How would you like to be buried roadside in south Bismarck? Or actually be buried in the middle of nowhere, and have Bismarck suddenly encroach upon your final resting place? That’s what happened to these two fellas, Nicholas Miller and Fred Holt Beaver. Their graves lie along Sibley Drive in south Bismarck, where they’ve been since the 1860s.

This is the stone of Fred Beaver. The metal plaque reads:

“ON THIS SPOT, JULY 31, 1863, OCCURRED THE FIRST MASONIC CEREMONY HELD IN THE PRESENT STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA.

IT WAS THE MASONIC FUNERAL OF LIEUTENANT FRED J. HOLT BEAVER, AN ENGLISHMAN AND OXONIAN, AND A VOLUNTEER SOLDIER, ATTACHED TO THE STAFF OF GENERAL H. H. SIBLEY. HE WAS KILLED IN A SKIRMISH WITH THE INDIANS AND WAS BURIED IN THE RIFLE PITS WHICH WERE DUG ALONG THIS RIDGE.
DEPUTY GRAND MASTER JON C. WHIPPLE OF MINNESOTA CONVENED AN EMERGENCY MASONIC LODGE WITH BROTHERS A.J. EDGERTON AS WORSHIPFUL MASTER, J. C. BRADEN, SENIOR WARDEN, AND PATCH JUNIOR WARDEN, AND THE BODY OF BROTHER BEAVER WAS HERE CONSIGNED TO EARTH WITH MASONIC SERVICES.
THIS TABLET AND MARKER HAS BEEN PLACED BY THE GRAND LODGE, A.F. AND A.M., OF NORTH DAKOTA, A.D. 1920, A.L. 5920, TO COMMEMORATE THE FACT THAT WHILE LIEUTENANT BEAVER DIED FAR FROM HOME AND AMONG STRANGERS, YET HE WAS AMONG BRETHREN WHO SAW THAT THE HONORS SO JUSTLY HIS DUE WERE PAID HIM.”

Those wacky Masons. The other stone, a more traditional one, sits just to the north:

This stone simply reads:

NICHOLAS MILLER
CO K
6 MINN INF

JULY 29 1863

These two stones sit pretty much in someone’s back yard. I didn’t know they were there until finding them on a Geocaching trip last year. These guys were apparently buried pretty much where they died, according to the stone above Fred Beaver’s grave.

If you’re interested in finding these markers, point your GPS at 46°44.412’N, 100°45.759’W. They’re on the east side of Sibley Drive as you head south. They’re just about in someone’s back yard, so please be respectful of that fact. These markers are another example of the interesting history sitting right beneath the noses of Bismarck-Mandan’s citizens. Too few of us get to find out about stuff like this!