He also owns a small oil and gas royalty interest under the actual cemetery grounds that is connected to a nearby producing gas well. Every month a very tiny royalty check arrives by "snail-mail" to serve as a sentimental reminder of this beautiful little Silent City, high on the hill south of town.
More than 1,000 persons have been buried in the Verden Cemetery since its beginning before statehood in 1907. The earliest known official burial was in January of 1900, when J.C. Wier died at the age of 62.
Buried in a nearby space within the same Wier family lot is Lieutenant George U. Rose, his son-in-law. Rose was a Civil War Union veteran from Arkansas and fought with General George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Washita on November 27, 1868. This battle occurred near Cheyenne in Roger Mills County, in western Oklahoma.
Rose married Hattie Virginia Wier. She came to Oklahoma from Virginia in 1887 with the Rev. John J. Methvin and his family to help establish the Methodist Mission among the Indians. After Rose died, Hattie married Otis Neal Lay and is buried in a nearby lot. Decendants of these families still live in the immediate area.
Copies of early newspaper obitutaries are also being collected from several different sources. Many of these have been found on microfilm of The Verden News located at the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City. However, some of the microfilm during the early years is missing. Microfilm of The Anadarko Daily News is now being searched to find any missing obitutaries. Anadarko is located seven miles west of Verden. Some obitutaries are from the personal collection of the late Roy Harold Talkington, area pioneer.
Assisting in this project is long-time friend John Wilson Triplett of Oklahoma City. Both he and his wife Karen have many close business and personal ties with the Grady County area. John is a native of the region and serves as a Computer Professor at Oklahoma State University in Oklahoma City.
Aaron A. Hiatt, John's grandfather, was one of the early pioneers of the Verden vicinity and founded The Verden News in 1905. He died in 1933 and is buried in the Verden Cemetery. One section of the cemetery, known as the Triplett Addition, was acquired from and named after John's late father, Jack Triplett.
Publication of a book on this cemetery can be expected within the next year.
E-MAIL N. Dale Talkington at: daletalkington@hotmail.com