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LINWOOD a/k/a HOLDEN CEMETERY County Rd. #22 east (approx 8 mi) to County Rd. #85 north 2 miles
Linwood is one of three townships that remain in Anoka County today. It was established in 1871 from parts of Bethel and Columbus Townships by the Anoka County Commissioners. A description of Linwood in 1881
says the community is, “in the northeast corner of the county and
has an area of 23,040 acres, of which, 600 are under cultivation.
The south half of the town is flat and low, a large portion being
swamp, either covered with grass, water, or tamarack, while the high
land, between the marshes had a good growth of timber and some large
pine trees. The northern part of the town is higher land, and more
rolling, with some tamarack swamps and hay marshes. The first settlers who came here were farmers and we’ll be visiting some of them today. They arrived in this area as early as 1855. The cemetery history begins on the Green farm. Orvella E. Green was 18 years old when she died on November 18, 1863. There being no cemetery nearby, she was buried on her father’s farm. A year later, the Green family set aside one acre of the farm including Orvella’s grave, to be a cemetery. Burials were held there, but there was no name given to the cemetery. In 1871, another acre was acquired and the cemetery became the property of Linwood Township. They named it the Holden Cemetery in honor of the first township clerk, J.G. Holden. To the best of our knowledge, he is not buried here. The name Holden has kind of fallen away from this cemetery and most people call it the Linwood Cemetery. It is still owned by the township. This is still an active cemetery, but we will be staying in the older portions of the cemetery today. The newer graves tend to be on the outside of the loop made by the driveway with the older graves in the middle.
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