Several small, sometimes forgotten, cemeteries dot the Douglas County landscape. Among them:

Beni-Israel

Location: at the corner of East 2100 and North 1300 roads.

The cemetery was given to Eudora’s Jewish community in 1859. In the early 1950s, the men’s organization B’nai B’rith restored the cemetery. It now belongs to the congregation at the Lawrence Jewish Community Center. The headstones name Russia, Jerusalem and Germany as the birthplaces of some of those buried there. Many of the headstones include writing in Hebrew characters.

Eudora South City Cemetery

Location: corner of Sycamore and Cedar streets.

This cemetery served as Eudora’s first burial place; it dates to 1857. At one time, it was the cemetery used by the town’s black community. Several World War I veterans are buried there.

Lake View-Crowder-Lewis Cemetery

Location: east of Lecompton on private property.

The land for the cemetery was donated in the 1870s by Thomas Crowder as a place for black families to bury their dead. At least 50 people  many from the Lewis family  were buried there between 1879 and 1940. In May 1998, the cemetery was rededicated after nearly 50 years of neglect.

Black Jack Cemetery

Location: about a mile east of Baldwin

The cemetery belonged to the Black Jack Presbyterian Church in the 1800s, but the church is long gone. Its ownership now uncertain, the cemetery receives no regular care. It is just east of the Battle of Black Jack historic site, where abolitionist John Brown’s men fought in 1856 in what is considered the first regular battle between Free State and pro-slavery forces. The cemetery was still in use through the mid-1900s.

Davis Cemetery

Location: northwest of Sixth Street and Kasold Drive in Lawrence

The 50-by-50 foot Davis Cemetery sits behind Raco Westridge Car Wash, 3530 W. Sixth St., The plot was set aside for members of the G.H. Davis family, who started a farm two miles west of Lawrence in 1863.

 Sources: Journal-World archives, the Eudora News