The Potter's Field Cemetery in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, is located on a plot of land at 5000 Young Street near the intersections of Young Street and Mormon Bridge Road. Like all

potter's field A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pur ...

s, it was used to bury

poor Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse

people or people with no known identity from across the Omaha area. The cemetery was active from 1887 to 1957.

History

The Potter's Field was used as early as 1887, and over the next seventy years almost 4,000 burials were made. However, there were few markers. People who were buried there were too poor to afford burials in regular cemeteries, and therefore were too poor to afford headstones. Burials were commonly made without markers of any sort. There is speculation that

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

pioneers from

Cutler's Park Cutler's Park was a temporary town established in the Indian Territory across the Missouri River from Kanesville, Iowa in 1846. It was the first town in the future state of Nebraska. History Established by 2,500 pioneers from the Church of Jes ...

were buried here in the 1850s, as well. A partial list of the individuals who are buried at Potter's Field and any details is listed in the US GenWeb Archives. It also indicates whether the person's remains were removed or moved from the cemetery. Despite being owned by Douglas County, the cemetery fell into disrepair from the late 1950s through the 1980s. In 1986 a volunteer group rehabilitated Potter's Field, adding a walkway and meditation area, as well as a listing of every burial accounted for in government and the neighboring Forest Lawn Cemetery records. Potter's Field was reconsecrated in September, 1986. Perhaps the most notorious interment in Potter's Field was that of Will Brown, an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

civilian who was lynched in

downtown Omaha Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east ...

in 1919. Brown was accused of raping a white woman and was lynched in front of the Douglas County Courthouse. On October 1, 1919 Brown was laid to rest, with the interment log listing only one word next to his name: "Lynched."Garrison, C. (2006) "Potter's Field,"
The Metropolitcan.
'' p 17.

References

External links

"Potter's Field"
on Cemeteries of Omaha by Marta Dawes
"A History of Potter's Field in North Omaha"
by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com * {{Coord, 41.33184, -95.99022, type:landmark_region:US-NE, display=title Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska Cemeteries in Omaha, Nebraska History of North Omaha, Nebraska 1887 establishments in Nebraska 1957 disestablishments in Nebraska Cemeteries established in the 1880s

History

See also

References

External links