Welcome to the Sterling Community Cemetery where early Kansas history is found beneath tree-lined lanes and late 19th-century life mingles with the present in shadows of distinctive stone and sculpture.

The lives and stories of those buried here have been researched to bring you as complete a historical record as possible to aid genealogical searches of your family tree and provide burial records of ancestors and missing relatives. Search the directory by surname to access vital records and read notes of marriage, birth, and death.

The families and individuals locating in Sterling, Kansas, were influenced by Quaker missionaries, the 1872 arrival of the A.T. & S.F. railroad, the United Presbyterian Cooper Memorial College (now Sterling College), and land grants to Civil War veterans.

Enter and read their epitaphs etched in a monument, mausoleum, or veteran memorial. Learn more about potter’s field, the WPA chapel, buffalo soldiers, Spanish American War veterans, Civil War veterans, the Quaker influence, and the immigration and westward movement that make the Sterling Community Cemetery unique.

Visit the grave sites and stories of a 13-year-old Civil War drummer boy, college presidents and faculty members, the founder of the Dillon grocery chain, confederate soldiers, those who traveled on wagon and orphan trains, and a twentieth-century poet. Discover unknown family links to other notable Kansans.

Each Memorial Day the cemetery’s iron gates are draped in red, white, and blue as the city pays special tribute to the many veterans who served to keep our country free and to those family and friends who contributed in many ways to our lives. Please join us in honoring them by listening to their stories.