Colorado Spirit Quest #2

“COLORADO SPIRIT QUEST”

The Colorado Spirit Quest is a series of Caches placed by many individuals near cemeteries and historic sites in hopes to pay respect the many pioneer ancestors that ‘walked’ before us.

There are hundreds of cemeteries in the city, rural and mountain communities across Colorado. This series will introduce you to many of them.

The cache pages will provide a virtual history tour of the cemeteries and tombstones.

COLORADO SPIRIT QUEST is not affiliated with any other Spirit Quest group. Special thanks and credit is given to SixDogTeam who started the Indiana Spirit Quest in 2004. The idea has rapidly spread into many states.

The CSQ endeavor is an enormous and relentless task. It can not be accomplished by just one or two people. This projects will only flourish if there is a multitude of volunteer cachers willing to place caches.

After locating the cache container, take some time to reflect back on the lives of these pioneers and the effort it took to make Colorado a great state.

If you are interested in joining the “Walking Through History Clan” contact may be made by sending an e-mail to the owner of “Colorado Spirit Quest #1 – The Passage through the Mountains”. Use the ‘Send Message” link at the center of the page of their profile.

Each person that places a cache will be responsible for the maintenance of such.

REMEMBER:

If you are APPREHENSIVE about cemeteries – AVOID this series.

Littleton Cemetery

6155 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado 80120
Caretakers at the Littleton Cemetery believe that unofficial burials began there before the first records were kept and, in fact, before it was a designated burial ground. Numbered interments in the record books begin in 1869. Some of the land was once part of Judge Lewis B. Ames' farm. Richard Little also donated some acreage when he platted the town of Littleton in 1872. In 1875 Ames deeded the cemetery to the local Weston Masonic Lodge. A history of the Lodge says that the plat was drawn by their secretary, Charles Comstock.

The cemetery belonged to the Lodge for about thirteen years before they deeded it to the Littleton Cemetery Association in January 1888. It was still referred to as the Masonic Cemetery for some time afterwards. The Cemetery Association, which is the owner yet today, is a non-profit organization now run by five directors elected from its stockholders. As such, the cemetery is a private cemetery, not one owned or maintained by the city. The first directors were Judge Ames, Joseph W. Bowles, and Peter Magnes.
A history and description of the cemetery is included along with names from inscriptions and office records in a publication by the local Mount Rosa Chapter, NSDAR. It gives an account of how the cemetery was gradually neglected until 1921, when A. E. Gray, owner of the Littleton Drug Store, lost his son and resolved to beautify the burying ground. He, along with E. F. Burden, Frank Ford, and others, worked to reactivate the Cemetery Association and to create an endowment fund for its upkeep. Water for irrigation comes partly from wells and partly from rights in the Nevada Ditch by diversion through the City Ditch.
The flagpole in the northeast section near Prince Street marks the "Veterans' Circle," where persons who served in America's wars, from the Civil War to World War II, are interred.
Some of Littleton's well-known early citizens rest in this pleasant cemetery which commands a panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains' Front Range. They include Richard and Angeline Little; Mrs. Little's parents, John and Mary Harwood; Peter and Maria Magnes; Fred and Elizabeth Bemis; Edwin and Katherine Bemis; Joseph W. and Cynthia Bowles; Julius D. and Inez Hill; Charles G. and Lorena Louthan; Clark Z. and Julia Cozens; Harry and Jessie Nutting; Rupert and Annie Nutting; Dr. Walter and Ada Crysler; Samuel T. and Adelaide Culp; Ebenezer and Eliza Jull; John G. and Louisa Lilley; Fred and Orra Comstock; Edward F. Batschelet; Robert J. and Jessie Spotswood; Oscar and Eudora Hill; Father Francis and Henrietta Byrne; A. J. and Mary Valore; Rev. George and Laura Edmundson; Abraham and Alice Howarth; Dr. Franklin and Elizabeth Crocker; Walter and Mabel Ficklin; and Alfred Packer.