Hartland Burying Ground / Hartland Burying Ground
The first burial in this cemetery occurred in 1840 upon the death of Thomas Hall, a Hartland Township pioneer. Chauncey L. and Robert C. Crouse, who platted the village of Hartland in 1842, transferred approximately two acres of the original cemetery to the Hartland Township Board of Health in 1864. The cemetery includes the graves of several early settlers, including Samuel Mapes and Dr. Josiah T. Clark, who ministered to people suffering from smallpox during the late 1840s. The grave markers also display the names of some of Hartland’s most prominent citizens, including the Crouses and members of the Tremaine family. Both families were successful entrepreneurs and philanthropists.The Hartland Burying Ground occupies 3.6 acres of land. The cemetery has a wide variety of funerary markers popular during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Elaborate stones include pedestal tombs with urns, such as the Blain marker; a pulpit marker with an open bible, such as the Bradley marker; a marker sculpted to be a tree with ferns at its base; and obelisks, such as the one for the Crouse family. A cross bearing the name Abraham is built of cobblestones carved into hearts. It dates from 1970, and is one of the most unique markers in the cemetery. Three hundred nineteen graves date from the nineteenth century. Six veterans of the War of 1812 and twenty-four Civil War veterans are interred here.
Plaque via Michigan History Center