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American Fork Cemetery
American Fork, Utah, Utah

Updated Photos 07-11-09
Most of the grave locations are listed now
A Special Thanks To All The Volunteer Photographers

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Family members that I know are buried there:
Name:  Birth Date:  Death Date: Burial Date:  Spouse's Name:

July 4 and 5, 1996
by
Bonnie Madge Shipley Anderson

The day after leaving Jakob at the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah on the 3^rd of July; Jack, Brenda, Andy, and I went to American Fork to see the new Mount Timpanogos Temple and to go to the American Fork Cemetery.

The Temple looked complete from the outside and the landscaping was almost complete. I believe the dedications  started the end of August. We took pictures of the temple and checked the Fairyland Park across the street. There was nothing in the park with the exception of a statue of a man with no inscription and a sign Fairyland. I found out later that it used to be a park and everything was taken down. It was part of a school for the developmentally delayed now.

The Mt. Timpanogos Temple looks over the whole area of American Fork and surrounding communities. Mount Timpanogos over shadows it in the background. It is light grey and has beautiful windows. It looks like old New England architecture. Similar to the new ward building in Fallon Nevada for the fifth ward. We asked directions from one of the guards at the temple and proceeded to the cemetery.

The American Fork Cemetery is located at 100 East 600 North American Fork, Utah 84003. To write and inquire about the cemetery the address is American Fork City Hall 31 North Church Street American Fork Utah 84003.

Our mission on the 4^th of July 1996, was to find the monument to Joseph and Elizabeth Shipley pioneers of that location,(My paternal great grandparents). Because of the holiday the office was closed so going on what we could remember of pictures we had seen we all set out. We left Jeanine Shipley and Mary Anderson in the van. It was such a hot day and the humidify was so high that we were drenched in minutes. I felt quite sad that I had forgotten my genealogy but my priority had been to get Jakob to the MTC and this was an after thought. Finally Jack discovered the monument in a section we had already been through. We were all so excited and happy to find it.

In section F 208 there were individual headstones for the following and they read:

Joseph Shipley
Utah
Pvt. Mormon BN. Vols.
Mexican War
Nov 1, 1813 Oct 24, 1901
*

The monument reads.

Facing East -

Facing West -

The family genealogy reads that Sarah Shipley died Aug 6, 1881 and that Mary Eliza died Jan 3, 1879. I will check this out. Might be a typo. on my part.

We took pictures and spent about an hour or more trying to read the inscription on Margaret’s headstone. The stone had deteriated so much we tried using different lighting to try and read it. We came up with the following that day:

God in His wisdom has called
The boon His love had given
And though the body molding here
The soul’s safe in heaven.

It took more then time to come up with this. I know I said a silent prayer or more and I never asked but I would guess there was some others who offered prayers also.

The next day as I was reading what we had come up with, I new that molding wasn’t right and corrected it to molds.

As we were getting ready to leave the cemetery I remembered the story of how Charlotte Timms Hill, (paternal great grandmother), had gone to American Fork to visit one of her daughters and had gotten sick the first week there and died. They had buried her there rather than sending her body to the Logan area. Later James had gone to live with the daughter and been buried there when he died. So we decided we would return to the cemetery the next day. We went to the office to see when it would be open the next day. There was a sign that said the office is open in the Summer from 7:00 AM until 3:30 PM.

I had a real hard time sleeping and woke Jack, Brenda, and Andy before 7:00 to see if they wanted to go back to the cemetery while it was cooler. After they moaned and groaned we left Spanish Fork, where we were staying at 8:00 AM.

Upon arriving at the cemetery office we went in and found a very nice young man there who was very helpful. We asked about the Hills and the computer kept coming up with nothing. So I asked him to try Timms and nothing. Then when I told him it was pre 1900 he looked some more. I couldn’t see the monitor for the computer very well, but I thought I saw the name Shipley come up and asked him to stop and check that out because we had Shipley’s there also. He showed us the ones we had seen the day before and new ones also. So I asked him, "How come when you were looking for the Hills the Shipleys came up?" So he tried it again and there they were in spaces paid for by Joseph A. Shipley. We were very excited and had him take us out to the spots.

Here are the locations and who we found. E83 -

Willard John Shipley
Oct 14, 1856 - Dec 30, 1930
*

Sylvia F. Bromley Shipley
Dec 22, 1869 - Mar 31, 1928
*

The records showed that a Tolman Kitchen was also buried there in plot 3, Willard in 2, and Sylvia in 9. Who is Tolman Kitchen?

The spaces were still owned by W.J. Shipley. There was no record of different ownership. Willard is the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Shipley. 

F134 is still owned by Joseph A. Shipley and shows a Barbara Jean Jones buried there Aug 10, 1929 with no headstone and a George Bennett 24 Aug 1885 with no headstone.

These are the children of Joseph A. and Frances Hill Shipley

Shipley
Adrian Alice Flora
1899 - 1906 1892 - 1905 1890 - 1905
*

In Memory of
Charlotte Hill
The beloved wife of
James Hill
Died
June 28, 1887
aged
70 years

God in His wisdom has called
The boon His love had given
And though the body molds here
The spirit is safe in Heaven.

James Hill
Born in Berkshire Eng
May 8, 1820
Died
Feb 20, 1903
*

We took pictures until we ran out of film. The Hills are in a beautiful section. There are three huge pine trees next to them. Later when we were going back to take more pictures of Willard and Sylvia’s headstones Andy and Brenda ran across the next headstone in section E?

Mother Thornton Father
Elizabeth Shipley Alexander
Feb 1, 1866 Sept 13, 1868
May 30, 1941 Sept 26, 1940
*

We also found a large memorial for veterans of the different wars. Joseph Shipley’s name was under Mexican War and so was A. K. Thornton that is a relative I believe. Here is a picture of part of the memorial. I will have to get a better picture of the whole thing at a later date.

A year later I became the proud owner of all these burial lots by possessing the necessary paperwork that my cousin LaRae Fassbinder Wilson gave to me, the original deed given to my Great Grandfather Joseph Shipley when he purchased them years ago.

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