Green's Prairie Cemetery Memorial Day Program

A disturbing phone call in early April told of vandalism at the Green's Prairie Cemetery, just north of Postville. The caller related that one of the members of the Green's Prairie Cemetery Assn. had stopped at the cemetery for an early spring check.
What he found was disturbing...very disturbing. Sometime in the pervious, week vandals had gone to the tiny cemetery and tipped and broke a number of headstones that dated to the mid to late 1800's. The vandalism was a senseless act of ignorance that can have no explanation. And tragically, those responsible for this act will probably go uncaught.
The timing was of particular interest. This act occurred at just about the same date as the 150th anniversary of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army. How, one has to ask, can anyone justify the desecration of the graves of our forefathers who fought and, so often died, in successfully saving the Union we hold so sacred. These men, Elisa Gorham, Rosel Crowel, John W. Stewart, George B. Thomas, Amos Conkey and John Westcott, who died just two years after the end of the Civil War, deserved better, much better.
Since that time in early April, much has happened at this small country cemetery which once held the remains of Josiah LaFollette, father of Fighting Bob LaFollette, Marion LaFollette, age 2 years, 10 months, son of Josiah and Mary, Robert W. LaFollette, age 8 months, 27 days, son of Henry and Susan LaFollette.
The Greens Prairie Cemetery Assn. in conjunction with the Green County Prairie Enthusiasts did a prescribed prairie burn on April 26th. This burning was done to reinvigorate this year's new growth of the prairie. In the days before white settlement both wild fires set off by lightening strikes, and intentionally, by the Winnebago people who walked this land for centuries before the white settlers arrived. These burns were done get rid of woody invasive species which keep the prairies verdant and healthy.
Green's Prairie Cemetery is the sole remaining remnant of original prairie which once covered over 5000 acres in the Town of York Walking the prairie this past Sunday an overpowering feeling began growing deep inside. The prairie that just three weeks ago was blackened by the prescribed burn was, today, alive with green prairie plants, rapidly growing from their recent spring tonic of fire.
At the grave of one of the Civil War veterans three tiny flowers were in full bloom, yellow star grass, blue violet wood sorrel, and blue eyed grass. Nearby, the compass plant so beautifully written about in Aldo Leopold's, Sand County Almanac, will, in August, stand six feet tall as its beautiful yellow flowers burst forth, adding much to the beauty of the approaching fall.