A Walk Through Fulton Street Cemetery

by Thomas R. Dilley

For many, contemplating our local cemeteries, and the critical place that they occupy in the discovery and study of local and regional, as well as cultural history, Fulton Street Cemetery, at the corner of Fulton Street and Eastern Avenue, is often left behind, and hence, unexplored. And yet, this earliest of extant local burial sites represents not only the final resting place of some of the very earliest residents of Grand Rapids, but is also the very first real response to an unavoidable civic need that signaled that Grand Rapids would not be a tiny frontier settlement, but was clearly headed toward establishment as a town, and eventually city of size and importance. Fulton Street Cemetery was opened in 1838, only twelve years after the original arrival of fur trader Louis Campau. Its location, just outside the city limit at Eastern Avenue (then known as East Street) was probably a reflection of the firm rejection of urban burial spaces that had been going on in New England for more than a century before. Though titled a “cemetery” from its beginning, Fulton Street is really not that, but is more accurately viewed as a late version of the graveyard format of cemetery design that had dominated burial sites all over the Eastern United States for the preceding two centuries. The graveyard is easily identified by its highly geometric appearance, general lack of opulent markers, and general lack

The marker of young Francis Botsford presents the only sculptural piece, here an image of hope, found in Fulton Street Cemetery

In the design of Fulton Street, in conformity with its ‘graveyard’ style, the site is strongly reminiscent of an early farmer’s field, with generally straight rows of graves, oriented on an east/west and north/south axis. In replicating this Colonial format at Fulton Street, its founders, whether consciously or not, were reproducing what they knew, and what, from their nearly universal New England beginnings, was most familiar to them. Though there are some vague hints of the later park cemetery (of which Oak Hill is a local example) at Fulton Street, it is clear that the curving, landscaped appearance of the later style had not yet fully arrived in Grand Rapids, and that the replication of the older graveyard format still provided a level of familiarity that appealed to early residents.

This map clearly shows the highly geometric layout of the Fulton Street Cemetery, imposed upon the site without regard for any naturally occurring landscape features.

It is at Fulton Street Cemetery where many of the founders of the cemetery, and of the city itself now rest. Joel Guild, the first actual settler, who bought his land from Louis Campau, is buried here, along with his daughter and son-in-law, Albert Baxter. Under a huge boulder at the eastern side of the cemetery, pioneers John Ball, and his wife, Mary Webster Ball rest in the

middle of a large family plot filled with later members of this important local family. Other pioneers also rest here, including William ‘Deacon’ Haldane, the founder of the local furniture industry, businessman and developer William Richmond, farmer and manufacturer Jonathan Chubb, and the irrepressible Charles C. Comstock, all of them familiar to students and observers of local history.

The marker of Franz Werner, from 1859, carries the evocative and melancholy image of a willow, as well as an inscription in Werner’s native German, a sentimental reference to the place of his origin.

All of these names and others are present at Fulton Street, often inscribed upon markers lush with symbols the meaning of which were well understood by their Victorian contemporaries, but which have since fallen from general knowledge. Our walk on September 6 & 7 will acquaint participants with all of these people, and with the monuments to themselves and each other, that they have left behind.

Because of the limited dimensions of Fulton Street Cemetery, the walks on September 6 & 7 will be limited to 200 visitors at a time. Walks will commence on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.. On Sunday, the walks will begin at 1:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m.. Each walk will run about two hours, and will cover the entire, fairly level cemetery. Please wear comfortable walking shoes.

A Walk Through Fulton Street Cemetery by Thomas R. Dilley, Saturday, September 6, 2014: 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Sunday, September 7, 2014: 1:00 p.m. & 3:00 p.m. Parking: Houseman Field off of Fountain Street.