart and it was replaced with a plastic one.
Information for this update came from early family and other resident writings, the book, A Guide to
Historic Sites in the Parker Area by F.B. McLaughlin, and the book Douglas County, a Historical
Journey by Josephine Lowell Marr.
Updated in January 2009 by Larry T. Smith
Location: From Parker Road and Mainstreet, drive South for 5.3 miles on Parker Road to South Pinery Parkway. Turn left at the light for .35 miles. Turn left on Singletree Lane for .8 miles. Turn left on Saddle Creek Trail for .1 miles to a gate in the fence. The cemetery is to the West atop the hill.
Site created by Alex Hernandez, Alvie Sellmer, & James Vallejos 2009