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The Dead of the County Grounds
You might know The Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa as a popular spot for a walk or a bird-watching excursion. But you might not know that beneath it lie the remains of over 10,000 Milwaukeeans, many of whom died poor, institutionalized or “unclaimed.”
Between 1878 and 1974, the grounds’ four cemeteries, collectively known as the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery, were used to bury the city’s most vulnerable.
Most graves were unmarked, many only numbered, and some were later disturbed or paved over during the development of the Regional Medical Center. Today, that area is marked by a modest brown and white historical marker that identifies the final resting place of an estimated 4,000 souls. Often referred to in records as Cemetery No. 2, the graveyard is partially hidden beneath Doyne Avenue.
Archaeological digs have unearthed remains and renewed efforts to honor the dead through research and respectful reburial. Today, the site stands as a quiet memorial to the lives of those once invisible people whose stories are being uncovered.
The Bodies in the Riverbed … And More Tales of Maritime Disaster
THE MILWAUKEE RIVER between Erie and Chicago streets is the site of a shocking maritime disaster. On June 30, 1917, the SS Christopher Columbus, carrying 413 passengers and 150 crew from Chicago, was making her return trip when tragedy struck.
Rogue currents caught the ship, sending her careening into the Yahr-Lange Drug Co.’s water tower. The steel tower smashed through the ship’s wheelhouse and flooded the boat with 25,000 gallons of water. Panic followed. Some leapt into the river; others were crushed beneath splintered wood and mangled steel.
While accounts vary, most sources report 16 lives lost in the wreck. Chillingly, a number of bodies were never recovered. Rescuers recall the gruesome sight of dismembered limbs and corpses bobbing in the river alongside survivors struggling in the water.
Today, pleasure boats glide past the site, unaware that their wakes are rippling across the final resting place of those whose bodies never left the river.
Nearby, at the junction of Water and Erie streets, a historical marker commemorates the Sept. 8, 1860, sinking of the luxury passenger ship Lady Elgin, 9 miles off the shore of Winnetka, Illinois. The wreck is the second-deadliest in Great Lakes’ history, with fatalities estimated between 300 and 400, most of them Milwaukeeans. Many of the lost were never recovered. For those who remain unnamed, unknown or unrecovered, there is a simple tombstone in section 6B of Milwaukee’s Calvary Cemetery. The unadorned cenotaph states, “1804–1860 / Lost on ‘Lady Elgin’” in block letters.
