HERE
THEY
SLEEP Narrative
THOMAS P. DERRICKSON PLOT
The following account is designed to supplement the Willow Valley
Cemetery recording of October 30, 1974.
The final resting place of Thomas P. Derrickson is situated a short
distance southeast of the present Ed Mutch residence at Aubrey Corners.
County Trunk B junctions here with Wisconsin 58.
It is enclosed by a tall iron rod fence with a white bronze plate
bearing his name and dates. It stands like a silent sentinel at this
wooded corner, bordered on the south and west by a tract of farmland.
Mr. Derrickson was born in Indiana on October 15, 1821. He served in
the War with Mexico in 1846 after which he brought his family to Wis.,
taking up land in Section 30, Town of Ithaca. Although an early land
owner and established citizen of Aubrey Corners, he felt it his duty to
again serve his country enlisting in the 5th Wisconsin Volunteer Regt.
He had previously donated one acre of land for a public cemetery which
included a family plot of 1849. It was reported by those who knew him
that he had rejected burial rights at Willow Valley before his death on
December 9, 1909 and therefor was buried in accordance with his wishes
in the private and secluded spot on his own farm. A man of war and
peace had answered another call.
His wife Rachel L. Chew, four small children, two grown daughters and
one grown son are buried in Willow Valley; Mrs. Eliz. L. Hamilton, Mrs.
Harriett E. Dow and C. C. (Lum) Derrickson. Another son Fount, is
buried in Avoca Cemetery, Iowa Co., Wisconsin.
Herbert A. Dieter
Addenda: DERRICKSON PLOT Republican
Observer 12/15/60 Clipping in G161 Tom
Derrickson, was the first settler at Aubrey Corners. Tom Derrickson
received a big grant of land from the government as some kind of a
bonus when he returned from the Mexican War. It went south of the
present Willow Valley Cemetery and took in the Bill Nee farm on the
east. It is told that Derrickson gave the land for the cemetery with
the understanding that it would be named Derrickson's Reservation, and
when it was named Willow Valley instead, he provided his own grave
site, 8' by 8' surrounded by a wrought iron fence. It still
stands on the Ed Mutch farm, and there's not much chance that old
Derrickson will ever be plowed under. Mrs. Cliff Barnett of the Twin
Bluff's Store, the former Helen Nee, recalls that he told her father on
his death bed to make sure to dig his grave six feet six inches deep.