Evergreen Cemetery / Evergreen Cemetery

In 1862 the village of Muskegon purchased this ten-acre site for a new cemetery. It was formally platted in 1864, and the first burial took place that same year. The Ladies Cemetery Association was organized to beautify and maintain the grounds, which were quite desolate and surrounded by a rough board fence. There was no sexton in the early years, so the association was responsible for all improvements. The cemetery became the final resting place for many prominent Muskegon citizens. There are 3,200 graves, 965 of which date from the nineteenth century. The gently rolling, landscaped grounds contain family mausoleums, columbaria, eleven above ground crypts and vaults, and several obelisks and marble markers. Many of Muskegon’s most prominent civic, commercial and industrial leaders are buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Lumberman and civic benefactor Charles H. Hackley’s Vermont granite mausoleum is one of the cemetery’s most imposing structures. A “branded hand” marks the resting place of abolitionist Jonathon Walker, sentenced by a federal court to be branded for helping slaves escape. Lumberman Thomas H. Hume; Chauncy Davis, first mayor of Muskegon; educator David McLaughlin, who introduced kindergartens into Michigan public school systems; Adelphia Grace “Mother” Ward, founder of the Maccabees Life Insurance Company; and Winfield Scott Gerrish, designer of Michigan’s first steam powered, narrow gauge, logging railroad are also interred here.