Index cut-off date: 30 September 2000
Order: Row, Plot
Divide Cemetery is located north of the town of Divide. From Highway 24, turn north onto Highway 67. Drive approximately one-half mile and the cemetery is on the right opposite the Y intersection with County Road 51. According to GPS-derived geolocation (accurate to within 10 meters), the cemetery's coordinates are 38°56'59.5"N and 105°09'25.8"W.
The cemetery is said to have gotten its start during the hard winter of 1883. A fur trapper named White died of pneumonia in his log cabin north of town and his nine-year-old son walked to a neighbor's cabin to ask for something to eat. Neighbor Marion Beard and others returned to the White cabin and found the trapper dead. In 1886 Beard donated an acre of land surrounding White's grave for use as a cemetery. No record remains of White's grave today (Crying Wind Stafford, I Remember Divide [publisher unknown, 1977], p. 6.)
Surrounded by high meadows, the cemetery overlooks the northwest side of Pikes Peak. The markers are shaded by evergreens and aspen trees and the cemetery features native grasses and flowers growing in gravelly soil. A number of graves are marked only by rocks or temporary metal funeral home markers from which the paper labels have long since disappeared.
The cemetery is cared for by an association headed (2000) by Larry Ellett, 1060 Canterberry Road, Divide, CO 80814. In 2001, Gary Shoemaker donated a new section of land on the north, which should allow the cemetery to continue serving its community for some time. Currently, only people who have been residents of the area for 10 or more years or who are relatives of someone buried in the cemetery may be buried here.
The association has platted the newer section to the east, but the older section on the west has not been mapped. PPGS volunteers assigned row and plot numbers to all markers for the purpose of this index. Some rows aren't straight and locations are estimates, but the relative locations are close and should allow users to find markers of interest.
The cemetery was previously transcribed and published in Colorado Cemetery Inscriptions by Lela O. McQueary (Englewood, Colo.: Kay R. Merrill, 1985) and Teller County, Colorado, Church and Cemetery Records by Carol Loudermilk-Edwards (Westminster, Colo.: Carol Loudermilk-Edwards, 1983).
