Memorial Day is the time to honor the country’s war dead, so why not do a little time traveling and go way back, like 165+ years?

I am always trying to think ahead when it comes to my blog posts and that’s not just because I don’t want to run out of blog fodder.  I admit that it’s been a while since I posted about a walk taken the same day. 

In today’s post, my meander happened in the aftermath of Memorial Day 2025 – you will see a compilation of photos taken on Tuesday, May 27^th.  The venue for this short walk was a very old cemetery in Trenton, Michigan called The Old Burial Ground and it followed a lengthier walk taken earlier at beautiful Elizabeth Park, which is just around the corner.

I’ve blogged about two different cemeteries in the Downriver area in the past, The Old Burial Ground and Oakwood Cemetery.  Today I will focus primarily on The Old Burial Ground.

But first, a little backstory about this day ….

It was a gorgeous Spring day and tripping around a vintage cemetery was not on my agenda at all.  I had spent a delightful morning at nearby Elizabeth Park where I went to photograph goslings, which are always plentiful in Spring. That day the goslings were so plentiful that as I walked along Elizabeth Drive, the only street on this island park, I practically needed a wide-angle lens to capture them all, as a gaggle of goslings ganged up on me, the eager photographer, happy to click away as this feathered barricade of young geese, most which were already in their teenager phase, came charging toward me.  Click here if you missed that fun post which I aptly entitled “Gosling-palooza”.  🙂

I continued on my walk and, despite having taken a ton of shots of the geese, I was greedy as I still wanted more photo ops.  I hoped to have another meet-up with some singing frogs like those I encountered the prior Spring following multiple days of torrential rain that converted low-lying areas in Elizabeth Park into makeshift swamps. 

Well, I was striking out for sure:  there were zero tiny, lemon-colored goslings and zero singing frogs to be found. Sadly, I couldn’t even scare up a seagull along the Boardwalk, nor were there feisty, quacking Mallards in the park’s canal, as the females were likely sitting on nests, hidden from humans and/or predators and their mates were not straying far from them.  It was just too quiet to be honest.  So, after strolling the Boardwalk, instead of heading to the car, I turned the corner and headed toward the cemetery, of course, an even quieter venue!

Hmm – it wasn’t Halloween, but this girl was feeling ghoulish. 

This is the historical marker at the entrance of the cemetery which gives you a brief history of The Old Burial Ground.

As soon as I passed through the wrought-iron gates, which are always left open in daylight hours …

… I noticed many of the gravestones had flags placed near them.  Trenton had just had their Memorial Day parade on the Saturday before Memorial Day.  The parade route traveled down West Road, near The Old Burial Ground, but not along West Jefferson at 5^th Street where the cemetery is located.

When I got online later that day, I learned that local veterans’ organizations and volunteers like the Boy Scouts had placed those flags around each veteran’s gravesite. 

These are some of the gravesites with the flags. 

I wonder if Caroline was a veteran? Was the flag holder misplaced somehow? Maybe Caroline was a dog that had a significant role in the Civil War? Lots of questions – but no answers from Google, the City’s historical site, or the Find-A-Grave site.

Yep, the crow and the raggedy tree were a bonus for this shot of the old headstones.

Although this veteran’s name is illegible, the emblem with a star on the flag holder denotes that the decedent, like many of the others, was in the Grand Army of the Republic for the Civil War.

This headstone and flag mark another Civil War veteran, Robert Clark, who lived from 1838-1882.

This is the final resting place for George Dart, birth and death dates unknown.

I was unable to determine this person’s name or date of birth/death.

There is no rhyme or reason as to how this cemetery is laid out, i.e. I don’t see families grouped together or veterans grouped together.  Most of the deaths memorialized in the 44 grave markers were from the mid-1800s, with the earliest death date of 1849.  This is the final resting place for Civil War veterans that not only perished in that conflict which lasted from April 12, 1861 until May 26, 1865, but passed away years later.  It is possible that other veterans, not related to that four-year war, are buried here as well, since the inscriptions are difficult to read and gravestones have cracked and crumbled through the years.

Interestingly, Messrs. Kenneth and Fred Handley, whose deaths were in 1978 and 1984 respectively and likely were brothers, are the only burials in the 1900s. I couldn’t find obituary info for either of them. There are no burials after the Handleys.

Trenton’s early settlers and notable folks, like the City’s first doctor, are also buried here.  These shots are mostly headstones because most of the flat grave markers were in very bad shape; some of the headstones were at such a precarious angle, I had to tilt to one side to take the photo. I won’t include all of the headstones, just a few.

There was one child who was William Dearborn “Little Willie” Alvord (1853-1855).

This was Libbie M. Dearborn (1836-1851), another person that did not have longevity in their favor.

I was interested that the word “sleeps” rather than “rests” is on this headstone. Emma was just 26 years old when she passed away in 1854.

This headstone was quite tilted and unfortunately, although I see “Mary Ida” I was unable to find out more info.

Speaking of tilted ….

Here’s the last gravestone, Mr. William Pardington who was born in Gloucestershire, England and died in Trenton, 64 years later in 1869.

I’ve visited here three or four times through the years, but I’ve never spoken to another soul while there.  The cemetery is maintained by the City of Trenton.

After taking many photos during my meander at The Old Burial Ground, I decided to pop over to another vintage cemetery to see the display of flags for their war veterans.  As I drove those six miles to Oakwood Cemetery in Wyandotte I hoped the pretty pink roses that were rambling along the cemetery’s black, wrought-iron fence at my last visit would be in bloom, but, as I neared the venue, my plan for a Civil War era-only veterans’ graves post, just like my car, came to an abrupt halt as there was construction going on and heavy earth-moving machinery blocked the entire street where the cemetery is located, so I was unable to get near.

But I’ll give you a brief history of that unique cemetery and share my last post from there taken in 2018, so you can take a peek at this unique venue, just click here.

When I searched for that post, I saw I visited in early June, so there were a few flags placed at the veteran’s respective gravesites – here is a photo from that post. 

Oakwood Cemetery, a/k/a “Old City Cemetery” is located along the Detroit River and, as mentioned, just like the Old Burial Ground, it is the final resting place for many Civil War veterans as well as other veterans. There are 45 Civil War veterans buried here. One veteran named John Clark died February 22, 1827. Clark, a captain in the New York Militia, fought and was wounded in the War of 1812. It is John Clark’s family that established this cemetery back in 1869.

It is not just veterans buried here. In fact, this is the final resting place for around 1,800 people, including local dignitaries like mayors and state legislators, victims of historical epidemics such as consumption/TB, early settlers from the town of Wyandotte and even the seamstress for Henry Ford is buried here. 

But here is where these two cemeteries differ.  Unlike The Old Burial Ground, Oakwood Cemetery is maintained solely by Wyandotte Historical Society volunteers that work hard to preserve the dignity and once-beautiful grounds of this over-200-year-old cemetery.  They routinely gather to do yardwork, as well as scrub the headstones to preserve them, even when, in some cases, the decedents’ names are barely legible.

It was not my usual type of stroll that was taken on May 27, 2025. The day was varied, from the peacefulness of Elizabeth Park to the loud gaggle of goslings, to the subdued nature of the Old Burial Ground.

Memorial Day is tomorrow and I hope you are having a safe Memorial Day weekend as we all remember the reason for this somber holiday.

Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge this week is “Babies!” (Animals, Birds, Humans). I’ll have my Council Point Park goslings to share with you in June. Instead, I’ll be linking to “Flower Hour” and “One Step at a Time” later this week.