Former Glenwood Resource Center workers find missing cemetery markers

GLENWOOD, Iowa (WOWT) - For nearly 150 years, the Glenwood Resource Center cared for a treated intellectually disabled people. The State of Iowa closed the facility in June, but it’s not just empty buildings left on the almost deserted campus.

During her 40 years working there, Carrie Merritt cared for patient memories by documenting where those who passed away were buried.

“It took me ten years to do this whole cemetery, grave by grave,” Merritt said.

When she retired in 1987, Merritt said nearly all the graves had standing gravestones and most have been replaced by flat markers that are easier to mow around and over. But there are letter and number posts corresponding with a plot map to show who is buried where.

Former GRC staff member Amanda Reed found several removed markers in a shed near the cemetery.

“We tried to find answers for the families,” Reed said. “At least five stones werre in here that hold people’s names and numbers for plots. And those numbers do not coincide or aren’t there in the actual cemetery or on the plot map.”

For example, there is a marker with the name Nora Aske, who died in 1938, and one that reads “M. Hansen.” But on the list containing the cemetery’s plot map, those names are nowhere to be found.

Merritt says she helped family members locate the grave of the name on one marker, but Carrie she kept an educated opinion to herself.

“She is not buried where that marker is,” Merritt said. “But I didn’t tell the family that. I felt it might upset them.”

6 News contacted the state and received word that the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services completed a comprehensive review of documentation on the property.

They walked the entire cemetery and visited each gravesite. As result updates result updates were made to the cemetery plot map, ground markers have bene placed on graves with missing nameplates.

The updates ensure all records are current and the identification of each plot is accurately reflect in the records, but the agency welcomes any information from the public to help in keeping those records accurate.

“I’d like to see all of them,” Merritt said. “All of the stones in the right places.”

When the GRC closed in June, these two former staffers didn’t stop working to ensure that records on patients buried in the cemetery get proper treating, so their families can find their final resting place.

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