St. Martin Lutheran Church Cemetery
Rev. Karpinsky's history of the St. Martin Church offers the following:
"One of St. Martin's members, Mr. F. Tappendorf, presented the congregation with a building site for a church, and some additional land for a cemetery. However, before he gave the congregation the deed, he sold his farm to Christian Retzlaff." How it seems as if the documents on file in the office of the County Register of Deeds refute this, for according to the recorded documents, Christian Retzlaff received this land by patent from the State of WI in 1861 and deeded this tract of one and three-fourths acres to the congregation on March 19, 1868. The consideration stated in the deed is $4.00. But we would not call in question the accuracy of the satatements of that former history. Rev. Karpinsky was in a position as that time to obtain some of this information from some of the charter members who were still living then. In all likelihood, Mr. Tappendorf occupied this land as a so-called squatter, and after he had transferred it to Mr. Retzlaff, the latter secured a legal title to the land by a land patent. And then in 1868, he gave the congregation a deed of property of one and three- fourths acres. It is certain that the congregation used a part of this land as a cemetery before 1868. Several monuments on the cemetery bear witness to that. The church has good burial records back to 1859.
"One of St. Martin's members, Mr. F. Tappendorf, presented the congregation with a building site for a church, and some additional land for a cemetery. However, before he gave the congregation the deed, he sold his farm to Christian Retzlaff." How it seems as if the documents on file in the office of the County Register of Deeds refute this, for according to the recorded documents, Christian Retzlaff received this land by patent from the State of WI in 1861 and deeded this tract of one and three-fourths acres to the congregation on March 19, 1868. The consideration stated in the deed is $4.00. But we would not call in question the accuracy of the satatements of that former history. Rev. Karpinsky was in a position as that time to obtain some of this information from some of the charter members who were still living then. In all likelihood, Mr. Tappendorf occupied this land as a so-called squatter, and after he had transferred it to Mr. Retzlaff, the latter secured a legal title to the land by a land patent. And then in 1868, he gave the congregation a deed of property of one and three- fourths acres. It is certain that the congregation used a part of this land as a cemetery before 1868. Several monuments on the cemetery bear witness to that. The church has good burial records back to 1859.