The Liberty Cemetery (originally named Nye Cemetery) is situated in the North East one-fourth of Section 26, Township 13 South of Range 1 West in Linn County, Ore., and on a portion of the original A.P. (Adam) Nye Donation land claim.
The cemetery property is located on Liberty Road, approximately 1⁄2 mile south of the intersection with US Highway 20.
No exact history of this cemetery could be obtained save that it was first donated for cemetery purposes by Adam Nye, the man who took up the original Donation Land Claim here. According to information received from M.J. Ney of Sweet Home, a grandson of the original claim owner, Adam Nye gave the land and he and his wife were the first persons buried there. No exact date of their deaths could be obtained. It is presumed that the wife died first and was buried here and the husband soon followed after the land had been set aside as a cemetery. No monument marks the graves of these first burials but their resting place is beneath two large cedar trees (in Section 2), and these are the only trees of any size growing within the cemetery.
The first burial definitely recorded here is that of an infant daughter of the above A. P. & M. Nye who died on November 11, 1861, ages less than a year. The second burial of record is that of another member of the Nye family, Lewis B. by name, a son of J. L. & H. Nye who died on November 8, 1862 at the age of slightly over a year. The third recorded death date is that of Addaline Klum who died on March 13, 1864.
The Death of Black Hawk Indian.
There is a grave not included in the Nye Cemetery but near at hand which should be mentioned here. It is the grave of an Indian commonly known as Black Hawk. The following facts were furnished by Mrs. Grace Ingram Gunderson whose family (Ingram) where pioneer settlers in the hill region to the west.
Black Hawk, supposedly a Calapooia Indian. His home was in the hills near the Ingram claim. He and his wife were considered very good Indians by settlers. In calling at the Ingram home he would invariably bring a dressed digger squirrel as a present. Black Hawk was removed with the other Indians to the reservation, (probably Grand Ronde) but refused to remain there. Twice he and his wife returned and were taken back to the reserve. A third time Black Hawk returned alone, his wife being dead. As he was buried a short distance below (North) of the Ney Cemetery. The exact spot of the grave is reported to be: “North of the road leading to the cemetery and between State Highway 54 and a dirt road paralleling it at the top of the first steep pitch. The grave is believed to be just at the foot of the above-mentioned first steep pitch. Mr. Si Barr is said to be able to point out the exact spot.
When Black Hawk would return from the reservation he always notified the Ingrams of his presence in the neighborhood but would beg them to tell no one else.
