Person:Leroy Drake (1)

Birth:Told to me by Leroy.,Not Recorded. Per Soc. Sec. Application and WWI Draft Registration Card

WWI Draft Registration Card Dated 5 Jun 1918 Leroy Drake 21yrs resides Fergus Falls, Minn. Born Dec. 18, 1896 at Perham, Minn Father born- Wisconsin Employer - N.P. R.R. Place of Employment - Fergus Falls, Minn Name of nearest relative - Gustave Drake resides in Fergus Falls, Minn Physical Description - Gray eyes and Black hair

Newspaper clipping - no name or date - Fergus Falls? "Oak Grove Dates Back to 1871" by Mrs. W.L. Robertson

  "Oak Grove Cemetery was established nearly 100 years ago and it is doubtful if it ever looked more beautiful than this year.
  Lilacs, spirea, snowballs, mock-orange, violets, lily of the valley are all in bloom, and there are hundreds of urns filled with flowers adding to the natural beauty provived by the trees, some of which have stood formuch longer than a century.
  The first meeting to organize the cemetery association was held Sept. 13, 1873, with the following present Dr. M.S. Goodale, J.P. Williams, Jacob Austin, M.V. Austin, A.H. Lord, Frank Squire, Sam H. Nicols and Dr. R.M. Reynolds, M.S. Goodale was chairman and S.H. Nichols, secretary.
  The name "Oak Grove Cemetery Association" was adopted and the trustees elected were, first class, Henry G. Page and Sam H. Nichols second class, Dr. R.M. Reynolds and Ernest Buse and third class, J.P. Williams.
  Records indicate that prior to 1873 the land had been used as a burial ground for a fee of 25 cents per acre.  Oct. 25, 1873, J.P. Willaims, acting for the Association, purchased 12.32 acres at 32 cents per acre from the state, and on Oct. 12, 1874, approval was given for the purchase of an additional 40 acres of land lying "above the Buse farm." Since then additional land has been acquired.
  While the cemetery was organized as Oak Grove, it was known to residents of the city as Mount faith Cemetery for a great many years.  The records of the Association, without explanation, at times refer to the cemetery as Mount Faith, and the city directory of 1883-1884 in listing incorportations within the city, has the following: Mount Faith Cemetery Association incorporated Sept. 13, 1873.  Trustees for 1883-84 are listed as C.C.Clement, W.C. Bedford, O.C. Chase, C.H. Goodsell, C.H. Dunton, with C.C. Clement, president; W.C. Bedford, secretary; C.H. Dunton, actuary.
  There had always been a question whether Mt. Faith avenue was named for the cemetery, or the cemetery for the avenue.  Maps of the city, published in 1873, show Mt. Faith Avenue and in May 1874, the village council confirmed the "survey and extension of Mt. Faith eastward to the village limits."
 There are at the present time 4,368 graves in Oak Grove Cemetery.  In early years such diseases as dipthereia, spotted fever (small pox), scarlet fever, typhoid and consumption (tuberculosis) took a heavy toll and often claifed (sic) two and three in a family.
  Gravestones in the cemetery form a "directory" of the first builders of the city and their immediate succesors.  Ernest Buse, the first permanenet settler, erecter a family monument including the names of his wife, himslf, his mother, sister, and his two children -- Eliza the first white child born in Fergus Falls on March 28, 1870, and Ernest , born in 1871. Ernest died April 16, 1872, age nine months, and Eliza June 15, 1872, both of spotted fever.  The Buse monument is directly north of the lilac hedge at the entrance to the cemetery.
  LeRoy Drake has been taking care of the cemetery since 1920.  He assisted his father for two years before that.  His salary in the 20's was $3.75 a day and for this he furnished his own team and wagon, and in addition paid $7 a season for the privilege of pasturing his team on grassland near the cemetery.
  Drake recalls that the person who had worked the longest at the cemetery besides himself was the late William Siems, who worked continuously for 23 years, walking from his home on Stanton Avenue West to the cemetery each morning and home again in the evening. "We worked ten hours a day, six days in the week then, and Siems also dug the graves. He was a conscientious worker."
  Wages have increased since then.  Drake now has two helpers in the cemetery.  There is more ground to be cared for and it is due to diligent service that the cemetery is so well kept.  Because of rising labor costs it has been necessary for Drake to ask for $2 per year if he is expected to water urns.  Florists ask for $2 extra when furnishing an urn and they then do the watering, or turn the $2 over to the caretaker asking that he be responsible for this extra service.  Perpetual care provides for the care of the lot itself.
  Lots in the cemetery originally sold for $5 and $10.  In those days the Association was hard up and was called upon to pay 10 per cent on notes issued to secure money for the purchase of lands.
  A lot for one erson ow costs $62.50 with perpetual care, but the day is not far distant when it may be necessary to increase this figure.  One of the first rules of the Association was and still is that anyone with a lot to sell may only sell back to the Association for the price paid for the lot.  This rule was invoked to prevent speculation in cemtery lots.  Money received from lot sales is invested and the returns used to provide perpetual care.
  There is a need for the establishment of a vault at the cemetery so that in the event of evere winter weather burial might be deferred.
  Knute Hanson serves as secretary of Oak Grove Cemetery Association.  Three copies are provided for each transfer, one to the purchaser, one for the Association and one for the caretaker.
  Memorial Day finds most graves decorate, with special attention paid by Legion Posts to the veterans of all wars."

Obituary LeRoy Drake LeRoy harold Drake,81, 612 E. Summit, died Sunday, Feb. 26, at South Bay Hospital, Redondo Beach, Calif. Services will be Saturday, March 4, at 2 p.m. at Grace United Methodist Church with the Rev. Alvin Maetche officiating. Burial will be in Oak Grove Cemetery. Mr. Drake was born Dec. 18, 1896, near Perham to Gustave and Amanda Drake. He married Mildred Watrin may 6, 1932 at Sisseton, S.D. As a young man he was employed by the Great Northern Railroad. He served in the Merchant Marines during World War I. He was employed for 55 years by Oak Grove Cemetery Association until his retirement in 1974. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, Mrs. Tom (Kathryn) Jeanplong, Torrance, Calif.; Mrs. Robert (Florence) Sorbet, San Bernardino, Calif.; and Mrs. Paige (Dorothy) Johnson, Redondo Beach Calif.; one son, Vernon, Prescott, Wis.; 11 grandchildren; two brothers, Harry Drake, Capitola, Calif., and Jesse Drake, Vancouver, Wash., and one sister, Mrs. Myrtle Brien, Rivers Edge, N.J. Visitation beginning tonight at Glende-Johnson-Nelson Funeral Home.

1930 Census Fergus Falls, Otter Tail, MN T626-1111 Page 188 April 23, 1930 E.D. 56-33 Ward 1 Sheet 20A Mt. Faith Ave Lamont, Ralph L head 33

               Agnes
               Percy
              Warren
             Marvyn ?
              Ruth

Drake, Leroy H lodger 32 S MN WI WI Caretaker Cemetery Veteran WW Drake, Jessie J lodger 22 S MN WI WI Laborer Cemetery

1. ↑ Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index: Death Master File, database. (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service).
2. ↑ United States. Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. (Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publication M1509, 1987-1988).
3. ↑ State of California. Certificate of Death.