By Jim Bloch
“I would like to give these lost souls the respect they deserve. They were poor in life but should be honored in death.”
Those are the words of Erik Wurmlinger, a resident of Marysville, who is trying to bring recognition and dignity to scores of people buried in unmarked graves in a nameless section of Lakeside Cemetery in Port Huron unofficially referred to as the paupers cemetery.
Wurmlinger addressed the Port Huron City Council at its regular meeting June 23.
“I’m coming to you tonight to address a situation that many of you may or may not know about,” said Wurmlinger. “Several years ago, I found out from my father that my grandfather on my mother’s side was buried in a section of Lakeside Cemetery … known as the paupers cemetery. For those unfamiliar with what a paupers cemetery is, it’s a section of a cemetery that holds the souls of those who could not afford a proper burial. From doing research with city records and also findagrave.com, I found that there is almost 400 people buried in this location. Many are children and immigrants, sometimes two and three in a grave.”
Wurmlinger, a retired police officer out of Croswell, published a list of the people buried in the paupers cemetery on his Facebook page “Lakeside Paupers Cemetery Project.” Most of the burials appear to have taken place in the 1930s during the Great Depression and in the 1940s, during and after World War II. There are no burials later than the 1970s, when a dozen people were interred. The last person buried there appears to have been Shawn T. Phillips, with an unknown birthdate, who died Jan. 13, 1976.
Wurmlinger’s father made a marker by hand for his father-in-law that read “Cecil G. Martin, Born 6-7-1914, Died 7-23-1938.”
“I’m not exactly sure what my dad used for the stone,” said Wurmlinger.
For years, the marker had been swallowed up by the lawn in cemetery. Previous cemetery supervisor Steve Stager located the marker in October 2023.
The story of the death of Wurmlinger’s grandfather is a lurid one. Cecil and his dad – Wurmlinger’s great grandfather – had been drinking with buddies in Hillger’s Bar on Lapeer. On their way home, they got in an argument about who owned the car they were driving. The car ran out of gas on Grand River and the men got into a fight.
“My grandfather was killed by his dad,” said Wurmlinger in an interview.
The dad spent six years in prison and later committed suicide.
Wurmlinger said that many of the city employees he has contacted about the cemetery over the past two years have retired.
“When I first went to the site in 2023, I found that the cemetery was surrounded by a fence and locked and was told that you needed to have an appointment to visit,” Wurmlinger said. “This was corrected after speaking to former city employee Nancy Winzer.”
Winzer, the city’s longtime recreation director and, more recently, its assistant city manager, retired earlier this year.
“The fence is no longer there,” Wurmlinger said. “So, we have made progress there. I did meet with Jason Kuhlman, who is in charge of the grounds, and told him that I’d like to head up a project to improve the area and place a sign designating this area as a cemetery, as well as placing a memorial bench in the area. I’m happy to report that Mr. Kuhlman agreed to pour cement for the bench and install the sign once I acquire it through fundraising efforts.”
Kuhlman told Wurmlinger that the bench would likely cost $2,500 and the sign $1,500.
Wurmlinger said he was not trying to shine a light of negativity on the city.
“Any help the city could offer would be much appreciated,” Wurmlinger said.
Wurmlinger has set up a GoFundMe page called “Restore Dignity: Help Memorialize Paupers’ Cemetery.” As of July 1, he had raised $1,770.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
