Ashley Jewish Homesteaders Cemetery
The Ashley Jewish Homesteaders Cemetery is an early 20th century burial site near Ashley, North Dakota. The Russian and Romanian Jews who farmed the area beginning in 1905 arrived as refugees fleeing pogroms and persecution. They had never farmed before, due to restrictions against Jews owning land in their native countries. Despite this lack of experience and the many rocks and boulders that peppered their claims, with the assistance of their German-Russian neighbors, and hard work and persistence, the great majority of them were successful enough to buy their land outright prior to the five-year waiting period contained within the Homestead Act of 1862, or to own their land at the five year mark. Over the course of the next 20 years, these Jewish farmers moved off their farms to carve out their livelihoods.