St. Martin's Cemetery

Contact: Tom Guth
715-366-4104

St. Martin’s parish was established in 1850 because of the growing population of Catholics settling the area known as Buena Vista. Prior to this time, Masses were being said in private homes.

St. Martin’s Catholic Cemetery was established in 1863 on three acres of land which had been donated by Jacob and Susan Helbach.

The cemetery was (and still is) located on the SW corner of County Road BB and Church Road in the Township of Almond in Portage County, Wisconsin.

One of the first catholic residents to die in this area was Anne Russell, wife of John Russell. She died in December of 1862. There was no catholic cemetery or church in this rural area, so her body was taken to Stevens Point and buried near the present day airport north of St. Stephen’s Cemetery. One year later (1863) her body was moved to St. Martin’s Cemetery, the first person to be buried there. The first Catholic Church was built in the mid 1860’s on three acres of donated land adjacent to the cemetery. A few years later, a tornado destroyed this church, and a second church was built in its place.

Many people moved to this area, and the Catholic Church family grew. It was decided to build a new, larger church. William and Mary McMulkins donated a half acre of land on the east side of County BB across from the cemetery for the new church to be built on in 1917. It was dedicated in the fall of 1917 by Green Bay Bishop Rev. Paul Peter Rhode.

This church was closed in 2002 and merged with three other rural parishes in the area to form the St. Maximilian Kolbe parish. In 2003, the church building was sold and is now being used as a private home.

There are 336 people currently buried in the St. Martin’s Catholic Cemetery.

For the past 157 years, St. Martin’s Catholic Cemetery has been guided by a dedicated Board of Directors, which is a volunteer-based committee.

The directors oversee the following cemetery operations: Finance, sales of lots, working with funeral homes, recordkeeping, and the physical upkeep of the grounds.

The cemetery is open to the public from dawn to dusk each day, and all visitors are welcome!

We ask those who visit to respect the cemetery and church property as this is where our loved ones are resting in peace.

In the back of the cemetery is a sign with the rules listed.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact a member of the board of directors.
 

Father Rajan Anandan, Pastor - 715-824-3380

Tom Guth - 715-366-4104

Michele Patrykus - 715-366-7622

Janelle Bentley - 715-366-8240

John Burns - 715-498-2358

Dear Friends of the St. Martin's Cemetery Association

Burials between July 2023 to June 30, 2024: Phil Hamilton jr. 7/20/2023, Donald Guth 9/16/2023, Florence Clark 9/17/2023, Bob Finger 4/19/2024, Gorden Russell 5/5/2024, George Kluck 5/7/2024. The board would like to thank these donors for their generous contributions. 

Margaret Jung $50.00, Holly Harck $50.00, James Burns $500.00, Roger Patrykus $200.00, David & Janet Ciseski $100.00, Susan Nelson $200.00, Ron & Marsha Draeger $100.00. 'Thanks to these donations are used to help keep our cemetery looking very nice. Donations can be sent to Tom Guth at 7081 Eckels Road, Bancroft, WI, 54921.

Over the years some of our older grave sites have been settling making the ground uneven and making it difficult to mow. The board decided to hire Eric Sankey to haul in topsoil, level off the low spots, and plant grass seed June 2024. He filled in 12 grave sites and next summer that should look very nice. In March we noticed creeping Charlie (ground Ivy) growing in the west end of the cemetery. It will eventually take over and choke out the grass. We have treated this area and being an annual plant, we will see in the Spring if we have it under control.

Our list of rules and regulations are posted on the west end of the cemetery. There is a rifle that October 15 each that all the flowers must be removed. If not, we will remove them. In the Fall, we trim all the shrubs and any free limbs that need to be cut. If you have questions about our rules and regulations, feel free to ask Tom or John

On 7-24-23 at the annual board meeting, we discussed possible changes to our cemetery prices. We decided to research other prices in our area and discuss them in the Fall.

We held a cemetery board meeting 11-15-2023 to discuss what we should do about prices. The board agreed to increase prices effective January 1, 2024. Prices and other questions can be answered by contacting Tom Guth at 715-366-4104 or John Burn at 715-366-7632.

The board would like to thank Delloyd Trebiatowski for the great job he does in the cemetery and board members who have donated their time and equipment to help care for the cemetery. It is a cemetery we can all be proud of for our loved ones.

We would like to get a used lawnmower in the future to replace our old one. It's time to update it as it has done a good job for many years. 

The board would like to thank everyone for their cooperation and support over the past year.

Cemetery Board Members:

Father Rajan          – Pastor

Tom Guth             - Secretary

Janelle Bentley     - Treasurer 

Michele Patrykus

Dave Trebiatowski

Keith Dernbach 

John Burns.