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FREE Bix Beiderbeck Graveside Jazz Concert
Saturday August 1, 2015 at 10AM
featuring Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band
Saturday August 1, 2015 at 10AM
featuring Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band
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It has become customary as part of the annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival to hold a concert at Bix's grave site on the Saturday morning of the Festival weekend. This year's festival is scheduled for July 31 - August 3. Saturday morning, August 2, join us at Bix's grave site at 10 am and enjoy music from the Peter & Will Anderson Twins Sextet. Bring a folding chair and enjoy a summer morning in a beautiful setting while listening to fine jazz. There is no admission fee for this concert.
For more information on the Bix Beiderbeck Memorial Society and the 2015 Festival, please click on the poster above to open the Society's website in another window. |
Then and Now
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The Founders
Articles of incorporation for the Oakdale Cemetery Company were signed on May 14th, 1856. Those signing were John McDowell Burrows, R.M. Prettyman, George B. Sargent, John Dalzell, Dr. J.M. Witherwax, Dr. C.C. Parry, Henry B. Hoffman, Strong Burnell, William H. Hildreth, Joseph Lambrite, Hiram Price, A.H. Barrow, John M. Cannon, John L. Davies and William H.F. Gurley. The following images are scans of the original Articles, from the Corporate Meeting Notes book on file at the office. |
CLICK the image above to download a pdf of the original Articles of Incorporation
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The Civil War Connection - Soldier's Lot
Soldiers' lot is located in Section 11 of Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc. as the cemetery is known today. Originally, soldiers were interred in multiple areas of the cemetery, before the burials were consolidated into Soldiers' Lot. As of Dec. 1885, 174 Civil War soldiers were buried in Soldier's Lot. Around 1888 roughly 160 remains in Oakdale Cemetery, now Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc. were removed and placed in the Rock Island and Keokuk National Cemeteries. In 1900, the remaining interments were consolidated into the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) plot within Oakdale Cemetery, now Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc., the location of all subsequent government burials. In 1940 the GAR conveyed all interests in the plot to the Oakdale Cemetery Association, now Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc. and the United States acquired the lot in 1941. Today, interments within the Soldiers Lot include 71 Civil War dead, seven of whom were killed during the Battle of Fort Donelson, TN and were the first Iowan casualties of the Civil War.
Soldiers' lot is located in Section 11 of Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc. as the cemetery is known today. Originally, soldiers were interred in multiple areas of the cemetery, before the burials were consolidated into Soldiers' Lot. As of Dec. 1885, 174 Civil War soldiers were buried in Soldier's Lot. Around 1888 roughly 160 remains in Oakdale Cemetery, now Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc. were removed and placed in the Rock Island and Keokuk National Cemeteries. In 1900, the remaining interments were consolidated into the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) plot within Oakdale Cemetery, now Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc., the location of all subsequent government burials. In 1940 the GAR conveyed all interests in the plot to the Oakdale Cemetery Association, now Oakdale Memorial Gardens, Inc. and the United States acquired the lot in 1941. Today, interments within the Soldiers Lot include 71 Civil War dead, seven of whom were killed during the Battle of Fort Donelson, TN and were the first Iowan casualties of the Civil War.
Some of the noteworthy people buried at Oakdale Memorial Gardens, among them are distinguished soldiers that are buried elsewhere in the cemetery.
Addison Hiatt Sanders (September 13, 1823 – November 7, 1912) was a newspaper editor who joined the Union Army during the American Civil War. He became a Brevet Brigadier General before the war was over, and went on to become the Secretary of the Montana Territory.
SOURCE: Wikipedia |
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.He was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. A native of Davenport, Iowa, Beiderbecke taught himself to play cornet largely by ear, leading him to adopt a non-standard fingering some critics have connected to his original sound. "Bix" Beiderbecke is our most celebrated person buried at Oakdale Memorial Gardens.
SOURCE: Wikipedia |
Count Nicholas Fejervary (May 27, 1811, - Sep. 19, 1895) was an Hungarian nobleman who came to Davenport as a refugee in 1853 following the failure of an insurection in his native Hungary. Davenport's Fejervary Park was the site of his estate.He chose the location for his home because the steep bluffs with a view of the Mississippi River reminded him of his home on the Danube River. The house, which was on the site at the time the property was given to the city by Celestine Fejérváry, a daughter of Nicholas, is now gone. All that remains of the buildings is a carriage barn. A municipal zoo was added to the park in 1909. It became known as Mother Goose Land.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
George Henry Cram (January 22, 1838 – August 5, 1872) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Cram was named as captain of Company H of the 9th Kentucky Infantry on November 26, 1861. He was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in the spring of 1862. In April, Cram was promoted to lieutenant colonel and fought at the Battle of Perryville in that capacity. He commanded the 9th Kentucky at the Battle of Stones River in late December, where he was again wounded in action. In March 1863, he was promoted to colonel of the 9th Kentucky Infantry. He fought at the Battle of Chickamauga and led his regiment in the East Tennessee campaign, as well as during the assault on Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga, where he was yet again wounded. During the Atlanta Campaign, Cram commanded a brigade with distinction. He was later brevetted as a brigadier general for his performance.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
Hiram Price (January 10, 1814 – May 30, 1901) was a nineteenth-century banker, merchant, bookkeeper, bank president, railroad president, and five-term Republican congressman from Iowa's 2nd congressional district.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
James Thorington (May 7, 1816 - June 13, 1887) was a frontiersman, lawyer, judge, and one-term U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
Pvt. John Vale (August 9, 1835 – February 4, 1909) was a member of the Union Army during the American Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor in 1897 for his bravery on February 15, 1863 at Nolensville, Tennessee. Born in London, England, Vale grew up in the city and was employed as a store clerk at the age of 13.In 1851 he immigrated to Le Claire, Iowa, and found employment in a sawmill. He moved to farmland he purchased near Mapleton, Minnesota in 1856. He was there when the Civil War started. His citation for the Medal of Honor reads that Vale "was one of a detachment of 16 men who heroically defended a wagon train against the attack of 125 cavalry, repulsed the attack and saved the train."
SOURCE: Wikipedia IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.history.army.mil/moh/index.html 
Joseph W. Bettendorf (October 10, 1864 – May, 1933) and his brother William P. Bettendorf (July 1, 1857 – June 3, 1910) were industrialists in Davenport, Iowa. In January 1895 the brothers incorporated under the name of the Bettendorf Axel Company. W. P. Bettendorf was the company’s first president and J.W. Bettendorf initially served as secretary and manager of the company. Two fires in 1902, one on January 28 and the other in May, destroyed the plant. The residents of the town of Gilbert, which was about three miles east of Davenport at the time, raised $15,000 to buy the old Gilbert farm between the Mississippi River and the Davenport, Rock Island and North Western Railway tracks. The brothers decided to establish a new plant in Gilbert. A year later the citizens of the town elected to change its name to Bettendorf. SOURCE: Wikipedia |
Dr. Jennie McCowen was among the first women to enroll in and graduate from the University of Iowa Medical Department as it was known in the 1870s. Originally from Ohio and the daughter of a physician, she taught in the public schools after graduating from a teacher-training institution, at that time one of the few career options open to single women. She then moved to Iowa, going to medical school at a time when many medical schools did not accept women, and she received her M.D. in 1876.
SOURCE: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/md/mccowen/ 
Henry Peter Bosse (1844–1903) German-American photographer, cartographer and civil engineer. Henry Peter Bosse was a prescient photographer in that he foresaw and adhered to aesthetic values which have come to define the work of German photo-journalists around the world. Bosse stood at the forefront of German appreciation for photographic look books concerned with the hand of man, modern architecture and urban design. Bosse's photography assisted with his creation of the most accurate map yet made of the upper Mississippi which, in turn, facilitated the engineering of bridges, locks and levees. Several variants of his drawn maps exist, while his album of photographs, per se, may have been the first photographic map of a major river ever created.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
Jacob M. Eldridge, the city's namesake, arrived in central Scott County in 1846, having purchased land for $1.25 per acre. Immigrants from Germany soon followed, and northern Scott County slowly began to develop. Railroads were developed during the 1860s, bringing more settlers. Eldridge Junction, built on land donated by Jacob Eldridge, was incorporated on July 2, 1871.
SOURCE: Wikipedia PHOTO SOURCE: From "History of Davenport and Scott County" Vol. II by Harry E. Downer-S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1910 Chicago., http://iagenweb.org/scott/history/1910/1910vol2bios27.htm 
John Forrest Dillon (December 25, 1831 – May 6, 1914) was an American jurist who served on federal and Iowa state courts. He authored a highly influential treatise on the power of states over municipal governments. Born in Northampton, Montgomery County, New York (now part of Fulton County, New York). He studied medicine at the University of Iowa at the age of 19. Shortly after beginning his medical practice, he abandoned it to read law, and was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1852. He worked in private practice until he was elected Scott County prosecutor in 1853, and then to a judgeship in Iowa's 7th Judicial Circuit in 1858. He was elevated to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1862 and served until 1869, when President Grant appointed him to the United States Circuit Court, which became the Eighth Circuit.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
Joseph Bloomfield Leake (April 1, 1828 – June 1, 1918) was an attorney and an Iowa State Senator who entered the Union Army during the American Civil War. He became a Brevet Brigadier General before the war was over. After the war he became the U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
SOURCE: Wikipedia 
Phebe W. Sudlow (July 11, 1831 - June 8, 1922) was a pioneer for women in the education field and was the first female superintendent of a public school in the United States. Sudlow also became the first female professor at the University of Iowa in 1878, despite having no formal college degree. When Sudlow was elected superintendent of schools she was originally offered a lower salary than that of a male superintendent, but was paid an equal wage after she told the school board, "Gentlemen, if you are cutting the salary because of my experience, I have nothing to say; but if you are doing this because I am a woman, I’ll have nothing more to do with it." Sudlow served as superintendent for four years. Among her achievements was the construction of a new high school. SOURCE: Wikipedia |