May is National Historic Preservation Month, when we remember historic sites and places around North Dakota. Today, we talk about some of these places listed on the National Historic Register because of the people associated with them.
The Renville Valley Pioneer Cemetery was founded around 1886. It’s the oldest cemetery in Renville County and is now known as the McKinney Cemetery. This non-denominational final resting place was eligible for inclusion in the National Register due to its significance in the historic events of the area. In this case, the McKinney Cemetery marks the location of what is now a ghost town.
McKinney was never a large town, but it played an important role in the development of the region through trade and commerce. It was set to be a stop on the Soo Railway. But after a devastating flood in 1904, the railway route was redirected, and the town gradually died off.
Still, the cemetery remains as a reminder of the once-busy community that helped establish the area.
The cemetery site was donated by Nels P. Swenson, a Swedish immigrant who wanted to provide a burial ground for people in the area. He and his wife, Martha, had been living in Minnesota before each moved, separately, to this new frontier. Nels helped build the settlement, while Martha became a vital part of the community, serving as “doctor, nurse, and undertaker” for local residents.
As more immigrants traveled to the area to homestead, the Swenson home became a stopping place for many incoming settlers, offering food and a place to rest.
It’s said the first person buried in the cemetery, though unrecorded, was a cowboy named Rip Stanton. He had been running from a ranch after winning a poker game. Pursued, he was overtaken and shot.
Later, the Edward Swenson Cabin, originally near an old buffalo crossing, was moved by the Department of the Interior to the northwest corner just outside the cemetery. Ed and his brother Carl, sons of Nels, were two of the first Swensons to settle in the area.
Both Nels and Martha Swenson were buried in McKinney Cemetery; she in 1902, and he in 1929, along with other generations of their family.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
- Fate, Destiny, Necessity on Renville’s Prairies by Blanche Hembree
- Renville County History, 1901-1976
- National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form for Renville Valley Pioneer Cemetery / McKinney Cemetery
