Mystery grave

Mar. 29, 2018

I stumbled across this isolated odd plot in the west end of the McCleary Cemetery today. The disturbed turf looked to be about the size needed to bury a pet.

Antique Farm Engine and Tractor Association Swap Meet

Aug. 13, 2017

This large sign is next to the Cemetery.

Weird.

McCleary Cemetery and McCleary Community Center

July 23, 2017.
There is something poetic and oddly comforting about these two community facilities being next to each other.

It's Miller Time!

Apr. 21, 2017.

Someone left a full bottle of Miller Beer as a memorial token on the headstone for Russ McMillan (1920-1998).  The number of people around McCleary who remember the colorful Mr. McMillan has been rapidly declining.

McCleary Cemetery

Oct. 12, 2016.

This cemetery was started around 1911. Shortly after it began, the local Knights of Pythias took charge of it. In May, 1945 the lodge handed over the property to the McCleary municipal government.

A 1994 survey and indexing project established that over 20 unmarked and unrecorded graves exist, thanks in part to the soundings performed earlier by Herbert "Mac" McCready.

Cemetery cemerry-go-round

Sept. 21, 2016. OK, maybe it is just me, but doesn't it seem sort of weird to have a functioning merry-go-round behind the cemetery? Especially since it so isolated from anything else?

I expect Rod Serling, or worse, to step out of the woods any moment.

A twist and turn in Wildcat Creek

July 15, 2016. Behind the Cemetery.

Greek section

McCleary Cemetery, July 12, 2016

George Itsos (1886-1940), Christ Pappas (1882-1956), Savvas Karaynnis (1873-1923), George Iliades (d. 1919), Peter Cholos (1873-1917), Demetrios Stamatoy "Yakima" Eanis (1881-1963), Anton Stergon (1882-1915) and three unmarked.

Claire Farrar 1897-1977

Claire M. Farrar, July 31, 1897-Nov. 5, 1977. "Head Loader" A very nice occupational symbol for this gentleman. June 2, 2011

Christ Pappas 1882-1956

"Born in Samos, Greece."

Henry McCleary, who ran this company town, "wished not to tolerate unions" and hired many workers from Italy and Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean in the early part of the 20th century as they were not likely to organize as laborers at that point in history.

Many of the Italians, who mostly arrived from the northern part of Italy, remained in McCleary. Angelo Pellegrini, perhaps McCleary's most famous historical resident, landed in McCleary as a boy in 1913. The neighborhood blocks around First and Mommsen (where the Pellegrinis lived) was known as "Little Italy."

Many of the Greeks who worked here did not settle in McCleary, although a few remained such as grocery store owner Nick Rillakis. The McCleary Cemetery has a small Greek section and a few of the headstones are carved in the Greek alphabet.

May 25, 2012

McCleary Community Center

May 19, 2012. If I am not mistaken, I believe the Boy Scouts had some role in the construction of this building in the late 1940s.

Next door is the McCleary Cemetery, once operated by the Knights of Pythias but handed over to the city when McCleary incorporated in Jan. 1943.  

Funeral preparation

McCleary Cemetery, Feb. 4, 2012