Never have I been so intrigued with a cemetery.
Never have I been so enamoured with a cemetery.
It all started with researching my father's line, it brought me here to find the Youker's. The father, John George Youker was buried here, and so many of his descendants were too.
Then--the discovery of a possible PATRIOT, John George's father, George Youker might be buried here! A saga ensued. The Township had an 'index card' as a record of burial for our patriot. We contacted the township, consulted any records we could find, but it was never enough to get our Patriot a V.A. stone here. The more we pressed on, the less the township would help. Excuses, no replies at times -run around at every turn. As a member of the Grand Traverse Area Genealogical Society, I submitted the following story for publishing in the newsletter that is all but completely dormant. They said they would be publishing, then suddenly just dropped communication with me. What is going on here?
On top of all of this, after my cousin mapped the cemetery on Google Map to help people find it for our stone dedication for John George, SOMEONE took it off, so it could NOT be easily found.
Does the cemetery have The Plague?
I paid for a copy of the cemetery database from the Gen Society because doing so from the township was a dead end. I painstakingly went over every-single-grave plot in the original cemetery (as it is called by the township-the newer section surrounds the hill) and verified, double checked with records available to me, newspaper articles, etc. I corrected errors.
When I was done, I submitted it to the Gen Society, only to be given a 'thanks', but they were not going to acknowledge the work. Fine. I have it. Records are missing. Some burials are not recorded, which is pretty typical for old cemeteries.
Which brings me to this: Youker is not the only family I have buried in this cemetery. It turns out my mother's ancestors are buried here too, and most are not recorded.
This is so frustrating, but when I did the work on the cemetery, I concluded the location (a pretty good assumption anyway) as to where they are buried.
This will never be 'officially' acknowledged, unfortunately.
While I searched this cemetery, I discovered something nobody seemed to know. As it turns out, I am the only one who seems to care...this is the story of Mount Hope:
How Mount Hope Cemetery Began
A Tribute to Bazil Phelps, Early Pioneer
Mount Hope
Cemetery sits upon the hill off what is now U.S. 31 in Interlochen, Green Lake
Township in Grand Traverse County. Its
origin was never really thought about by those of us in the 21st
century, it has just always been there.
In and
around 1866 a great migration of ‘our own’ occurred by the people of Potter
County, Pennsylvania. They uprooted their lives and began the migration west
and settled into Grand Traverse County and nearby Benzie and Leelanau Counties.
Bazil Phelps and his immediate family members as well as friends, settled in
what would be called in the following year of 1867, Blair Township. Most of the
folks settling here were already acquainted in Pennsylvania, so
establishing a well knitted community was a natural process. The area was in its
infancy in terms of a settlement; it was virtually a wilderness to yet be
conquered.
Bazil Phelps
secured 160 acres by way of the Homestead Act of 1862 in c1866 and began making
that piece of land his family’s home in Section 18, Township 26, Range 12 in
Grand Traverse County and on the border of Benzie County. The community grew
all around him and his family.
Shortly after settling in the county, his son
Elisha Phelps a married man, died at the age of 36 on June 2nd, 1866
in Grand Traverse County. It can’t be said with certainty but rather with belief
of this writer, that Elisha was buried on Bazil’s farm upon the hill. There was
no cemetery established nearby. Bazil, being a devoted Methodist may have wanted
his son to be buried on the homestead. Elisha’s land had not yet been established;
he and his wife may have been living in Bazil’s home. His widow, Eliza Jane remarried the following
year to Jonas Youker.
As time went
on, neighbors in need of a burial ground were buried in this same location on
his property. Family and neighbors continued to be buried
in this location. Was it called Mount Hope in these earliest of years? We do not know, but they were buried on Bazil Phelps land for nearly 20 years.
The earliest known burial outside of the Phelps family was Angeline Thomas Pierce in September of 1866. I believe she was buried in the same 'row' as the Phelps family that were never recorded. There is evidence of burials there, but nothing recorded other than listed as 'occupied' on the township map.
In 1874, Bazil
sold 80 acres of this land to Harrison Johnson, his son-in-law. In 1877 he sold
10 acres to Judson Audrus.
Finally in 1880, he sold to Franklin Helm the
remaining acreage of 70 acres, except “one fourth of an acre which is in use
and is to be in use for burying the dead." Bazil, then aged around 81 years old,
lived his remaining years with his daughter Sarah and her husband Harrison
Johnson (who were later buried in this cemetery). The burial ground continued
to be in Bazil Phelps possession for four more years.
Sometime in
1883, the boundaries changed and a new township was organized called Green Lake.
The burial ground was within this new township.
On 22 January 1884, Bazil Phelps signed over the
land in which the cemetery was on to the Township Board of Green Lake and their
successors in office thereafter. It was officially called Mount Hope Cemetery.
Bazil Phelps died on 9 July 1889 in Green Lake
and is said to be buried in ‘Inland Cemetery’ per his obituary. The Green Lake
Township clerk does not see him listed as being buried in Mount Hope Cemetery,
there is no stone with his name.
What a painful tribute to a man who saw to it
that other people's loved ones had a final resting place.
