Potters' Field

Potters' Field at Woodlawn Cemetery was established with the cemetery in 1863 as a burial place for people without family financial support or personal funds to afford a burial plot, and there was no charge for burial there. The term goes back to biblical times, when land outside a settlement was set aside for burying travelers and strangers, often a non-productive field with poor soil perhaps used by potters for clay. About 1200 people were buried here between approximately 1863 and 1939. Some graves likely never had headstones, and others may have had simple wooden crosses or markers that disappeared. Those buried here included unidentified people passing through, immigrants and settlers far from their families, many babies and small children in a time of high infant mortality and limited medical care, and many people who died impoverished and alone. Others were laborers, shopkeepers, domestic workers, paperhangers, stoneworkers, carpenters, and other tradespeople whose work and families helped build and enrich the community, though little was recorded about most of their individual lives.

Winona, Minnesota · United States