Part 3 of a Series
Editor’s Note: A lot can be learned about a town’s history by visiting local cemeteries. That’s exactly what I did, setting out on a quest to find some of the oldest grave markers in area cemeteries I could find, then looking for the stories behind them. This week’s segment takes us to the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery.
Gothenburg was a growing boomtown in the late 1800s. As more families immigrated here - primarily driven by the Homestead Act - the need for amenities to accommodate those families grew as well. That included houses of worship.
The population of the newly established community included a large number of German immigrants who formed a settlement north of Gothenburg. Church services were conducted in a sod schoolhouse northeast of town for nearly s…