The Pioneer Catholic Cemetery, located four miles southwest of Monona, is one of the oldest Catholic cemeteries in this part of the state, dating back to the pastorate of the Rev. Richard Nagle.

Because there was no Catholic cemetery closer than Prairie du Chien, the people were in great straits for burial ground. Michael Humphrey and his wife donated about an acre of their farm for use as a cemetery. Many people from all parts of this territory were buried in this cemetery until a few years after the second St. Richard's, now St. Patrick's Church was built.

In recent years, Norway spruce trees were planted around this cemetery. The last thing to be done was the erection of a life-sized corpus of Christ on the Cross in the center of the cemetery. This statue was donated by the late P. H. Humphrey as a symbol of salvation in honor of his parents and other members of the parish.

In the recent past, someone decided to "fix up" the cemetery and removed all the gravestones but one.

The original list of burials & cemetery history was submitted by Mildred Hall from an unknown source
Additional burials, dates & comments were transcribed by Phyllis Montour from WPA cemetery records. The notes enclosed by [brackets] indicate where the WPA records differ from the original list

Important notice to researchers: WPA records are known to be incomplete & may contain errors - please use as a guide only

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