August Monch
Maplewood Cemetery
Iroquois, Kingsbury County, South Dakota.
(Jan 18, 1844 - May 1, 1917)
This picture is for August Monch (Moench), buried in the Maplewood Cemetery (old part), Iroquois, SD. We arrived at the cemetery in between two torrential rain storms moving through the area. We drove into the cemetery and immediately came to a halt as all the roads in the cemetery were under water. While sitting in the driveway wondering how to proceed, the caretaker (Rollie Walter) drove in. There had been a funeral earlier in the afternoon and he had returned to see if the grave had been filled. I visited with him and showed him the coordinates for the grave. However, since there are no markings for the sections, he stated we would need to check the records at his office to locate the grave. Also, since the roads were impassable (the vault truck had been stuck earlier), he offered to take me into the right section with his pickup. We went to his office where he found the grave plot was owned by Otto Moench, a son of August. We returned to the cemetery and I took the picture and we left town just ahead of the arrival of the second storm. Ben K. Sager (6/29/2010)