A look back at Mount Hope’s origins

Humboldt's Mount Hope Cemetery has been a community fixture since the 1800s.
Jim Woods, a valued volunteer at Mount Hope Cemetery, works most mornings at the cemetery doing all sorts of tasks to improve graveyard appearance. Photo by Bob Johnson / Iola Register
by Bob Johnson – The Iola Register
Published: August 19, 2026
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Humboldt’s Mount Hope Cemetery has been a community fixture since the 1800s.

Humboldt’s first attempt at establishing a cemetery arose in 1866 when a board of trustees was established and bought three acres.

Within three years gravediggers — by way of shovels and pick axes — declared mutiny on the limestone that lay just below the surface and canceled the area for a cemetery. 

The owners, William and Alma Wakefield, agreed to take the land back, and the hunt was on for another site, preferably with dirt.

Bob Johnson – The Iola Register

Bob Johnson has been with the Register since July 1964, including the past few years in a less demanding role. He continues to write his Saturday column at Week’s End, which began in 1972, and occasionally other things. During Bob’s tenure he has written sports, features, general news and editorials. He often has supported his writing with photographs. His institutional knowledge of what occurred in the past is a valuable asset for the Register and its reporters’ mission to tell the story of Iola and Allen County.

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