Photo contributed by Marie Mackey.
Photo contributed by Marie Mackey.
“…This three acre plot, located at the corner of Park place and South Westnedge Streets, is Kalamazoo’s first graveyard. According to historical records, Titus Bronson, when platting the village, generously provided land for a public square, a jail, an academy, churches, a school, and a burial ground. The latter was situated at the intersection of South and Henrietta Streets. Why it was never used has been forgotten. The first death in the pioneer community when a man, name unknown, died at the Kalamazoo House in the fall of 1832. Where he was interred is not known exactly. The first person buried in South West Street cemetery, as it was then known, was Joseph Wood, age 72, father of Smith L. Wood. …. The land comprising the cemetery was given by Cyren and Mary Ann Burdick to the people of the township of Arcadia. It was to be set aside and to be reserved as a common burial ground and was duly recorded on December 4, 1833, with Stephen Vickery serving as registrar of deeds. …. It seems that the West Street Cemetery was used from its opening date in 1833 until 1862. The Kalamazoo Gazette of the latter year, May 9, tells of the opening of Riverside Cemetery, and the bringing of bodies from the “old cemetery” which had been closed by the Board of Health.According to the same paper, but of a later date, Susan Holmes, Gerry Nobly, and Albert Evans6 were the first to be removed to Riverside Cemetery. Many others were taken either to Riverside or Mountain Home Cemeteries. The exact count has not been established. Some duplication was found in checking the entries in the South West Street Cemetery records against those in the records of mountain Home and Riverside Cemeteries. In four cases, individuals are listed in the old cemetery records and Mountain Home. The same was true in reference to Riverside Cemetery. This probably came about in that the bodies were removed and the tombstones left behind. In making the plat map and record, it was erroneously assumed that each stone represented a body still in place.
The West Street burial ground was probably closed in 1862 because it was filled to capacity, or also most so. One can easily imagine that there may have also been concern about the fact that the area around the cemetery was being surrounded by the growing village and that there was fear that the ground water, upon which people depended for their daily needs, was contaminated.
The West Street Cemetery evidently went to seed between its closing in 1862 and the years up to 1884. Work done in the cemetery, in 1884 and later, indicates that nature and children combined forces to leave it in a state of general dilapidation, wrack and ruin. Its condition came to the attention of the village administrators around this time because they appointed a committee to look into the status of the cemetery. The committee recommended that the old gravestones be replaced on the graves. However, more drastic measures were planned and soon carried out. It was decided to convert the old burial ground into a park. That same year (1884), J.O. Seeley and others petitioned that the South West Street Cemetery be officially renamed “South Park”.
From the annual village report ending in April 13, 1885, we learn how the pioneer cemetery was converted to the park it is today. “The Old West street Cemetery has been graded and ready for seeding. The superfluous trees have been removed and those remaining trimmed up. The unsightly old gravestones have been sunk in the ground, the place of each marked and recorded in the cemetery record. The West Street sidewalk being decayed was taken up, the soil used for grading, and the space filled with gravel ready for permanent walk. The entire amount expended was $289.98. We would recommend the grounds be seeded down, a row of shade trees be set out on the south and west sides and a stone or cement walk be laid on West Street.” By 1888, further improvements besides lawns, walks, and tree trimming included raising of the grade, perfecting of the lighting and water systems, installation of seats and a central water fountain. All of this plus the fact that the Park was used for social and political purposes led to a protracted, and costly law suit. It was noted in 1889 that anyone absent from Kalamazoo for a few years would find it difficult to recognize the old neglected West Street Cemetery of earlier years.
Sometime before 1895, R. Carlisle Burdick of Minneapolis, Minnesota, son of the original donor of the cemetery, revisited the village of his childhood. What he saw at the former pioneer burying ground proved quite a shock. When he further learned that the site had been used for an election and a “bicycle tea”, he was convinced that it was no longer used for its originally intended purposes.
In the spring of 1895 he commenced a suit of ejectment in the United States Circuit Court for the Western District of Michigan. He requested possession of the property or monetary compensation for its value. Its worth at the time was estimated at $12,000. Self disqualification of one Judge (Severens), illness of another (Judge Sage), and the necessary appointment of a third (Judge Charles Clark), delayed the case for several years. Judge S.W. Vance of Port Huron, Michigan, and W.L. Mason of Detroit, Michigan represented the complainant, while George P. Hopkins and Judge A.J. Mills were retained by the city. The contention of the defendant was that since bodies were still interred in the grounds, the property was still in effect a resting place for the dead, even though the surface had been altered to a park. Also it argued that the city had title to the land because of adverse possession of it beyond the time of limitation of action as fixed by statute. In any case, heirs of Cyren Burdick were not successful in their suit to eject the city from the cemetery site. The court decided that the city's title had not been forfeited and that it was, as the city claimed, still a cemetery. Of greatest interest to genealogists, however, is “Exhibit A”, introduced as evidence during the trial. It is called the “West Street Cemetery Record of Graves”, and consists of a note-book and a pasted –plat showing the location of graves in the cemetery when it was made into a park. Written on a page of the book is a notation to the effect that “about one half of the known bodies had been moved to Riverside Cemetery, Sosay Martin Verhage and A.A. Davis”.
The actual number of individuals buried in the cemetery will never be known. As was customary in early years, many of the head ‘stones’ were of wood and deteriorated rapidly. Also, many graves were never marked for lack of money. When the cemetery was platted an exact location was made of each grave. Also, a record was made, if legible, of the inscription on the appropriate head and foot stones. Of the 325 located graves, 214 are marked as known, presumably because of the poor condition of the markers, or the lack of a stone even though a grave was evident. Included in the latter number was an estimated three to four graves in a mound. If half of the known people had been exhumed, in 1862 or later, then the total population of West Street Cemetery was close to 500 burials. The actual count, however, was no doubt higher.”
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