Atkinson Cemetery in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, is a small, unassuming cemetery nestled quietly among the urban sprawl of strip malls and fast food restaurants. Although it is visible from Highway 61, most motorists probably never spot the former country cemetery that resides in the shade of a towering oak tree, but are more likely to see its neighbor, the McDonald's restaurant, located just south of the 81st Street exit. Named after its founder John Atkinson, Atkinson Cemetery is the burial place of many of Cottage Grove's earliest settlers, many of whom were formative to the successful development of Cottage Grove. Despite its enormous significance to the community, the cemetery was abandoned and all but forgotten for nearly sixty years. Due to the efforts of the Cottage Grove Historic Planning Office and descendants of the families buried in the cemetery, Atkinson is now a historic site. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have." By examining the history of the cemetery, and the lives of the people buried there, one can understand the significance this small place holds for the City of Cottage Grove.

Minnesota contains about 4,400 cemeteries and identified farm burials, seventy-five of which are in Washington County. Due to urban development, many early burials and cemeteries were moved from their original locations and incorporated into larger, established burying grounds. Verifiable written records, if any exist, are poor at best for these early cemeteries. Often historians have turned to family oral history in order to establish any information concerning cemetery records and the people buried there. Once a cemetery was relocated, if proper documentation was not made, valuable historical information was lost. Stillwater, the oldest city in Washington County, most likely contains the oldest burial in the county. However, many of Stillwater's early burial sites were relocated into Fairview and surrounding cemeteries. While Atkinson does not contain the oldest burial in the county, it is one of the oldest cemeteries that still reside in its original location.

The earliest date in Atkinson Cemetery is on the Welch family monument, David Welch d. 1846, however it is questionable as to whether or not he is buried in Atkinson. As many settlers moved west into the Territories, many of them left family behind, and many people perished on the journey. Memorial markers were often arranged to commemorate these family members, and it is often difficult to distinguish them from actual burials. In the 1980s Gladys Munger, descendant of the Mungers buried in Atkinson and Cottage Grove cemeteries, passed on family oral history to Robert C. Vogel, then acting City Historic Planning Officer. She told him about people buried in Atkinson for whom no stones exist, and explained that David Welch was not buried there. Since no formal records exist for the cemetery, there is no way to fully verify this information. However, based on oral tradition, one may assume that David Welch's marker is merely a family tribute.

It is likely that Atkinson Cemetery's first burial is that of Martin V. B. Atkinson, son of John Atkinson. At the age of sixteen-and-a-half, Martin drowned on July 4, 1854. It only stands to reason that John Atkinson and his wife, Hannah, buried their young son on a parcel of land they owned, and gradually that parcel of land grew to become Atkinson Cemetery.

Although Atkinson Cemetery is not the oldest cemetery in the county, it is none-the-less very significant to the early history of Cottage Grove. Many of the people buried in Atkinson are the families, or relatives of the families, who helped to establish Cottage Grove. John Atkinson, Lewis Austin, Lewis Hill, and Joel and William Munger were some of the earliest settlers of significance in Cottage Grove. While all of these men were farmers, many of them established some of the earliest schools, churches and government positions in the city.

John Atkinson settled in Cottage Grove around 1846. His home served as a gathering place for many of the early town meetings, and it was here that Cottage Grove's first private school was founded. His residence became known as Atkinson's Corners, and the cemetery on his land was referred to as Corner's Cemetery. He also founded the Universalist Church, of which Lewis Hill and Joel Munger were members.

Lewis Austin was the director of Langdon School Dist. #30, and was a member of the board for Atkinson Cemetery.

Lewis Hill, also an Atkinson board member, was the first of these men to settle in Cottage Grove, sometime in 1843. He was a member of the Old Settlers Association.

Joel Munger and his brother William were also board members for Aktinson Cemetery, and Joel was elected as a trustee. Joel was also an election judge, served as justice, and was elected overseer of the public highway on the West Side of town.

William Munger is not buried in Atkinson Cemetery, but his wife and several of his children are. William loved music, and would often play his violin at local dances. Aside from attending the board of Atkinson Cemetery, William primarily stuck to farming, a love that was handed down all the way to his great-granddaughter, Gladys Munger. She was the last Munger to reside on the family farm, living there until 2001. Although William is not buried in Atkinson, his family relations to the cemetery are also significant on an international scale. William's son A'Hyatt Munger married Placidius E. Mars, daughter of Hartley Mars. In the late 1970s Forrest Mars, son of Franklin C. Mars, founder of the Mars/Milky Way Candy Corporation, contacted Gladys Munger. Forrest was tracing his family history; as it turns out, Forrest and Gladys are third cousins, and many of the Mungers buried in Atkinson are related, through marriage, to the famous Mars family.

Burials in Atkinson Cemetery began in 1854, but the Atkinson Cemetery Association was not formed until 1874. John's wife Hannah died in 1873, and shortly after selling land to the Cemetery Association, he remarried and moved to Baytown. While no gravestone exists for John Atkinson, he is assumed to have been buried in the cemetery that is his namesake.

Interments and upkeep of the cemetery were left up to the cemetery board and trustees. For the next thirty years the cemetery remained active. Plots sold for around $5, a value today of about $80. According to an original hand-drawn, undated Platt Map that exists in the Washington County Historical Society, Atkinson Cemetery sold many plots for people who were never buried there, or whose gravestones were destroyed. This map corroborates Gladys Munger's oral history. Some of these surnames include: Kemp, Hyland, Bailey, Crandall, Churchill, Belden, Fiske and Rosenquist. Many of these surnames belong to cemetery board members; in fact, James H. Crandall was one of the original three cemetery trustees. A name of special interest that appears on the map is that of J. M. Mars. The Mars Family, like the Mungers, was a large and prominent family in Cottage Grove and the surrounding area, but there is no other evidence to indicate any Marses are buried in Atkinson. John M. Mars was the son of Hartley Mars, making him a great-great uncle of Gladys Munger. If in fact John Mars is buried in Atkinson, it further solidifies the cemetery's association with the Mars Family.

The Cemetery Association appears to be inactive by the early 1900s, and, despite the tiny cemetery's significance, it fell into disuse after the burial of Alzina (Munger) Austin in 1909. With no one to care for it, and taxes due to the city, Atkinson became an abandoned cemetery. Eventually the cemetery became overgrown with lilacs and sumac, and fell prey to vandalism. In 1970 Elizabeth and John Erickson, a couple who took on the immense task of transcribing all of Washington County's cemeteries, visited Atkinson and found it in a terrible state. One of the Ericksons noted:

"It has not escaped the attention of vandals, who have left standing only three stones, two of which were apparently too massive to topple and one of which was hidden behind a clump of lilacs….this cemetery is virtually unrecognizable as such from the roads on each side of it."

In 1974 the McDonald's franchise built a restaurant on the land just south of the cemetery. Apparently the cemetery was so overgrown no one even noticed it was there. By 1979 the cemetery was in such a bad state that the county handed it over to the City of Cottage Grove. The City, along with the local Lion's Club, performed a major overhaul on the cemetery. Toppled stones were removed for repair and restoration, and most of the vegetation, save one lone oak tree, was removed. The ground also had to be leveled since it was so pockmarked by gopher holes. The grave markers were then replaced, but due to the effects of vandalism and lack of cemetery records, no one is certain if the stones were returned to their original places.

Just after it's restoration, Atkinson Cemetery suffered one more disturbance. Due to city expansion and the need to build an overpass over Highway 61, utilities needed to be run through a small corner of the cemetery. Gladys Munger sat in on a city council meeting to express her wish to not disturb the cemetery. Both she and her grandmother, Placidius (Mars) Munger, were avid activists for preserving the cemetery. Gladys was recently in communication with Forrest Mars concerning his family history and ties to Cottage Grove, and Forrest Mars lent a hand in the fight to preserve Atkinson. Though both families were adamant about not disturbing the cemetery, progress was inevitable. Early 1982 saw both the designation of Atkinson Cemetery as a historic site, and the construction of the Highway 61 overpass. It is widely believed no graves were disturbed, but Gladys Munger was later quoted as saying, "If bodies were found [in the overpass], they probably didn't tell anyone." The following year the Washington County Historical Society erected a historic plaque, and the dedication ceremony was attended by members of the Munger and Tibbets families, descendants of Atkinson's pioneers, and the Gibson family, who reside in John Atkinson's former house. The Mars family placed a monument to their ancestors on the northern edge of the cemetery.

Today Atkinson Cemetery is well tended, and there have been no further incidents of vandalism. Atkinson is no longer a country cemetery, but stands as a historical symbol of the development it's buried pioneers started over 150 years ago.