O'Brien County Cemetery
Preservation Association
Hannibal H. Waterman Cemetery
4730 Yellow Ave. Waterman, Iowa
Hannibal H. Waterman Cemetery
*On July 11, 1856 Hannibal & Hannah Waterman and their daughter Emil arrived by covered wagon in O’Brien County (then called Woodbury County for tax purposes). The family settled near the Little Sioux where the Waterman Creek joins the river. Mr. Waterman exercised his squatter’s rights and filed on Section 22, township 94, Range 39 now in the township that bears his name.
Waterman Township consisted of 128 persons in 1875 with no recorded deaths and only 4 births. Voters in O’Brien County numbered 595.
The Waterman’s daughter, Anna, born May 30, 1857 was the first white child born in O’Brien County. Eleven children were born to Mr. & Mrs. Waterman, 4 boys and 7 girls. All the boys died in their earlier years but the girls all grew to womanhood. The Watermans established their own cemetery on a hill east of their home.
Besides their 4 boys 13 other persons are buried there. The bodies of Archibald Murray and James A. DeWitt were once buried there but have been moved to Peterson. The American Legion furnished a plaque and the cemetery was named the “Hannibal H. Waterman Cemetery.”
*Those who rest there:
Oran S. Waterman, age 10, Died December 19, 1871
Leon Grant Waterman, Born October 5, 1869, died May 14, 1870
A Son, (unnamed) Waterman, age three weeks, died May 14, 1859
A Son, (stillborn) of Mr. & Mrs. H.H. Waterman.
Mr. Hycks, brother-in-law of George and Ezra Mc Omber
Mr. Prince
Baby, 1 ½ years old, from the Judd Allen Family
Mr. and Mrs. Robinson
Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, married age19
Son, Decatur, age 18 or 19
Mr. and Mrs. Swim
Baby boy, age unknown
Two children of the Coffman family
Archibald Murray, was moved to Peterson cemetery
James DeWitt, was moved to Peterson cemetery
Dr. Luther E. Head, died September 21, 1872. He settled in Grant Township in 1870 on Section 22. He was born at Tamworth, New Hampshire in 1843. Served as a hospital Nurse during the Civil War. The Sutherland Legion decorates his grave each
Memorial Day.
Names of the 11 Waterman children
Emily, Anna, Etta, Alta, Oran S., Leon Grant, Floy, Belle Miranda,
Mary Blanch, and two unnamed sons died in infancy.
The Waterman Cemetery is located on the land of the Prairie Heritage Center east of Sutherland.
*Sutherland, Iowa 1976 P. 8 -10
*History of O’Brien County, Iowa 1979 p. 17