AMERICAN FORK -- In the early days of American Fork, then known as Lake City, those who died were buried in a field on the west corner of 100 E. 300 North in American Fork.

By the end of World War II, the cemetery was barely more than a collection of depressions in the ground, and a few mostly unreadable markers.

"The resting place of our pioneers was indeed neglected ... most of the names or initials on markers were well-worn into oblivion," wrote Myrtle Seastrand in a 1948 history of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

"In 1943 Mayor DeVere Wooten and his wife were walking past the old cemetery and decided something needed to be done," Seastrand continued.

This Memorial Day, local members of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers are marking the 60th anniversary of the dedication of a monument to American Fork pioneers buried in the city's original cemetery.

Soon after Mayor Wooten took notice of the old cemetery in 1943, the city began cleaning up the property. In 1947, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers began planning and fundraising to put a monument on the site. Ground was broken in 1948, and the completed monument was dedicated in 1949. What follows are excerpts from three DUP histories of American Fork pioneers buried in anonymous graves in the cemetery.

• Elizabeth Dean Nicholes, biography by Relva Booth Ross

Elizabeth Dean Nicholes, pioneer of 1851, was born in South Newington, Oxfordshire, England. Neither the date of her birth nor the names of her parents are known. But she was married to Josiah Nicholes in the Church of England when he was almost 30 years old ... They left England ... on the steamship G.W. Bourne and were six weeks on the water coming by way of New Orleans and up the Mississippi River ... .

"The couple reached Salt Lake City near the first of October and soon after were advised by Brigham Young to come to American Fork. They erected a log home and began preparations necessary for the change from life in England to that of the rugged pioneers of Utah.

"But Elizabeth was not destined to see the country develop nor to enjoy the gospel for which she had suffered so much. In the summer of 1852, she developed mountain fever and died. In the history written of her husband, it said they had been married 10 years but had had no children.

"In the pioneer community there was no lumber except the logs brought from the mountains, and there was no undertaker. So Josiah took the wagon box in which they had crossed the plains, fashioned a casket the best he could, no doubt aided by kindly neighbors. Some of the sisters would have taken care of the body which was dressed in her best black dress and she was buried in the old cemetery. No monument marked her resting place, but her name is inscribed on the monument erected in 1948 by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers on the old burial grounds."

• Sabina Clark Adams, biography by Effie Adams with Dale Adams

"... The seemingly endless series of moves in Sabina's life continued in 1849 when she again placed [the family's] humble belongings in several wagons and moved to the Great Basin. She must have thought occasionally that moving and being pregnant were synonymous. Her ninth and last child... was born on Oct. 23, 1849 ...

"Only a year later, Sabina again loaded her family's belongings into wagons and helped build still another home on American Fork Creek, in Utah Valley, the place where she spent the rest of her life.

"Sabina's experiences in American Fork mirrored those of hundreds of other pioneer women who helped to settle dozens of frontier communities under Brigham Young's direction. She certainly enjoyed having a permanent home and a productive garden, seeing her children settled and happy, and having a good husband who was a good provider. Sabina's heartbreaks were not over, however, for in early 1852 6-year-old Theothan died, and in late 1853, 11-year-old Elizabeth Nancy died, leaving her with only five surviving children."

• James Shelley, biography by Maud Shelley Wild

"James Shelley... was born May 14th, 1828, in Claverly, Shropshire, England. ... He, as a boy, was always cheerful and optimistic. These characteristics remained with him throughout his life and were a great assistance to him in surmounting difficulties that came to him later in his pioneer days.

"In February, 1851, the Shelley family... left their native land to come to the land of Zion and be with the saints of God. They arrived in Salt Lake City, Oct. 3, 1851, and came to American Fork Oct. 25th of that year ... . Two years after their arrival here ... James Shelley and Mary Lee ... were the first couple married in American Fork. To this happy union seven children were born. James followed the trade he was apprenticed to in England, that of shoemaking. His optimism and cheerfulness won him many friends. ... He was 70 at the time of his death, which occurred in American Fork on Jan. 23, 1907."