There are three historic pioneer cemeteries on the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant land: the Miller family cemetery, the Pioneer cemetery, and the Thoelke cemetery. When the federal government bought the land for the ordnance plant in 1942, no more burials were allowed and the U.S. Army assumed responsibility for the care and maintenance of the cemeteries. Click on a photo to access burial records for each cemetery listed here.
Oldest and largest of three cemeteries inside Badger Ordnance Plant. Deeded Nov 23, 1864 but burials were much earlier than that. Cemetery association dissolved. It is well kept by the plant. When the Government bought the land for Badger Ordnance in 1942, no more burials were allowed.
There are records of 234 burials in the Pioneer Cemetery
The Pioneer Cemetery
As one walks through these cemeteries and looks at the crumbling monuments, fascinating stories come to mind of the early days on the Sauk Prairie and the lives of the immigrants and their children who settled the area, plowed the land for farms, built homes, churches and schools.
Around 1854, land was set aside on the Thoelke farm for burials. Theland remained in the family until acquired by the Immanuel Church Evangelical Association, but it kept its original name.
The property was adjacent to the home of John Thilke, who is buried in the cemetery. The last burial was in 1934.
Carl Bachschmidt, a Civil War veteran, was buried here in 1879. Total burials in the Thoelke Cemetery are 37.
Little is known about the Miller family cemetery except that three children were buried here from 1852-1862, all under the age of three.
