Restoring Dignity to the Poor Farm Cemetery

The Poor Farm Cemetery near Fergus Falls, Minnesota contains the bodies of those too poor to afford a proper burial in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Under Minnesota Statute Section 306.245, a town may step in to maintain and keep clear of weeds “a cemetery that has been neglected for at least ten years.” Section 306.243 further states that a town board “may appropriate the general revenue funds necessary for the improvement and maintenance of . . . (1) a cemetery that has been abandoned or neglected and the association having had charge of the cemetery has disbanded or fails to act; or (2) an abandoned or neglected private cemetery containing the remains of pioneers or residents of this state, deceased before 1875 or civil war veterans or veterans of the armed services of the United States.” The timeline of the Poor Farm Cemetery appears to make it eligible for a town board to appropriate funds for its maintenance under the second prong of this statute.

However, this task has been taken on by Bob Reipe. It is not clear what Mr. Reipe’s motivation is aside from a humanitarian motivation to give the buried “dignity at last.” While the town could have stepped in and funded the clearing and upkeep of this cemetery, it thus far appears to have failed to do so. And it is not clear if Mr. Reipe’s actions are, in a legal sense, within the bounds of the law. He is not running a cemetery, and therefore likely falls out of the governing law of Minnesota of public and private cemeteries. However, he is clearing, maintaining, and giving a name and restoring dignity to those who were buried there – whether a veterinarian, a proprietor of a “house of ill repute,” a civil war veteran, or a prisoner. The town board in this situation seems to have avoided using this option to maintain the cemetery, but perhaps they will step in and help Mr. Reipe to better commemorate the dead and poor.

Anastasia E. Fanning