Iowa became a state in December 28, 1846. In the Ely area, settlers started arriving in 1837-1838, before statehood. Some were from more eastern states, and some came directly from Germany.
Since there were no towns in the area, people used landmarks, such as groves of trees, to get their bearings and give directions; and so three groves – Roger’s Grove, Hoosier’s Grove and Fackler’s Grove – came into common use.
Hoosier’s Grove eventually became the town of Ely. Roger’s Grove is where the Roger’s Grove Cemetery is now.
Fackler’s Grove, south and east of Ely, lay partly in the north part of Big Grove Township in Johnson County and across the line into Putnam Township in Linn County.
Some of the early families near Fackler’s Grove were the Lingle, Fackler, Durrow, Startzer, Eppenbach, Fuhrmeister, and Upmeier families.
With all their worldly possessions, including 27 teams of horses and 27 cows, the Thomas Lingle and Valentine Fackler families came from Zanesville, Indiana, first to Cedar County, then moving on to the grove which later was called Fackler's Grove. They came in a prairie schooner drawn by oxen, the father, and the older children walking most of the distance.
Valentine Fackler & his wife Elizabeth Miller
Valentine Fackler and his wife Elizabeth Miller built a log cabin containing just one room, no larger than a single room in a modern farm house, and there they and their 10 children lived. When the Facklers came, the land had not been surveyed and the settlers were known as squatters until they could file a claim. The nearest town where they could get supplies and sell their produce was Muscatine. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City were villages, barely starting.
LETTER FROM MRS. VALENTINE FACKLER - There are no market towns nearer than Muscatine. The neighbors are few and miles apart. There are many Indians, fortunately friendly to us.
…. We built a log cabin of one room. In this little cabin we live with our many children. We have a dirt floor and not much furniture. The house is heated by a fireplace and I bake with a “dutch oven” over the fire.
…. We made the chimney by wrapping mud about straw and putting this around sticks which were piled one above another.
…. We eat a lot of hominy, and corn bread, but wild game is easily obtained. We make sugar from the sap of the maple trees.
…. I make all my own cloth by carding wool, spinning and weaving it. I use walnut stain and various natural dyes for coloring it.
The Fackler’s eldest son, George, died in 1839 at age 17, and is said to be the first person to be buried at Fackler’s Grove Cemetery. The last burial was Sarah (Fackler) Startzer in 1917. As far as we know, there are about 36 burials in the cemetery, but we suspect there may be more. Early grave markers may have been of wood which disintegrated.
At some point the land upon which the cemetery sits was sold out of the Fackler family. In March, 1860 the cemetery was deeded to the Big Grove Trustees by Frederick Wm. Vornholt and his wife as follows:
“Know all men by these presents, that we Frederick Wm. Vonhold, and Anna Maria Elizabeth, his wife, of Johnson County and State of Iowa, in consideration of the sum of Twelve dollars and fifty cents, in hand paid by the Trustees of Big Grove Township, do hereby sell and convey unto the said Trustees and their successors of office the following described premises situated in the County of Johnson, and State of Iowa towit: (legal description ) consisting of 1 and 1/4 acres."
Malinda Dettberner, a descendant of the Facklers, told us in about 2012:
“The cemetery used to have wrought iron fencing around the plots, but this was taken down for iron to go toward the war effort. There were once two rows of Douglas Firs. A tornado went through and knocked many down and the CC boys cleaned it up. We used to have a picnic every memorial day with the family at the cemetery.”
