History of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Cemetery Immaculate Conception Catholic Church was built in 1867. At first, members of the new church were buried in a cemetery on a high hill located at the intersection of Southland Road and the newly constructed railroad, one mile north of Botkins. The Biersdorfer family had donated the high hill for a Catholic cemetery. After only a few years and not very many burials, the Catholic cemetery was moved to its present location on the north edge of Botkins on what was the Huber farm. At that time, the pine boxes containing the remains of the few buried in the original cemetery on the Biersdorfer farm were removed and re-buried in the present cemetery along with their tombstones. Over the years, the Huber and Hageman family made donations of land for the creation and expansion of the present cemetery. In the old part of the cemetery, there is a fairly large section of large tombstones containing only one name, not the names of husband and wife. The priest at that time decreed that people would be buried as they died and no spots could be reserved for future deaths. Thus, husband and wives were not buried alongside each other in that time period. For much of the cemetery's history, infants and young children were buried in a separate section of the cemetery, not beside their parents. That children's section is toward the back of the original cemetery. The grave markers in that section of the cemetery are small. A few years ago, the Wiest family donated a large statue, which was placed in the recently opened new section behind the original cemetery. Today the old section of the cemetery is completely occupied and reserved, so new gravesites are only available in the new section. -Dave Hemmert