The “new” UMW cemetery refers to the southern section of the cemetery, nestled in the bluffs of the Bull Mountains outside of the historic coal mining town of Klein. The UMW local 2866 operated from 1919 to 1973. The northern section contains early burials of members.
The “new cemetery” has numerous burials from the late 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s but most of the internments date to the second half of the 20th century.
The cemetery faces west (US Highway 87) and is centered on a long driveway that ends at a flagpole. Then the rows of graves on either side are roughly equal in size, giving the “new” cemetery a sense of symmetry not apparent in the earlier north section.
The cemetery’s rocky bluff setting, combined with colorful fall trees, is beautiful in September and October. It’s use of foliage and shade is another difference with the northern section of the UMW Cemetery.
There are several interesting grave markers. Anna Tomko (d. 1944) was born in Croatia in 1866. She arrived in the United States in 1901 and was leaving in Roundup by 1920 where she became known as Annie Tomko.
The beautiful cut and polished stone marker for Carl Eldon Rorick dates to 1941. Rorick was a native of Klein and only 17 years old at the time of his death.
The large grave marker for Mary (b. 1872) and David Murphy (b. 1870) dates to 1942; she died in January while he died in December.
David was a native of Scotland, who was working as a coal miner at Klein at least by 1920. He married his wife Maggie (Margaret) McCann Murphy in about 1892.
A resident reported on the towns decision to join the Main Street program and how a community partnership effort had been formed to guide the process, assuring me that the wonderful historic Roundup school would find a new future as a multi-purpose and use facility. That update has spurred me to share more images from this distinctive Montana town that I have enjoyed visiting for over 30 years.
As I discussed in my earlier large posting on Roundup, it is both a railroad town on the historic mainline of the Milwaukee Road and a highway town, with a four-lane Main Street defining the commercial district. It is less than a hour’s drive north of Billings, Montana’s largest urban area. But nestled at the junction of U.S. 12 and U.S. 87, Roundup is a totally different world from booming Billings.
You see the difference if how false frame stores and lodge buildings from the first years of the town’s beginnings still stand, and how the commercial district is pockmarked with more stately early 20th century brick commercial blocks, whether two stories high or a mere one-story. Yet the architectural details tell you the community had ambitions. It
I found a place then, and still today, that was proud of its past and of its community. I visited and spoke at the county museum, which was housed in the old Catholic school and included one of county’s first homestead cabins moved to the school grounds. The nearby town park and fairgrounds (covered in an earlier post) helped to highlight just how beautiful the Musselshell River valley was at Roundup.
Then the public buildings–the school, the courthouse, and even the classically tinged county jail shown above–added to the town’s impressive heritage assets. Of course some buildings I ignored in the 1980s but find compelling today–like in the riverstone lined posts of the modernist Wells Fargo Bank, and the effective and efficient look of city hall.
deteriorating in the mid-1980s but a determined effort to save the building and use it as an anchor for the Montana Avenue historic district has proven to be a great success in the 21st century.
Milwaukee Road depot there, since Harlowtown was such an important place in the railroad’s history as an electric line.
entertained generations of Grizzly students and fans–note the window mural. But it is just one of several favorite Stockman’s Bars I have encountered in my Montana fieldwork. My top choice is actually on the other end of the state–almost in North Dakota in fact–the Stockman’s Bar in Wibaux.
Montana's Historic Landscapes 