Wild Rose Cemetery was established in June/July, 1888 when John Stein (son of Adam and Minnie (Schulz) Stein) and a hired hand Paul "Pete" Persson were killed by lightning on June 30, 1888 while putting up hay. Adam and Minnie Stein then donated one acre of their land in the SW¼ of the SE¼ of Section 30 of Georgetown Township to be used as a cemetery and those two men were the first burials in the cemetery. The parcel is inside the present city limits of Georgetown and it was first known as "Georgetown Village Cemetery." Currently, the parcel size of the cemetery is two acres. It is nestled along the west side of the Buffalo River.

Besides having the notoriety of donating the land for the cemetery, Adam Stein is also the only veteran of the Civil War buried in the cemetery and was an early settler of the Georgetown Community.

As Georgetown is the oldest community in the Red River Valley and was established in 1859, community members who died during the 29 years prior to the cemetery's establishment were buried in Moorhead, on farms, or elsewhere.

When the cemetery was established, the north half of the parcel was given to St. John's Catholic Church of Georgetown and the south half to the protestant churches of the community, which eventually included Christ Lutheran Church in Georgetown.

A complete record of burials has been kept with the St. John's Church records.

The protestants organized and incorporated the "Wild Rose Cemetery Association" on June 22, 1929. Alice Eastwood served as Acting Chairman, and Virginia Stewart, Acting Secretary. A. T. Brandt, Secretary of the Moorhead Chamber of Commerce, served as an advisor to aid in the organization of the association.  

At this time, Virginia Stewart gave the cemetery its current name, "Wild Rose Cemetery," because of the many wild roses growing there and it has been known formally by this name ever since.

The charter members of the association were William Stein (son of Adam Stein), Charles Walters, Alice (Hartman) Eastwood, Reinhard Bernsdorf, Wendel Tehven, and Miss Virginia Stewart (granddaughter of Adam Stein). They recorded all previous burials and kept up the burial records thereafter. All of these charter members with the exceptions of Miss Stewart and Mrs. Eastwood appear to be buried in the cemetery.  

The first board of trustees of the association consisted of William A. Stein, President; Charles W. Walters, Vice President; Alice C. Eastwood, Secretary-Treasurer; Reinhard Bernsdorf, Trustee; and Wendell Tehven, Trustee. Bylaws were adopted at the organizational meeting.

In 1951, the cemetery was landscaped and all grave markers put in order. The project was a community affair so all members of the churches were involved. At some point, many evergreens were planted on the north and west sides of the cemetery, probably around the 1951 landscaping renovation.

The original burial log kept by the cemetery association was discovered at an auction sale, and now remains in the possession of the cemetery sexton. The west half of the Catholic section of the cemetery was surveyed sometime around the 1960s. Currently, there are 15 north-south rows of lots ("Ranges") with each containing several dozen 5'x10' grave lots. To this day there are at least 26 unmarked graves in the cemetery, with many of their locations unknown.

A cemetery gate complete with roses and the cemetery's name was erected in memory of Magdalen Lee after her death in 1997.  

In 2001, the cemetery was indexed by Florene Culp, who was Georgetown City Clerk at the time. Others who have contributed to preserving its records, history, and heritage have included Julie Scoville, Susan Ohnstad, Marjorie Kukowski, Kathy Richards, and Jerry Hermann.

In 2009, the great flood which came that spring left much debris in the cemetery, and it created ice dams that overturned many grave markers in the cemetery. Local community service men came and completed most of the cleanup efforts, and reset most of the grave markers, after which a small dike was built around the cemetery property to ensure such a travesty would never occur again.

In 2019, another landscaping project took place with trees, benches, and other fixtures donated by the Richards and Lee families. The area around the large cross in the middle of the cemetery was re-landscaped during this project. Included in this project was the planting of some wild roses, the cemetery's namesake.

At some point, the Wilde Rose Cemetery Association disbanded. Historically, the Catholic and Protestant sections each had their own sexton. Bill Ziegler was the last Protestant sexton, and now the entire cemetery is operated by one sexton. John David Lee is treasurer of the cemetery fund and Jerry Hermann is cemetery sexton, having taken over the position from his father, Andrew Hermann. The lawn care is hired out.