Manhattan Cemetery, Larimer County, Colorado

ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/co/larimer/cemeteries/manhattn.txt 

Donated by Duane Kniebes <DKniebes@compuserve.com>	April 15, 2002

Location:  

The Manhattan Cemetery is between Red Feather Lakes and Rustic on County Road
162.  The small cemetery is about 0.6 of a mile west of Goodell Corner and about 200
feet north of the road.  From CR162, about the only thing you'll notice is the white 
cross on George Grill's grave.  Latitude-longitude coordinates are 40 degrees 44' 01" N,
105 degrees 35' 30" W.  The cemetery is shown on the USGS Rustic, Colorado Quadrangle map.

Description of Cemetery and Its Headstones:

This little cemetery was once called "Graveyard Draw" when it served the small mining
town of Manhattan.  It is the only sign of Manhattan still remaining. There are a total of
9 graves, only two of wnich are marked with headstones.

          Bronze U.S. Military Plaque:

                       Joseph F. Brinkhoff
                            Illinois
                   Pvt Evacuation Hospital 13
                              WWI
                 Feb. 15, 1897 - March 21, 1970
                                
                    Above that grave is a wooden sign on which Joseph's wife "Polly" carved
          and painted the following:

                     My Good People, as you pass by as you are now so once was I.
                     As I am now soon you shall be,
                     prepare yourself to follow me.

                    The F. in Binkhoff's name stands for Finley.  He was born in Cambridge,
          Illinois, to Edward Brinkhoff and Sally Finley Brinkhoff.  He was known as
          "Rattlesnake Jack." 
 
          Grave Marked by Iron Cross to the south of "Rattlesnake Jack's" Grave:

                    According to Mike Brinkhoff (Joseph Brinkhoff's son), in an April 2000
          interview, the ashes of Mike's mother, Joseph's wife, were buried next to
          Joseph's grave in 1999.  Her name was Linnie Bess  "Polly" Powell
          Brinkhoff.  Powell was her maiden name.  "Polly" was born in Missouri on
          Oct. 16, 1915.  She died on March 31, 1999.  Polly made the wooden sign above his 
          father's grave and the iron cross above her own grave.

          The second headstone is next to and south of "Polly" Brinkhoff's Grave. 
          It consists of a white cross with the inscription:

                           Geo. Grill
                              Died
                           Nov.  1892
                                
History of Cemetery:

According to Cemeteries of Larimer County, Colorado compiled by Arleen Hinsey
Davis, Juliana Sloan Miller, and Mildred Payson Beatty in 1972, two of the other
individuals buried in the Manhattan Cemetery were George Grill and Lawrence J. Mahar
(recorded elsewhere as Dan Meyer) and that they both were buried on November 13,
1892, following an explosion at the Black Hawk Mine. George Grill was an ex-mayor of
Manhattan.

Mike Brinkhoff confirms that Grill was a mayor of Manhattan and that both Grill and
Mahar had died in the Blackhawk Mine.

According to Mike Brinkhoff, two of the other graves in the Manhattan Cemetery were of
a Mr. Reagan and a Mr. Ragan.  (In spite of the similarities in their names, Mike says
that they were DIFFERENT people.)  Cemeteries of Larimer County, Colorado indicates
that Ragan's first name was Mat or Mathew and that he died on June 10, 1893.

Mike says that Mr. Reagan died of old age, but that Mr. Ragan died in a horse-drawn
wagon accident when he was taking a load of wood to a local widow.

Mike says one of the unmarked graves in the Manhattan Cemetery belonged to a baby
girl.  He thinks her grave may the second grave from the left (south).

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