Chamber of Commerce: 231 E. Wall Street, Fort Scott, Kansas 66701, (620) 223- 3566 or (800) 245-FORT. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Local funeral home/s and/or monument maker/s: Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home, 15 W Wall St, Fort Scott KS 66701; (620) 223-1212; (800) 828-2423.
Cheney-Witt Funeral Home, 201 S Main St, Fort Scott KS 66701; (620) 223-1186. Geneva & Son Monuments, 111 S Scott Ave, Fort Scott KS 66701; (620) 223-3350.
Pine Lawn Cemetery: Located at South 215th Street, Fort Scott KS 66701 at 37°47'N 94° 43' W. Mailing Address: Pine Lawn Cemetery, c/o Bud Penniman (Secretary, Cemetery Association), 818 S Horton, Fort Scott KS 66701, (620) 223-2213. Current town population is 8,000 with no Jews.
Jewish community dates from the late 1870s. The active, unlandmarked cemetery was established in the late nineteenth century. Jewish burials would still be allowed by the current owners although no burials have occurred in recent years. Flowers are permitted.
Fort Scott had a prosperous and relatively large Jewish community during the 1880's and 1890's. Mostly merchants, they seem to have been quite well accepted in town; with their names in lists of the first Masons, the founder Country Club members, etc. Their last names appear to be German-Jewish. There has never been a synagogue/temple in Fort Scott. There is no evidence of kosher shops. Most of the Jewish families left between 1920 and 1950; the last family left during the 1980's. It appears that this Jewish cemetery was first owned by the local Jewish community. When there were no longer any Jewish families in Fort Scott, it seems to have been taken over by a Jewish group in Kansas City. In the late 1960s, it came under the ownership of the local cemetery association that already owned the town's non-denominational cemetery, which happens to be across the street. Fort Scott has three other cemeteries: (1) a newer annex of the main cemetery; (2) a Catholic cemetery west of town; (3) National Cemetery #1 (owned by the US government), located in the SE part of town. The rural (agricultural) site on flat land is separate, but near other cemeteries with a sign in English that reads: Pine Lawn. The cemetery is reached by turning directly off a public road with access open to all. A continuous masonry wall along front, continuous fences along other three sides, and a gate that does not lock surround the cemetery. 100-500 nineteenth century gravestones are in the cemetery with fewer than 25% toppled or broken. The marble, granite, and other materials memorial markers are finely smoothed and inscribed stones, double tombstones, horizontally set stones, and obelisks with English and Hebrew inscriptions. The present owner of the never vandalized property is a private corporation (local cemetery association). Properties adjacent to the cemetery are agricultural, residential, and other cemeteries. Visits to the cemetery are rare and made by private visitors. No restoration has been done, but a caretaker is paid by the cemetery association. Weathering has made many of the older stones hard to read. Something like moss seems to be growing on several stones; cleaning of the stones is not done by caretaker. Kate Emmett-Sweetser, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. completed the survey after visits in 1999 and 2006.