The Earliest Burials in Fairview Cemetery, with a little genealogy thrown in

This article identifies some of the earliest burials at Fairview Cemetery, but it also shows how the census and other records can help you track families, one piece of evidence at a time.

Florence Faith was the daughter of Samuel John Liston and Hulda Mable Imes.  She was born in Colorado and died there are at the age of 9 months in 1875.  Her father Samuel appears on the 1870 census in Fountain as a farmer, with $2000 in land and $750 in personal property.  He was single and seems to be living south of the Lock family along Fountain Creek.  Samuel was born in Ohio in about 1833.  By 1880, he had married and then moved his family back onto the plains of Sedgwick County, Kansas.  

From the Mormon website, http://www.familysearch.org/ we learn that Samuel and Hulda married in Fountain in September 1871.  Hulda was the daughter of Moses Imes and Mary Davis, and was born in Iowa in 1852. Hulda's son Willie was born in Colorado in July 1872, and Pearl was born there in 1876.  Between these two children, they lost Florence. 

Moses J Imes patented homestead land in section 7, T16SR65W in 1875. Fairview Cemetery sits in the eastern corner of his property, which is now largely occupied by the interstate.  Samuel Liston obtained homestead land in T16SR65W section 21 in 1870, showing that he had lived here since about 1865.  His neighbors just to the west included Tom Owen, William Perkins and Andrew Lincoln.

This portion of a chart, provided by Dorothy Boyd, shows burials at Fairview Cemetery.  Florence Liston was buried in 1875, in Block 1 lot 49. She was buried next to her grandmother, Mary Imes, who died in 1871, and other family members.  These lots were owned by Robert Reed.  His relation to the family is unknown.

Read more about the Imes family on the People of Fountain page.

The other information we have on the Listons is from water records.  This list of ditches on the Fountain Creek, which was reproduced in the 1989 report Fort Carson Water Rights and Appropriations by Tipton and Kalmbach, shows Liston Spring, as well as many of the other early ditches and settlers.

Another early burial at Fairview was that of Charles C Ellington, who died in 1879, based on the cemetery lot diagrams.  He was buried in Block 1 lot 18, south of George Marshall.  There is no headstone.

The census could easily miss a person who died in 1879.  The 1880 census shows two Ellington families in Fountain, one with a LC and the other a Charley.  Which was Charles C. associated with?

An August 1879 Colorado Springs newspaper shows a Charles staying in a hotel, but again it's hard to determine who this is.  No obituary appears in the local papers in 1879.

One last lead: Mortality schedules.  They don't survive for all states, but the one of people who died within a year of the Colorado census of 1880 survives.

Here we find numerous individuals who died in the Fountain precinct between Jun 1879 and May 1880, including Charley C Ellington, who died of brain disease at the age of 2 months.  The next lead to his parents are their birthplaces: Missouri and maybe Iowa.  Matching this to the census, we see that Charley was the first child of LC and Eva.

Sarah Overton died in 1875 (according to the cemetery lot diagrams) and is buried in Block 1 lot 23, next to James Overton (1858-1927).  But she is not his wife.  Her headstone says she is the daughter of GM Overton, and suggests that she died in 1878.  She is buried beside Gildon, who died in 1888. 

The 1880 census shows the family.



Gildon and Margaret lived near Fountain with their six children.  Peet had measles at the time, but survived.  The family moved to Colorado from Illinois in about 1873.  The 1870 census finds them in Antioch, Illinois, with Sarah listed as a 14-year old.  Thus she was born in about 1855.

Here's another great mystery.  In block 5, lot 1 the cemetery diagram shows an unknown lady, who died in 1862.  The bulk of this block is owned by Lee Christian and Catherine Niles.  Is there any relation?

Gazette Oct 17 1874

Gazette Jan 31 1908