Prairie Home Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Moorhead, Minnesota. The cemetery was founded in 1875 by the Rev. Oscar Elmer, a Presbyterian minister who was the first ordained Christian clergy in Fargo–Moorhead. Rev. Elmer's brother John had drowned in the Red River of the North while visiting from New York in 1874. The condition of John Elmer's body when it was recovered meant that it could not be shipped back East, as was the usual custom, but had to be buried immediately in a make-shift grave. The following spring, Rev. Elmer organized a cemetery association, which formally created the Prairie Home Cemetery. John Elmer's body was then moved to the new cemetery.