Cedar Creek Cemetery

We wanted to visit the Cedar Creek Cemetery near Salem, Iowa but weren't sure how to find it. Inside a local cafe, our ears perked up when we heard a conversation about Quakers, ancestors, and the Cedar Creek Meeting. We met Jean, a member of that church since childhood, who kindly took us out to the cemetery. It sits on a gravel road beside corn fields. We never would have found this little cemetery if not for Jean. It was there we saw the gravestone of our great-great-great grandparents, Henry Frazer and Mary
Otwell Frazer. Mary was Ann's mother. She died soon after the families came to Iowa in 1855. Below are excerpts from a poem Ann wrote when her mother died:

Alas! The parting hour has come
The ransomed spirit's took its flight
And in the cold and silent tomb
My dear mother sleeps tonight.

At Cedar Creek, Friends burial place
Her toil-worn body now doth rest
And by the marvelous plan of grace
We trust in Christ her soul doth rest.

A weeping willow's boughs shall wave
To mark the place where thou dost lie
And sing a requiem o'er thy grave
As moaning winds are passing by.

And brothers, sisters, let each sigh
Bear up, in faith a fervent prayer
That we may live with her on high
When our day's work is ended here.

That we may all again unite
A happy family complete
On plains of never-ending light
With joy unminded each other greet.

Level Lawn
Henry County Iowa
Tenth mo. 19th, 1855

Ann & Henry undoubtedly visited her parents' graves as they passed through Salem in 1867. The headstone is not the original. Possibly a descendant placed a newer marker on the graves.
We marveled that we "just happened" to encounter Jean who, as it turns out, is a 4th cousin to us!