- - - - HISTORY OF KUHLMAN CEMETERY - - - -

OKLAHOMA COUNTY OK

Kuhlman Cemetery contains a history of lives lived and lost in a close-knit community that called this land their home before there ever was a Tinker Air Force Base. The Land Run of 1889 included Germans who founded the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Congregation. They rented land from the Boone Township School Land Commission, intending to build a church. Instead the land became their cemetery. The congregation purchased the two acres of land for this cemetery in 1916 for $40.00. See County Deed Book 9, page 104.

Margaretha Kuhlman, 9 months of age, who died March 10, 1894 is considered the first interment in the cemetery. There is another marker, now toppled from its base, which records the 3-day life of Baby Boy Kehr in early 1888 - - nearly 15 months before the land run. There are no records indicating whether the family may have removed the baby's remains from another cemetery or just placed a memorial marker there for their son.

Kuhlman Cemetery became the final resting place for approximately 70 members of three different generations. Six of those buried in the cemetery are military veterans serving in World Wars I and II and the Vietnam War.

In 1955 Tinker Air Force Base expanded west of Air Depot Boulevard. Tinker Air Force Base agreed to maintain perpetual care and provide access to the cemetery for family members.

A monument was dedicated at the cemetery April 22, 2004 on the occasion of the 115th anniversary of the 1889 Land Run.

{Information obtained from OK County Cemetery Index - compiled by OK County HCE Genealogy Group, page 61.}