Cemeteries Forgotten

Cemeteries were started, used then sometimes forgotten.  Even the soldiers who died in the massacre of Bloody Ridge are now lost, unmarked and forgotten.  Many of the old cemeteries are unmarked and forgotten.  Even the old stones get weathered and become unreadable.  Note Brick sealer can stop that for a while.  In the old days family members were often buried within a few hundred feet of where they died because they did not have a wagon or horse to carry the remains.  Burials were often on the family farm.  In most of history coffins were not even used.  This was because the family or what was left of it did not have the wood, tools, skill or strength to make one.  With epidemics often family members were laid side by side in common graves.  Often several family members died within a short time.  What was left of families simply piled stones on the grave site.  Years later under new owners the forgotten graves became again farmer’s field.  There were few if any gravestone makers available to families.  Many families were in shock and extremely poor.  Many people died of conditions we have cures for now.  Many children and women died as a result of childbirth.  Many children died young.

There were so many orphans that an orphan asylum was active in Detroit.

In Warren Township I have found that the oldest recorded cemetery burials were at the Warren Union Cemetery, followed by the St Clement Cemetery.   But between the A Bunert Farmhouse and the C Bunert Farmhouse Just N of Martin Road and West of Bunert Road, was an Indian mound which was 18 feet tall.  It was most likely an Indian burial mound but this is uncertain.  This mound existed prior to the settlement of their farm in 1849.  It had become overgrown with weeds and shrubs so much that it was not particularly recognizable as an Indian mound and was missed on the early surveys. The settlers certainly were not in the habit of building mounds 18 feet high.  The family reported that Indians came around often in the early days.  They would read the sun like a clock and would disappear when the sun reached a certain angle.  Indian artifacts have been found in the area.  Local legends also give credence to the Indian mound theory.  This area is generally flat and there is no logical geological explanation for a sand mound given the flatness of the surrounding area.  Also considering that there was at least evidence of forty human remains removed from this site and that no archeologist was called in to evaluate the site so that there may have been other evidence that was certainly overlooked.   Also consider that at least two dump truck loads of remains were trucked out of the site before it was discovered that at least one of them contained human bones.  The family reported that other families sometimes brought relatives there for burial. I talked with one of the older Weiers and was told that their grand parents told them of a man who carried his dead baby for several miles to have it buried there as it was the only cemetery he knew about.  Around this landmark early settlers from several families buried their dead.  They probably did not know or care if it was an Indian mound or not.  Whether or not it was will  probably remain unknown as the evidence was destroyed and removed.  Early farmers often raided Indian mounds to get pots.  There was a road that led from Martin road directly to this cemetery.  I have it on an aerial foto and showing the mound in the 1960s.  I shall call it the Bunert-Indian Cemetery for shortness but it was supposedly registered on the State of Michigan registry as the Bidell-Green-Weier Cemetery.  I saw a 8 mm movie in about 1970 showing three burial vaults in which bones were being piled to be buried at Clinton Grove. It is now located on the southern half of the Briarwood school property. I spoke with the undertaker who performed the last removals. I found newspaper articles. And weirdly also found reports of ghost sightings believe it or not.  

By the 1960s it was overgrown with Lilac shrubs that waved in the breeze.  The Lilacs were planted by other families to mark the burial places but had become overgrown over the years. The family was forced by economic reasons to sell the property.   The school district would have taken the property anyway as they wanted to build a school there.  It was transferred about 1966.   Mrs. Ida Weier told the school district that it was a burial ground and wanted all remains to be treated in a Christian manner. Bunert family burials were removed and reinterred at the Clinton Grove Cemetery in Mt Clemens.  There were no other stone markers and all of the wood markers had rotted away and the little stone pebble markers were displaced so it was not particularly recognizable as a burial ground.  But she also warned the principal that it was a burial ground.  He called her a crazy lady.  During construction a skull and other human bones were discovered.  (Per Tri City Progress 4 14-1967)   In May of 1969 children playing in the school playground discovered more human remains.  Imagine the look of shock on the teachers face when they brought the remains into the classroom.  Later the principal went over to Ida Weiers house and wanted to question her about the remains.  She reminded him that he had branded her a crazy lady for even suggesting that it was a

burial ground.  One contractor dug a load of dirt for fill dirt and dropped it off on someone’s property.  The homeowner receiving the fill dirt found sculls and human bones and called the police who contacted the contractor.  Imagine asking for fill dirt and getting human remains dropped off in your driveway. Wow was he in trouble. It wasn’t very long when that kids were also showing off human remains from the mound.  That finally got the officials attention. The school district wanted everything hushed up so no archeologists were called in and in fact it was them who hired a funeral director.  The school certainly did not anyone to discover that this was anything other than a single family burial plot.  But human remains of at least 40 humans were removed from what was left of the mound and the rest of the area was not explored.  Historian Wesley Arnold states that he saw movies of this mound being excavated.  William DuRoss the funeral director mentioned that Theuts, Greens, Hessels, and Schoenhers were probably buried there.  So it was for sure a pioneer cemetery.  Whether or not it was also the remains of an Indian burial ground had not been determined by scientific investigation and will never be never known as the evidence has been removed and scattered.  And even though a few bones were removed the balance of the remains of those pioneer families remain underground. This historian does not believe in ghosts but must report many of sightings over the years by homeowners adjacent to the Briarwood School property.  Several families and even children have reported sightings and strange happenings there.   As a historian I am honor bound to tell the truth.  Strange.  This historian feels that a plaque should be erected at least on the on a bench on the grass next to the paved path that goes around the ball field that would and mark this as at least a pioneer cemetery.

Warren Union Cemetery

There were burials on farms and unknown locations prior to this time some without so much as a casket and since tools were poor many were in very shallow graves or mounds. The Warren Historical Society was just recently  informed about a grave next to a house on Chicago Road.  Most burials in the old days were made within a few hundred feet of where the person dies because families did not have the resources to build caskets or transport the remains and often there were no cemeteries nearby.

The Warren Union Cemetery was established in 1845 when pioneer farmer Peter Gillette sold a parcel of land to eighteen families as a burial ground.  The Warren Union Cemetery Association was organized in 1852 to maintain the 2 1/2 acre cemetery.  This is the oldest cemetery in the city.  Wesley Arnold photographed all of the stones and the pictures are included for you free on this CD.  An index of this cemetery will be included as soon as time allows work to be completed on it.

The Center Line St Clement parish cemetery was established about 1850.  Many pioneers OF Warren are buried here.  Wesley Arnold has pictures of all of the pioneer’s grave stones available free on this CD.  He took pictures of every visible stone.  Some stones are buried below the grass.   Many of the old stones are weathered, crumbled and not visible anymore.  Many are probably now underground.  Wesley Arnold photographed all of them so that future generations will have access to the information on them.  He also scouted around and found a walk thru of the cemetery done in the 1950’s.  It is amazing how many stones have disappeared.  Those stone readings were indexed and typed by Wesley Arnold and the walk thru information was added and that information is on this CD in the St Clement folder.

What are you doing in the cemetery with that shovel?

Wow did he get some strange looks as he walked around the cemetery with a shovel and his camera.  He almost got locked in when Chief Norman Smith locked the gate.  He looked at Wes a little funny when Wes explained that he was just digging up a little history.  Actually Wes was one of Chief Smith’s volunteer firemen and Norm is a great source of knowledge about Center Line.  He even told me how during some years more people were removed from this cemetery than were buried.  It seemed that back in the old days you did not walk on graves.  You had to stick to the aisles.  Also there was no caretaker as the church was too poor to pay one so families were responsible for maintaining the gravesites and the aisle next to it.  Some did not which led eventually to the cemetery being greatly overrun with vines, weeds and underbrush so thick that people could not easily visit their loved ones or properly conduct burials.  The pastor probably felt at that time that it was a huge disgrace so he encouraged people to bury their loved ones elsewhere such as at Mt Olivet (opened in 1888) down Van Dyke or, Mt. Elliott (opened in 1841).  These cemeteries were maintained properly.  He also encouraged people to have their loved ones removed and buried there.  So some years more people were removed from the cemetery than were buried there that year.  By the way cemetery caretakers were not always careful about not bumping stones as they mowed.  Sometimes stones would fall down or get pushed into the low trough that was made when an old wooden casket finally caved in.  Another good reason not to walk on graves was that your body weight might cause your foot break the rotting cover of an old grave and you literally could fall into a grave.  Many burials were in winter and dug by hand in frozen ground and sometimes weren’t always dug too deep.  Note that weathering on stones can be slowed down by cleaning them, coloring in the letters then applying coatings of brick sealer.  Wesley Arnold has recorded all of the stones in six cemeteries so that the record of the stones will be preserved even if it becomes unreadable.  Families should look after the grave sites of their ancestors because it is their responsibility, and they should record the record on the stones. Some people have reported that visiting the family site sometimes gives them a feeling of happiness and peace.  People could make it a short visit and also make it part of a family outing such as visiting a cider mill and park.  This could be a chance to tell the children about the family history.  Where were your great grand parents during the civil war?  Which side did they fight on?  Where did their parents come from? 

Lastly most people don’t realize that most of our ancestors lie in unmarked, forgotten graves.  Most of them during the last few thousand years were farmers.  When someone died and there were family survivors in decent enough health they buried the person out back on the farm made a wooden marker or piled on a few rocks.  As years went by the rocks became overgrown with weeds and the wooden marker rotted away.  Farms changed owners sometimes by brut force.  Then new farmers moved the rocks to the fence line and plough the ground unknowing or uncaring that someone was buried there.  Remember in the old days there were no granite marker companies or stone cutters available to most people.  Where are your great great grand parents buried?  Do they have markers?

Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery was established in 1925.