A Historic Menard Legacy- Pioneer Rest Cemetery

  • Pioneer Rest Cemetery is Menard’s oldest resting place. The first interment here was a local war veteran in 1863. Courtesy photo.
    Pioneer Rest Cemetery is Menard’s oldest resting place. The first interment here was a local war veteran in 1863. Courtesy photo.

    In 1863, in the midst of the War Between the States, sixty-six year-old William J. Bradford’s dying wish was to return to Menard County before going to his heavenly reward. He almost made it, dying in Llano. Undeterred, his family loaded his body in their wagon and continued the journey to Menardville where he became the first resident of what we now know as Pioneer Rest Cemetery. Today, it is a “…