Sitting quietly in the shadows of the busy Bayshore Town Center is a cemetery few know exists.
Little more than a shady lawn dotted with headstones, the Town of Milwaukee Union Cemetery dates back to before 1850 (predating the more heralded Forest Home Cemetery). Many of the 2,000 or so buried here died from a cholera epidemic in 1848 and 1849.
“Lots of long-term North Shore families are buried here,” says Dean Herbst of Bronze Stone Group, which oversees the graveyard. “It’s a very cool little cemetery.”
But in 1917, a fire destroyed the cemetery’s records. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Glendale resident and historian Mimi Bird set out to recover the lost history. Bird walked through the cemetery, chronicled the information from each headstone and cross-referenced the names with burial permits.
“It’s complete to the extent of anyone who’s marked,” Herbst says. Bird died in 2002 at age 69 but left behind a treasure: 39 volumes of North Shore history, all handwritten, now inside a locked case at the Whitefish Bay Library. Volume 4 is dedicated to the Town of Milwaukee Cemetery, complete with a list of names and dates of birth and death for each marked grave from 1917 to 1988.
“It’s a pretty amazing historical collection,” says library director Linda Pierschalla.
And it’s still growing. Herbst says one or two graves are filled each year. “We have room for 300 more people,” he says.In January, Bernice Walters became the latest addition; the longtime Shorewood resident died at age 91. “Her family has been buried here for years,” says Herbst. “People like it because it’s very local. It keeps them near home.”
