Felch Park Cemetery, Ann Arbor Cemetery, or Public Cemetery (City of Ann Arbor) Huron and Fletcher Street Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, Michigan 48109
The original burying ground of the village of Ann Arbor was called the Public Cemetery and adjacent to it was the Private Cemetery. A map of Ann Arbor from 1870 clearly shows them on Washington Street. In 1891 Ann Arbor turned the Public Cemetery into a park--Felch Park, named in honor of Governor Felch who was celebrating his 90th birthday. Remains of bodies buried in the Public Cemetery were reinterred in Forest Hill Cemetery and Fairview Cemetery. The site is now occupied by UM's Power Center for the Performing Arts.
“ Ann Arbor’s Oldest Cemeteries,” Tim Athan, Ann Arbor Observer, February 22, 2009. "The original Ann Arbor Cemetery is now Felch Park, the wooded lot in front of Power Center. George W. Noyes, who died in a house-raising accident in 1826, is believed to have been the first person buried there, but his and the other bodies were moved to Forest Hill Cemetery after it opened in 1859."
"Ann Arbor Township: Cemeteries," in History of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Chicago: Charles C. Chapman, 1881, pp 889-890.
"The first cemetery was located at the head of East Huron street, and was donated by Andrew Nowland in 1832. It now contains about five acres. The land was purchased by Andrew Nowland from Thomas Chambers, June 6, 1826.
"Anson Brown gave a plat of ground on a hill northwest of the Washtenaw House for a cemetery, which is still in use. Elizabeth Thompson, mother of Wm. K. Thompson, was the first person buried there.
"Forest Hill Cemetery was dedicated in 1859. This burial ground was laid out by the master gardener for the proprietary. In later years the gate house was added, vaults erected and additions made to the drive ways; improvement has followed improvement, until now, throughout its entire area of 40 acres, there is nothing to remind the visitor of this home of the dead, save the elegant monuments raised to their memory. The cemetery is located on the eastern side of the city, and is another monument to the civilization of our time.
"Among the monuments in Forest Hill are those erected to commemorate the names of Henning, Blake, Swift, Millen, Fasquelle, Hunt, Bach, Sackett, Wheeler, Spaulding, Godfrey, Howard, White, Gillespie, Chase, Gregory, Behr, Richards, Molony, Gerner, Bender, Welles, Sinclair, Pond, Maynard, Greenville, Scott, Osborn, Goodale, Boyden, Beal, Brakey, Treadwell, Mclntyre, Morgan, Ellsworth, Lund, Cheevers, Read, Loomis, Danforth, Gerner, Searman, Risdon, George. In the older cemeteries, the marble perpetuates the names of many of the old settlers who died previous to 1859."
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