Niwot Cemetery records Niwot history

Fourth in a series of articles highlighting Niwot's 150-year history.

Niwot was platted 150 years ago, but was never incorporated as a town or city. Early settlers in and around Niwot suffered many hardships, one of which was the tragic death of children.

In 1881, Jerome and Amy Gould, who had homesteaded near Left Hand Creek north of Haystack Mountain, lost their son, Ernest, who died at the age of 13 of appendicitis. According to their great-granddaughter, Nancy Hindman, who lives on Niwot Road, Ernest was first buried at Burlington Cemetery, now in Longmont.

Amy Gould was distraught that her son was buried so far away from their home, so Jerome Gould moved their son's body to a gentle knoll on their property on Nimbus Road just west of 73rd Street, where another grave with a tombstone marked 1873 was located. On January 4, 1884, Jerome Gould deeded the 1.84-acre plot of land to "the inhabitants of the Town of Ni Wot and the vicinity thereof..., said land being conveyed for use as a place of burial of the dead."

For many years thereafter, Niwot area residents buried their family members in the Niwot Cemetery. A metal gate, fencing and a sign were erected. To maintain the cemetery, the Niwot Cemetery Association was formed and bylaws were adopted. Records of the cemetery maintained by Hindman and others over the years show that the bylaws were later amended from time to time, in 1911, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1920 and 1922, always in the month of May.

Although burials continued to take place, the association became inactive for many years thereafter, but it was revitalized in the 1990s, thanks to the efforts of Hindman and her longtime friend and classmate, JoAnn Bell, both of whom were born and raised in Niwot.

The Niwot Cemetery Association was incorporated as a Colorado non-profit corporation on March 30, 1999, exactly 124 years after the plat of the Town of Niwot was recorded, and sought to obtain grants to repair and maintain the cemetery. There was only one problem - the Niwot Cemetery Association had to prove that it owned the cemetery to obtain the grant.

The 1884 deed conveyed the property to "the inhabitants of the Town of Ni Wot and the vicinity thereof." But there was no official "Town of Ni Wot." In addition, there was no way to determine who the "inhabitants" of the non-existent town and its undefined "vicinity" were in 1884.

Since the Association had maintained the cemetery for far longer than the 18 years required by Colorado law to obtain title, the Association filed a "quiet title" lawsuit in Boulder County District Court. After publication of notice to any "interested parties" as well as consent from the neighboring landowners at the time, Geraldine and William Copley, the court issued an order establishing ownership of the cemetery, listed at 1.935 acres according to a survey, by the Niwot Cemetery Association.

The Niwot Cemetery Association recently obtained an easement on the the east and west sides of the cemetery, donated by Doug and Mimi Lyle, who now own the adjacent property, which will allow better access and parking near the cemetery.

The current Niwot Cemetery Association bylaws have maintained the historic requirement that burial plots are limited to those persons who have resided "in the Niwot community and the vicinity thereof" for 20 years or more, or who have family members buried in the cemetery.

According to the association, now headed by president Owen Hargraves, there are currently no plots for sale. But the association continues to maintain the cemetery, now an official Colorado Historical Site, placing flags on the graves of the 13 veterans of wars dating back to the Civil War who are buried there every Memorial Day.