90.480.2

On July, 10, 1987, six members of the United Church of Christ, Congregational in Ames traveled to the old Wittemberg Cemetery, about five miles north of Newton, Iowa. Under the supervision of Lawrence Hammerly of the Wittemberg Congregational Church, they unearthed the remnants of the tombstones of the White family. Here, two of the Ames delegation (Ed Collins, on the left, and Steve Barnhart, on the right) dig for shards. Rev. John White, originally from Connecticut, helped found the Congregational Church in Ames in 1865. He served the Wittemberg church until his death on March 23, 1872 of consumption at the age of 37. His wife returned to Connecticut; but when she died in 1903, her body was returned to Wittemberg for burial next to her husband and their little daughter Mary who had died in 1869. The dig party from Ames recovered the parts of the stones which were reassembled in the Wittemberg Cemetery.