Public event: Celebrate our 175th on Memorial Day

It's been 175 years, Milwaukee! On August 5,1880, Orville Cadwell was buried at Forest Home Cemetery, becoming the first or more than 100,000 who would be buried here as the cemetery grew alongside the city.

Join us on Memorial Day to commemorate our history as Milwaukee's oldest-operating cemetery while we honor the veterans who are memorialized here.

The event starts with a memorial service in our landmark Ferry & Clas chapel, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony in the Garden of Honor, our veteran section. Then enjoy some stories from the cemetery with numerous costumed historical re-enactors, and wrap up with a free Milwaukee history tour.

Food will be available for purchase (+ free cake while it lasts!) and feel free to picnic in our beautiful arboretum, literally the coolest spot in Milwaukee, thanks to our arboretum's tree canopy.

MEMORIAL DAY SCHEDULE

• 11–11:30 a.m.: Memorial service in the Chapel led by St. Paul's Episcopal Church's Rev. Seth Raymond. Wreath-laying at the Garden of Honor, bugling by Bill Seaman.
• 11:30 a.m. –2:30 p.m.: Usinger's hot dogs, bratwurst served in Pretzilla sausage buns, chips and soda available for a $8 donation to the Forest Home Historic Preservation Association.
• 11:30 a.m. –2:30 p.m.: Visit with notable Milwaukeeans (see below) at their graves.
• 2:30p.m.–4 p.m.: Free Milwaukee history tour by author and Forest Home historian Paul Haubrich.

Notable Forest Home Cemetery residents you will learn about (portrayed by):

1. MAX FERNEKES, SR. (Yance Marti), 1872–1939, Sec. 20
Architect Max Fernekes, Sr., partnered with architect Walter Dolliver to design the Frederick Pabst Jr. mansion (still standing on Highland Boulevard) and at least a dozen stately East Side Milwaukee mansions. Son Max Fernekes, Jr. and daughter-in-law, Ava Avery Fernekes were also well-known Wisconsin artists.

2. LYDIA D. ELY (Carla Uphill), 1833–1914, Sec. 19
President of the West Side Soldiers’ Aid Society. Organized a Soldiers’ Home Fair in 1865, raising $110,000 toward the establishment of the Northwestern Branch of the National Home for Disabled American Soldiers, now the Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee. Patroness of “The Victorious Charge” monument near 10th Street and Wisconsin Avenue through the creation of The Book of Autographs, located in the Rare Books Room at the downtown Central Library.

3. WILLIAM HENRY WOLF (Sean Regan), 1828–1901, Lawn Place
Born in Germany, William Wolf emigrated to America in 1836 and arrived in Milwaukee in 1849. A successful businessman, Wolf eventually joined forces with Thomas Davidson to create the largest shipbuilding enterprise on the Great Lakes. They are buried next to each other. Wolf’s son Howard died at age 15 in an accident aboard the steamship Business. In his honor, Howard’s name is inscribed on the ship on top of the Wolf family monument.

4. THOMAS A. GREENE (Brian Fette), 1827–1894, Lawn Place
Thomas Greene was a prolific naturalist and avocational geologist throughout his life, amassing a vast collection of approximately 65,000 fossils and minerals–most of which he collected, bought or traded in the 1880s and ’90s. Greene also curated an extensive mineralogical collection containing many rare and exotic forms from mines and quarries across the globe. The Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum is on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

5. OSIA J. HILES (Katharyn Kominiarek), 1832–1902, Lawn Place
Philanthropist, poet, essayist. Traveled across the country to states like New Mexico and California to witness the treatment of Native Americans and advocated for their rights to the government including the Secretary of the Interior. Founding member of the Wisconsin Humane Society and the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin, and helped fund the building of the latter by establishing the country’s first woman-owned stock company, The Athenaeum, in 1886.

6. LUCY D. SIVYER (Beth Kirsling), 1811–1896, Sec. 27
Lucy was the mother of the first pioneer boy born in Milwaukee in 1836. Her husband, William, was recruited by Solomon Juneau, to live in Milwaukee and work as city's first bricklayer. Born in England, Lucy arrived in Milwaukee about two months pregnant with her husband and toddler, George, in October 1835. From the schooner deck, she took one look at the undeveloped conditions of Milwaukee and begged the ship’s captain to take her back to Chicago. Solomon and Josette Juneau convinced her to stay and let the Sivyer family stay with them while their house was being built. Josette, Milwaukee’s first midwife, helped deliver Lucy’s baby boy, Charles Milwaukee Sivyer, on May 4, 1836.

7. ELIZABETH A. PLANKINTON (Anita Pietrykowski), 1853–1923, Sec. 27
Donor of the first statue in Milwaukee of George Washington, located on 10th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Jilted love relationship with sculptor, Richard Hamilton Park. Her fiancée also was the sculptor of Solomon Juneau in Juneau Park and the statue of John Plankinton in the Plankinton Arcade. Elizabeth commissioned a priceless book to honor her father, The Voices of Friends, now located in the Rare Books Room at the downtown Central Library.

8. JOHN B. HULL (Frank Matusinec), 1828–1891, Sec. 19, at the Orville Cadwell marker
Hull was the son of Rev. Lemuel B. Hull (1792–1843) and Polly Hull (1800–1881). Reverend Hull was pastor of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from 1838 until his death in 1843. In 1850, his widow sold 72 acres of their family’s land to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for about $45 an acre for a cost of $3,213 to create Forest Home Cemetery. The first burial at Forest Home Cemetery on August 5, 1850, was Orville Cadwell, a Milwaukee grocer who died of cholera.

9. MARY B. LYNDE (Sally Kubly), 1819–1897, Sec. 19
Married to William Pitt Lynde. Grandmother to Lynde Bradley and Harry Bradley of the Allen-Bradley Company. Mary was the first woman to hold a public office on the State Charities and Reform Board. Instrumental in Pr*son reform for women and children in Milwaukee. Founder of the Industrial School for Girls. Founding member of the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin.

10. EDWARD D. HOLTON (George Wagner), 1815–1892, Sec. 27
Businessman, politician, abolitionist and Milwaukee’s first sheriff. Business connections to railroads, banking and insurance. Established the Kansas Society here in Milwaukee which sent homesteaders in six covered wagons to Kansas in 1856 to vote against slavery because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Their settlement was named Holton, Kansas, in honor of Edward Holton. In Milwaukee, the Holton Street Viaduct and Holton Hall on the UW–Milwaukee campus are named in his honor.

ADDITIONAL EVENT INFO

• This is a free event but registration is requested for our planning purposes.

• What to expect: This outdoor event requires a lot of walking and standing. There is seating in the chapel and the dining area but not otherwise. Guests are welcome to bring their own chairs and /or sit anywhere on the ground to rest or picnic. Please wear comfortable footwear and watch for very hot and/or humid weather.

• Arrival: Please enter the cemetery at the Lincoln Avenue or Forest Home Avenue cemetery entrance. You do not need a ticket to enter.

• Parking: There is ample free parking throughout the cemetery, but the roads closest to the historian areas will be blocked off to ensure the safety of our guests; please do not drive around barricades.

• Restrooms: Portable toilets will be available.
• Dogs are allowed on leash.

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