Genealogy of the Cooksville Cemetery, by Jeff Julseth

 

The Cooksville Cemetery has more than a thousand people resting in the historic cemetery.  Some lived in the Rock County area, and some were members of the Norwegian (later re-named Cooksville) Lutheran Church.

I have often wondered how many of these people are related in one family tree and how their lives were intertwined in or near Cooksville, or elsewhere.  With the modern computer search tools of ancestry.com and findagrave.com, I am in the process of slowly linking this cemetery with families and photographic documentation.

My inspiration is my second great-grandmother, Karen Dorthea Jensdtr Haug (Vagstad) Julseth.  In 1891 the Stoughton Congregation decided to build a new church.  Financial help was expected from the Cooksville people.  Reverend Dahl, with a solicitor, called at the home of Amund and Karen Julseth (south of Cooksville) to secure their contribution.  In the course of the conversation, Karen Julseth asked if it would be possible to begin a congregation in Cooksville. (A Cooksville Congregational Church had been built in 1879.)

Reverend Dahl  immediately favored Karen Julseth's suggestion and on October 15, 1891, a meeting was held at the Cooksville Schoolhouse to discuss the proposed venture.  Twenty-three voting members attended this meeting and 21 people voted in favor of a new "Norwegian Lutheran Church" in Cooksville next to the existing Waucoma Cemetery (1861), later to be named the Cooksville Cemetery.

Findagrave.com is a free online website that documents gravestones across the country.   I have photographed the gravestones in October 2013 and slowly placing the photographs online with the family links and information about these people.

If you have any information on your family or friends in the Cooksville Cemetery, please update findagrave.com or you can contact me at jeff.julseth@yahoo.com.   My goal is to document and photograph the entire Cooksville Cemetery online at findagrave.com.  It is sometimes difficult to figure out maiden names and parents of the people buried there and your help would be appreciated.