The Wesley Chapel Cemetery was founded in 1889. It
was deeded by Richard Moxley to the Morey Chapel on
April 1, 1891, for the sum of $1.00 On January 2,
1895, Morey Chapel deeded the land to the Wesley
Methodist Chapel and Cemetery Association. The
deeds are - "for ever and ever."
The Cemetery is located at 120th and Huron. The Wesley
Methodist Chapel (1891) was located on the southern
part of the cemetery with its front door facing what
is now 120th. The church, with pride, was able to
claim six stained glass windows. In the 1930’s the
church was relocated in Broomfield.
Mr. Percy Marion is the present caretaker of the cemetery. The Wesley Chapel Cemetery Association is in
charge of it. One of the few times that vandals
bothered the cemetery, six gravestones were stolen.
One of them, belonging to Mrs. McIntosh’s brother,
was a lamb and scroll made of marble.
Most of the people who are buried there died of normal
causes, old age or sickness. Two, however did not.
Dell Shaffer was killed by lightening. Mr. Hartley
was killed when a hay rack upset on him during a windstorm.
The owners of the different lots can not necessarily
be traced by the deeds. Sometimes the persons who
bought the lots ended up reselling their lots or giving them to a neighbor who had died without owning
any.
Mr. & Mrs. Marion
Many organizations have tried to buy or use part of
the cemetery. Fuller & Co. offered to take care of
the cemetery if they could set up a gas station on
the corner of 120th and Huron where no graves are
located. Their offer was refused. The Front Range
Development attempted to move the graves to a cemetery
in Greeley. Two things stopped them. One was the
"forever" deed. The other was that the graves could
not be moved without the nearest relatives consent.
Many of the relatives could not be found or were not
known. When 120th was widened, the road crew tore
down some of the fences surrounding the cemetery.
They rebuilt the southern edge with modern fencing.
The Wesley Chapel Association rebuilt the western and
norther fences. The Public Service does have a substation on the northern edge of the cemetery.
* Mrs. McIntosh on Riverdale Rd. has many of the
graves located on a map she made using the information from a list of deeds, their owners, and
location. This list was made by Clara Cree of
Greeley.
Moxley Family Plot
There are over 100 people buried at the cemetery.
Many are unknown. Some of the wooden crosses mark
the graves of those too poor to buy tombstones.
Others mark the grave of a person whose name was
never known to those who buried him. Most of the
graves are located in the northern part of blocks
2 & 3, and the southwestern corner of block 5.
The Moxley brother[s], Richard and Frank, came to Colorado in the hope of curing Frank’s T.B. The move did not help the Irish brothers. Six months after Richard had deeded the land to Morey Chapel, Frank was buried there at the age of thirty-seven (1854-1891). The last person to be buried at the cemetery was ninety-six year old Clara Johnson in the late 1960’s. Her maiden name was Hutchinson. She was buried in a large fenced off family plot.
Richard Moxley [Gravestone]
The grave of a soldier, located near the west fence.
The cemetery as seen from the center of the gravestones.
Joseph Scott, second person buried at the cemetery.
The following nine pages were written by Mrs. Clara
Cree.* Some of the information is incorrect or
incomplete. The first two paragraphs on page 1 are
rewritten correctly as follows:
This cemetery was founded in 1889, the land
was a gift of Richard Moxley, 1852—1928, to
the Wesleyan Methodist Church and Cemetery
Association for use as a cemetery and Church
ground forever and ever. The first land title
was deeded April 1891. Due to a technical
error, a second deed was recorded January 1895.
The first burial was Mr. Moxley’s brother,
Frank Moxley, b. 1854, who died October 17,
1891 at the age of 37. He was buried in
Block 3, Lot #2, Space #______.
Corrections from page 3 of deed book:
1891 #1. Buried - Mr. Frank Moxley,
(b. 1854) in Block 3, Lot #1,
Space #1, who dies 17 October
1891, Age 37. Brother of
Richard Moxley.
* Mrs. McIntosh’s copy was used for the research.
References:
Mr & Mrs. Percy Marion
Mr. David McIntosh and his mother
Mr. & Mrs. Tom Shaffer
Brighton Courthouse
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