Wyuka Cemetery, Section 30
December 1, 2009
Thank you for coming today for this brief ceremony to dedicate the grave marker for Zelma Wisherd. I am Lowell Moser, President of the UNL Emeriti Association. I want to comment on the history of the Wisherd family and there will be a few comments by Diane Mendenhall, Director of the UNL Alumni Association, and Kevin Meyer from the UN Foundation. I would also like to introduce Cyndy Ricketts with Wyuka Cemetery who was most helpful in our purchase and placement of Zelma’s grave marker.
This begins as a pioneer story. Samuel Oscar Wisherd, who was descended from a colonial Scottish family, was born in 1853, in Maryland. When he was one year old his family immigrated west to Illinois, and later to Atchison County Missouri. In 1878, he returned to Illinois and married Alice Hurley. This couple had five children, Ethel-1882, Maude-1883, Harry-1888, William-1890, and Zelma-1898.
In Missouri they had 4000 acres under cultivation. Oscar Wisherd was reported to have developed “western fever.” In 1882, the family was in Gage County and had 2800 acres in production and the 1900 census finds the family in Colfax County, living in Leigh Village. They, certainly, were large landowners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1910, the entire family lived in Lincoln, at 1821 Prospect St.
To our knowledge only one of the children married. William married Alta Criswell and we are unaware of any children from that marriage. Both brothers, Harry and William were in WW I.
Maude was a librarian at UNL from 1916-1955. She was an acquisitions librarian and attained the rank of assistant professor in 1949. After she retired from UNL she worked at the historical society library for an additional 10 years. We believe she struggled economically in retirement. In those days, retired faculty generally received only a few hundred to few thousand dollars per year, which led to the establishment of the Emeriti Association in 1961, to address the critical economic needs of emeriti. We believe Maude was involved in establishing the UNL Emeriti Association in 1961. She died in 1978, with Zelma, her sister, listed as her only survivor.
Zelma graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in education in 1920, and went to Napa, California, where she was a teacher. Later in life she moved back to Lincoln and her late life was spent in Gateway Manor. She died on Nov. 24, 1981, and left 20% of her estate to the NU Foundation with the stipulation that the interest be used to benefit emeriti. It was named the Maude Wisherd Fund in honor of her sister. Early interest from the fund was used primarily for emeriti medical insurance and medical expenses, especially for folks past 80. Later, as medical expenses became less problem for emeriti and their retirement resources were much better, funding of scholarly pursuits and other emeriti activities were supported from the fund. The Maude Wisherd Fund has been a solid and critical resource for emeriti and the UNL Emeriti Association.
In the fall of 2008, Bob Fuller, then president of the association, and I decided it would be important to attend the national meeting of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher education (AROHE) at University of Southern California, to gather ideas for our emeriti association. Bob volunteered a poster presentation and was asked to participate in a panel describing our organization and activities. One of the main emphases was the Maude Wisherd Fund. Bob and I researched the Wisherd family history which I have given briefly. In the process I wanted to find the Wisherd graves. My first stop was Wyuka and I found all of the graves in the cemetery records. With camera in hand I came out here to Section 30, to photograph Maude and Zelma’s graves for the poster. I found that the whole family was here like the records showed, but I could not find Zelma’s marker. I went back to the office and Cyndy said that it might be unmarked, which was hard to imagine. I came back out here and, indeed, space 2, where Zelma was buried, was unmarked. It became clear what we needed to do. Four of the Wisherd children and their parents are buried beside each other in Section 30 and William is buried in Section 33. The children all have identical government-issue markers, patterned after the brothers who served in WW I and who were the first Wisherd children to pass away. We needed to place an identical style marker on Zelma’s grave. We wondered why it was unmarked when she was so generous. After checking with the funeral home and the minister who conducted the funeral, it became obvious – she was the last of the line and there was no one to follow up on marking her grave.
The Emeriti Board and Membership was very supportive of this project and we requested donations from emeriti to buy the marker and install it. Cyndy Ricketts from Wyuka was very helpful and two weeks after the stone was ordered, it was in place.
Today we are here to dedicate this stone and recognize the support that came from the Wisherd family, through Zelma, which established the Maude Wisherd Fund. We certainly are grateful, especially to Zelma for establishing this fund which has been so important the UNL Emeriti. It is appropriate that we dedicate this marker today to Zelma’s memory so she can be recognized here in Wyuka, as are the rest of her family.
Now I would like to introduce Diane Mendenhall, Director of the UNL Alumni Association who will make some comments and following her will be Kevin Meyer from the NU Foundation.
Thank you all for coming today to dedicate this grave marker to the memory of Zelma, placing the obvious last piece in the puzzle of the Wisherd family. Take a few minutes to look at the graves here in Section 30 and William’s over in section 33 which I have marked with an orange flag. This story was the feature article in the November 19, 2009, Scarlet . I also have a picture of their house on 1821 Prospect St. and census records from 1900 to 1930.
Lowell E. Moser, President 2009
UNL Emeriti Association