Walker Cemetery

While in Michigan, Brian, the girls, and I visited Walker Cemetery, a family plot on the former property of Salmon Walker, my 3rd great grandfather's half-brother.  My 3rd great grandfather, William Riley Walker, lived right nearby and was one of Athens, Michigan's earliest settlers.  He and his wife, Phebe, are buried there along with William's grandparents (my 5th great grandparents), Jared and Roxanna Tuttle (Jared died in 1838).  I wasn't able to get a picture of Jared and Roxanna's grave...I completely missed it...so I'll have to get one the next time I go back.  For family reading this post, the lineage is William Riley -> Mary Lovina (and Jennie, who married Clarence Spore) ->Mildred.  It was really neat to stand on land my ancestors once stood on as well!

This sketch of my 3rd great grandfather was taken from the "Portrait Biographical Album of Calhoun County, Michigan 1891".

This photo was in my great grandmother, Mildred's, picture book.  This is my 3rd great grandmother, Phebe, with one of her daughters, Jennie.  This was taken in 1907 and Phebe would die just two years later.

The entrance...the sign above was placed to the right.

I wish I knew what vines were covering portions of the fence and some trees.  It made for a very neat look to the front of the cemetery.

The cemetery is bordered by trees with a fence across only the front.  The grass was short, so I imagine someone has been caring for the property.

There are about 125 graves in total.

The graves up at the very front next to the fence belong to mostly Walkers.

This is William and Phebe's grave.  Because the graves have been exposed to the elements for over 100 years, most of them are extremely hard to read or have been completely washed out.  William died in 1892 and Phebe in 1909.

This is the back side of their grave.

I wonder when the trees were planted and the fence erected.  The fence is right in front and on top of several graves.

This is Salmon Walker's grave.  He died in 1879.

This is Walter Tooker's grave.  Walter is Phebe's son from a previous relationship/marriage.  He kept a diary from January 1893 - March 1894 that gives brief descriptions each day of the weather, visits made to town, family members helping out with chores, etc.  He died in January of 1895.

We found Walter's gravestone laying down, so I had Brian help stand it back up.  Now that I think about it, though, maybe we should have just left it laying down.  I hope it doesn't break when it falls backwards again.

This was next to a gravestone that was almost washed out.  So, I am not sure who it belongs to.  I need to do a little more research.

On a couple of the gravestones, we used paper and crayon to try and make the lettering a little clearer.  This one ended up being for a Dora Mellen who died on April 24, 1872.