Oakdale Cemetery Auxiliary Holds Inaugural Fireside Chat

It was a night of history and storytelling at the Oakdale Cemetery for the inaugural Fireside Chat on Saturday night.

More than 70 people gathered at the pavilion at the cemetery to hear stories of the early settlers of the area who are buried in the Oakdale cemetery.

Cemetery Auxiliary member Sharron Kinnan said the inspiration for the event came from a previous president of the auxiliary, Lois Johnson.

“One of our local historians, Lois Johnson, was president of the Cemetery Auxiliary, and she had always talked about doing something like this at the cemetery,” Kinnan said.

After she passed away in October of 2015, Kinnan said that they wanted to dedicate this night in her honor.

“We didn’t get it done while she was alive, so we are dedicating this program to her,” she said.

DeAnna Martensen, Barb Roland and Karen Berg, also of the cemetery auxiliary, were also key in organizing the event.

Spanning 26 acres, the Oakdale Cemetery is the sight of over 2000 graves, including 199 veterans. For this event, Kinnan said they wanted to focus on the early settlers.

A.J. Leach, the founder of the Oakdale Cemetery and one of the first settlers of Antelope County, was one of the main historical figures featured throughout the program. Paul Dittmer, who was tasked with playing the role of Leach for the night, told the story of Leach’s life and how he settled in Antelope County.

Born in 1834, Leach spent most of his early life in Ohio and Michigan. His first experience in Nebraska came when he and his cousin passed through on their way to Oregon.

“When he was 17, he and his cousin got ‘Oregon Fever,’ so they went to Oregon. They walked from Michigan to Illinois, then got on a steamboat and got off at St. Joseph, Missouri. They walked the Iowa side of the river up to Omaha, where they crossed the river and headed on to Oregon,” Dittmer said.

Along the trip, Leach and his cousin were driving an ox team in exchange for food along the way. Dittmer said that not only did they have to travel that long of distance, they had to travel it on foot.  

“To drive an ox team, you have to walk along beside them. He walked over 2,000 miles. That is just amazing,” said Dittmer, who loves history and spent a great deal of time researching the role.

After arriving in Oregon, Leach found a job as a school teacher and went to college, studying Greek, Latin and Mathematics. After finishing with college, Leach returned to Michigan where he was married.

Dittmer said that upon looking back at his journey, Leach saw potential in Antelope County.

“He noted that the best farmland that he saw on the whole trip was in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. Of all the places he had been and all the places he saw, Antelope County was the one he chose,” Dittmer said.

Leach returned to the area and found land, which he filed as his under the Homestead Act. After moving to the county, Leach held multiple notable positions, including county treasurer and county surveyor. He was the first person in the county to pay property tax, and Receipt #1 can be found at the Antelope County Museum. He also served as the first superintendent for the school, and School District #1 was built on his land.

However, Dittmer said that Leach’s proudest achievement came in his later years — founding the Oakdale Cemetery.

Dittmer said one of his biggest fears is that he won’t do justice to Leach’s memory.

“He was a remarkable man, and my biggest fear is that I won’t do his life justice. I don’t think I can tell everything he did. He did a lot of remarkable stuff,” Dittmer said.

Leach valued history, and thought it was important for future generations to know, enough so that he wrote a book, “The History of Antelope County.” Dittmer said that preserving the history of the area was something that Leach valued more than anything.

Leach was one of several historians portrayed during Saturday’s event, which also featured the reading the name of every veteran buried at the cemetery. After the event, the public was invited to visit the pioneers’ gravesites, which were marked by lanterns.

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