Poor Farm Cemetery in Eastmanville, Michigan

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Get directions Eastmanville, Michigan, USA

Coordinates: 43.01467, -85.98321
Cemetery ID:

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The land dates back to 1837. The graves are on the property of the old Ottawa County Poor Farm. Poor Farms were common in the 17th century. They were places people went to live who were poor or mentally ill and didn't have anywhere else to go.
Ottawa County Commissioners addressed indigents' needs when in 1866 they purchased the property and converted it to a "Poor Farm".
Many within it's vulnerable population died on the farm. Though burials from 1866-1896 were not reliably documented, there were 64 recorded interments at the farm from 1897-1931.
For reasons not entirely clear, grieving residents began protesting burials at the farm and burials ended about 1931.
The cemetery was abandoned, overgrown, and largely forgotton over the next 70 years.

Over the years, many caring individuals labored to preserve the memory of the Poor Farm.
In 2002 the property shifted to the Parks and Recreation. In 2009 a proposal was presented by the Friends of Ottawa County Parks for a Cemetery Restoration Project.
The Dedication to the Rediscovery and Renewal of the Ottawa County Poor Farm Cemetery took place July 10, 2010

"They lived on the poor farm and died on the poor farm and their bodies were unclaimed and in time, a generation of their family will come looking for them too and we want those people to know where their loved ones are," Viveen said.

The area has been cleaned up and a fence erected with a plaque installed on a large stone with names of the individuals presumed to be buried at the site.