The whole thing got started because we’d been driving by this empty spot that has a plaque by it that says ‘Old People’s Home Cemetery.”

Cindy Yff

The Old People’s Home of the Northwest was originally built in Cottage Grove by the Church of God in 1907 to help house and care for elderly residents, many of which were Scandinavian immigrants to the area. The three-story home was located on the south side of 70th Street South, between Granada and Goodview avenues, on the bluffs overlooking St. Paul Park and the Mississippi River. At the time, 79 acres of land was purchased by the Church for the newly-built Old People’s Home, including park space, gardens, and a cemetery. 

The home tragically burned in the early morning of Nov, 16, 1917 after a fire started in the attic. The home was heavily underinsured for just $4,500, less than one-third of the home’s value. Its employees were out of a job and its residents were forced to move, ultimately finding new accommodations at the recently-vacated women’s dormitory of the defunct St. Paul Methodist College in St. Paul Park through at least the mid-1920s. The Church of God called for support and donations for the home’s workers and residents in a 1917 article printed in its publication, The Gospel Trumpet. After the fire and the move, the history of the original property and cemetery becomes a bit foggy. 

Today, flanked by Highway 61 to the south and modern hillside neighborhoods to the east and west, all that remains is a 1+ acre field where the cemetery resides, now devoid of fences, gates, and headstones. The only identifying marker is a plaque placed in 1990 at the inner entrance to the field by the Washington County Historical Society. 

Most pedestrians walking by on the steep sidewalk of 70th Street likely would not know what they are passing, as one must turn in and walk through the brushy entryway path to see the plaque, which stands facing the field behind the tree line from the road. The plaque reads: “Old People’s Home Cemetery - Established about 1907. Over forty bodies are here interred. A retirement home stood nearby until lost by fire in 1917.” 

Many changes have taken place to the property over the past century. With detailed records turning out to be difficult to find after about 1925 regarding the history of the cemetery and its inhabitants, two local residents, Cindy Yff and her sister Kathy DeMarre, have begun searching for answers. While they have no direct family connection to the retirement home or the cemetery, their interest in the Old People’s Home & Cemetery of the Northwest has led them on a continuing journey to find more information. 

Yff published a piece in the Washington County Historical Society’s July 2023 edition of Historical Whisperings, in the “Our Forgotten History” section, detailing much of the information they’ve been able to uncover. She is looking for anyone who may have, or may know someone who has, photos or historical documentation on the progression of the site over the years to what it is today. Washington County and the City of Cottage Grove have only been able to turn up limited details from their archives, but Yff and DeMarre have been working to follow the trail, leading all the way to the Church of God historical archives in Anderson, Ind. 

Through their research, Yff and her sister have uncovered photos (including one from a resident that shows his great-grandmother sitting at a table with others in the home circa 1914-1916), obituaries, and a handful of news articles from the time, as well as information derived from 1910 and 1920 census data. They have so far been able to identify 19 of the 40+ people interred in the cemetery, made up of residents and church members of all ages and at least one staff member from the home. The last recorded burial at the cemetery took place in 1926. 

Sometime over the following 60 years, a local farmer plowed the nearby land, including the cemetery, using it for crops as recently as 1981, evidenced by a photo taken by Washington County Bulletin reporter Judy Spooner, when she wrote about the cemetery at the time. Spooner’s article quoted a local man, Art Nelson, as having remembered the cemetery still having a gate and fence around it as late as the early 1940s. She also quoted resident Roger Howard as saying that he remembered playing on the land as a child, recalling large and small headstones being present, but he could not recollect when they were removed. 

Further details have proven difficult to come by, until approximately 1984 when 70th Street South was widened and the Historical Society became engaged in preserving the cemetery during the construction. According to Yff, the Church of God later merged with another church and deeded the land to the City of Cottage Grove in 2011 on a quit claim deed, leaving the cemetery’s official ownership and maintenance a bit confusing. 

“The whole thing got started because we’d been driving by this empty spot that has a plaque by it that says ‘Old People’s Home Cemetery,’” Yff said.  

It led her to speculate on details, such as whether it was perhaps a home for the poor, which turned out not to be the case.  

“If people could pay, they had to pay,” she said. “Like now, when assisted-living facilities have benevolence funds, they had what they called a charity fund, so they kind of ran it the same way. 

“No one really knows anything else,” she added. “The cemetery had to belong to somebody; the Old People’s Home had to belong to somebody; so, I went after the 1910 census. It said ‘Church of God Old People’s Home,’ so that led me to Anderson, Ind. (and the Church of God/Anderson University archives).”  

Emphasizing their hope for finding additional historical details from local residents, Yff said, “The staff that worked there lived in St. Paul Park and Cottage Grove. They lived in the area, so you’d think someone would know something.” 

Anyone with photos or historical information, written or anecdotal, regarding the Old People’s Home & Cemetery of the Northwest, is encouraged to contact either Cottage Grove’s Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation, the Washington County Historical Society, or Cindy Yff directly by email at daffyto@yahoo.com.