Joni Wimmers and her son’s dog Boris stands near the Saunders County Poor Farm cemetery on Sept. 17, 2020, on the northeast side of Lake Wanahoo in Wahoo, Nebraska. (Elsie Stormberg/Wahoo Newspaper)
Article and photos by Elsie Stormberg/Wahoo Newspaper
Published September 23, 2020
WAHOO – When her son’s bench honoring his life was installed along Lake Wanahoo’s trails near the disc golf course in 2017, Joni Wimmer began walking his dog Boris, a caucasion ovcharka, each day to visit the bench. As they walked, Wimmer eventually happened upon a square plot of land on the northeast side of the lake. She had no idea what the section was for or why it was there.
Since it piqued her interest, Wimmer began to ask around about the barbed-wired section. She soon learned that it was the Saunders County Poor Farm cemetery. While the puzzling question was answered, something still nagged at her.
“There was nothing,” Wimmer said. “There was this barbed-wire fence and that was it.”
On Jan. 24, 2016, Wimmer’s son Tanner Hauck, 32, and his fiance Jessica Thomas, 29, were in a fatal car accident at the intersection of Highway 77 and Highway 92. Osceola’s Douglas Cerny was driving northbound on 77 when Cerny ran a red light t-boning Thomas’s car. The couple was driving to Lincoln to purchase more supplies for decorations in preparation for their upcoming wedding in October 2016.
Thomas died instantly, but Hauck lived for four days until Wimmer had to make the difficult decision to take her son off of life support.
When Wimmer received the call on the day of the accident urging her to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, she thought it was a joke her son was playing on her.
But to Wimmer’s dismay, it was not a joke.
Wimmer sits in her son, Tanner Hauck's kitchen. Since Hauck's sudden death, Wimmer lives mostly at his house in Wahoo.
"Tanner's Roadside Saloon" sits next to Tanner's grave. Wimmer often visits her sons' grave to update and add decorations. This became a key part of maintaining her relationship with her son following his death.
As she set out to accessorize her son’s grave at Sunrise Cemetery in Wahoo, Wimmer noticed other graves didn’t have any decorations, and that nagged at her the same way the Poor Farm cemetery nagged at her.
“When there’s a cemetery or grave site that has nothing, it just breaks your heart,” Wimmer said.
In Wimmer’s search for more information on the Poor Farm cemetery, she discovered that there were an estimated 13 people buried there, three being children. Wimmer found this information from Wahoo-native Gladys Cajka who did extensive research on the Poor Farm about 15 years ago for the Saunders County Historical Society.
According to this research now housed at the Saunders County Museum, the Poor Farm was voted into existence in February 1875. Its goal was to provide a home and work for those who could not afford housing, those who were elderly and did not have relatives and those who were mentally incapacitated.
Just two years later in March 1877, the county purchased section 27 of township 15 north of range 7 from George W. Chase for $1,000. In June of that year, bids were opened to construct the Poor Farm home with J.K. Vendermark winning the bid for $1,785.
In September 1877, the Poor Farm officially opened with two women being the first commitals, or “inmates.”
Over the Poor Farm’s almost 100-year existence, the property had roughly 12 managers, the last being Peter Matulka who only leased it for a year before the farm was voted to be sold in 1962.
In 1963, it was bought by Howard and Mildred Richter from the county for $86,000, a 98.8% increase from when the county originally purchased the land in 1877.
The farm was bought 21 years later by Daniel R. Bartek trustees who conveyed it to the relatives of Bartek. It remained with the family until the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District (LPNNRD) purchased the land in 2000.
LPNNRD used the land to develop Lake Wanahoo which broke ground in 2010 and opened its doors to the public two years later. During the planning process, LPNNRD and the Corps of Engineers were aware of the cemetery and intentionally armored the area so that no wave action or deterioration would harm the cemetery, LPNNRD General Manager Eric Gottschalk said.
Cajka found that there were 13 known commitals buried in the Poor Farm cemetery including a father and his three children, who drowned. Cajka said that burials stopped after 1907 due to the fact that relatives of the residence began taking their loved ones to nearby cemeteries.
Wimmer and Sharon Kugel leave small items in honor of the three children that were buried in the Saunders County Poor Farm Cemetery.
Every day that Wimmer would walk by her son’s bench and the cemetery with Boris, all she could think about was how there were children buried there and how there was no honor for these people.
“I’m a mother and my son’s life mattered,” Wimmer said. “These kids' lives matter and all those lives matter. They were somebody and in my eyes they needed to have something out there for them.”
Wimmer began decorating the cemetery. With permission from LPNNRD, Wimmer planted a tree at the cemetery and started decorating for each holiday.
Wimmer walks her son's dog Boris to leave new flowers at the Saunders County Poor Farm Cemetery.
Sharon Kugel of Wahoo began helping Wimmer enhance the cemetery about a year ago. Kugel also walks her dog along the same path as Wimmer and had the same curiosity about the cemetery.
When Wimmer told her about the cemetery, Kugel felt the need to join Wimmer in decorating the cemetery because of lack of awareness for those buried.
“It just really bothers me that they're not acknowledged,” Kugel said.
Kugel said that they generally put out 13 decorations for each holiday along with three extra ornaments for the children. More recently, Kugel put out 13 crosses for each person buried in the cemetery as well as three small teddy bears in honor of the three children.
While there is a short history of the Poor Farm and the cemetery on hole 6 of the disc golf course, Kugel wishes there was a plaque indicating the cemetery and recognizing those buried there.
“They’re just like me or you,” Kugel said. “They were everyday people that got down on their luck. They were human beings.”
Wimmer does not take care of the Poor Farm cemetery to make herself feel good about herself. She does this because she feels that it needs to be done.
“Does it make me feel good?” she asked. “It makes me feel like these people know that somebody cares.”
This article can also be found on the Wahoo Newspaper's website here.
The video aspect of this story was awarded eighth place out 90 students in the Hearst multimedia narrative storytelling competition in November 2020. Video linked below.