When traveling around Michigan I visit many towns and cities of all sizes. While I am exploring I will take a quick tour of the cemetery, especially if it has old tombstones. I was in the town of Leonidas and I saw this old cemetery not far from town. In a quiet section near the front of the cemetery stands this simple stone marker that has THOMAS WEST 1808-1883 carved into it.  I don’t know his story but I do know an American flag is planted beside his marker and proudly waves in the breeze commemorating his service to our county. It does not matter if a veteran is buried in the largest national cemetery in the county or laid to rest in a simple grave in a remote part of the world their sacrifice deserves to be remembered.

P.S. If you have been following my posts for a while you know I have been posting pics from my archive. This is the time I would normally be posting from my archive even if everything in the world was as life as normal. As I travel throughout the year I take pics of different cemeteries, monuments, and memorials to post near Memorial Day. Just to let you know for the next few days you will be seeing some of my pics I have taken in the past year that I have been waiting to post for this time of year. I guess I am telling you this because I like to keep the subjects of my posts somewhat random but this week they may be somewhat similar just different locations.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my posts and I hope you enjoy what I write.

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Most of the tombstones in Tucker Cemetery are broken or completely missing. This one for Ashel Atherton dated 1884 is one of just a couple that still remains standing. Hidden in the sparsely populated woods in the Ogemaw Hills, the cemetery is left over from the lumbering days. It is northwest of Rose City off a sandy forest trail and forgotten by most people. It is kind of an eerie sight to come across to see this old cemetery so far from civilization if you are out riding the trails in an ORV.

Time to announce the winner of the Camp Michigan books. Thank you to everyone who commented. it was so nice to read all the kind and supportive comments. Congratulations to Elizabeth Dewar she is the winner, please email me at mike@huronphoto.com with your address and I will send out your books.

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Twenty-six solitary headstones are lined up In a section of Fort Custer National Cemetery. They mark the graves of German Prisoners of War that died in Michigan while being held in POW camps. Sixteen of the men were killed on October 31st, 1945 when their truck pulled in front of a train. The men were returning from working in a beet field in Blissfield Michigan, The violent crash killed the german men and Pfc Edward B. Loughrin who was assigned to guard the men. He was buried in his hometown of Cadillac Michigan.

The rest of the Germans buried at Fort Custer National Cemetery died of natural causes other than one who was killed when a wire snapped while on work detail. Michigan had approximately 30 POW camps during WWII. Most of the men were captured Germans from Africa. They worked the fields and lumbermills and most were model prisoners. For most, being a POW working in the fields was better than being shot at in the war. Many of the men emigrated back to the US after the war.

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Saint Ann’s Cemetery on Mackinac Island in behind the fort near Skull Cave. It was not always at this location. I was originally next to Ste Anne’s Catholic Church near downtown. One of the oldest headstones in the cemetery is for Mary Biddle, She was eight years old when she fell through the ice and died in 1833. In the 1850s the cemetery could no longer accept new burials because it could not expand into the city. The bodies were exhumed and moved to the current cemetery further into the island.

Years later after the cemetery was moved, headstones were found among the weeds at the old location. Workers found them before the construction of the buildings that now stand near the church. It makes you wonder how thorough they were at moving the bodies of those laid to rest. One thing that is odd about the cemetery is the name. On the gate, it reads St Ann’s Cemetery but the church is Ste. Anne’s. Legend also has it the gate was build to accommodate a horse-drawn hearse but they forgot about the driver. That fueled the legend of the headless horseman or in this case hearseman.

It is a beautiful old cemetery and the carriage tours travel along the road next to it. And if you are wondering, to be laid to rest in the cemetery, you either need to have been born on the island or been a resident or owned a business on the island for more than 15 years

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It is an awe-inspiring sight to see the row upon row of white headstones of the veterans laid to rest in the National Cemetery in Holly. I highly recommend visiting this beautiful place. It is a good reminder of the price of freedom and the sacrifices made to protect it.

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On the outskirts of Saginaw in the back of Oakwood Cemetery is the veteran’s section with a Civil War Monument surrounded by tombstones of the veterans that so proudly served in the military. You will notice one marker is cleaner than the rest of the markers. I don’t know who Ross F. Huffman is other than what is written on his marker and that he served in the infantry during World War II. His marker is in a restored state and cleaned compared to the surrounding headstones. My friend worked at the cemetery, and he told me that one of Mr. Hoffman’s relatives was researching their genealogy and family heritage when they discovered they were related to Mr. Hoffman. While visiting the cemetery, they painstakingly scrubbed and cleaned the tombstone. It stands out among the other markers but they all deserve to be honored and remembered.

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