‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
A Book of Sorrows
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR 180th in a Series A Book of Sorrows The title seems fitting for a book of poetry or maybe a novel, but its purpose was as far from those uses as possible. It was a ledger measuring 18” by 12” with a black cloth binding, trimmed with red Moroccan leather. It was the property of the County Morgue and contained the names of the people whose bodies were stored in “Death”™s Lodging House” as one reporter put it, for some brief period of time. The first entry in this particular book, (although there were undoubtedly records of earlier deaths kept elsewhere,) was made on August 5, 1893, the same day that the new morgue opened for business. John F. Walsh, the city”™s morgue keeper, most likely purchased a new ledger in honor of the occasion. Over the next 22 years almost 4,000 names- only one line allotted for each person- were recorded in [...]
Tales From Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery
179th in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR Emeline Baker Balch 1830-1867 The Cemetery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in part because of its ties to the anti-slavery movement. Its original owners, Martin and Elizabeth Layman, were members of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis which was closely associated with that movement; and there are several others buried in the cemetery, including a number of women, who had ties to both the anti-slavery and temperance movements. It is hard to gauge the exact nature of their involvement since very few of the women who died during the cemetery”™s early years left first-hand accounts of their lives, but there can be little doubt about what they believed. Emeline Baker Balch was born in Onondaga, New York on 20 March 1830. When she was 14 years old, Emeline and her family moved to Aurora, Kane County, Illinois. The town of Aurora was settled by New Englanders who tended to migrate [...]
Tales from Pioneer and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery
178th in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR Lafayette Mason””One Mpls.”™ First Black Firefighters Musician, Artist, and Southside High Football Captain Other than some graffiti on about a dozen fence pillars, the Cemetery was untouched during the protests on Lake Street. The graffiti was gone within a few days but the stories about the lives of those who are buried inside the gates continue. It”™s obvious to passersby that the Cemetery is old. What is less obvious is that the Cemetery is listed in the National Register of Historic Sites because of the people who are buried there. For the most part they were not famous but collectively their stories tell how the city and state were built. Some of them had ties to the early abolitionist and anti-slavery movements in Minnesota and others because it was a favored burial site for members of the early African-American community, many of whom led [...]
