Indian Cemetery
City of Muskegon
Morris Street between 1st & 2nd
In the autumn of 1834, a trader of French descent named Louis Badeaux came to this locality and obtained the trading post of William Daly on the lake front were the Lakey foundry and Machine Company and the Continental Motors buildings adjoin now. In 1839 he became owner of property extending from today’s site of Continental Motors on North Pine Street along the lakefront to the present Mart property.
In 1845 he had lost most of his property because of poor business. While operating his trading post, some of his Indian patrons had died and he allowed them to be buried in the one acre tract the city now has on Morris Avenue. In April, 1841 he had deeded the burying ground to the Ottawa Indians, but they could not legally hold title to land.
In 1853, Badeaux gave a quit-claim deed of that acre to George Walton and William Lasley. The title later was purchased by Martin A. Ryerson. In 1856 more complications occurred when Badeaux gave a deed for the same acre to Martin Ryerson, Sr., and Robert W. Morris.
Ryerson and Morris were in partnership operating a sawmill on East Western Avenue between Pine Street and Ryerson Creek. Mr. Ryerson had been in the employ of an Indian trader and had a high regard for Indians.
In the old Indian burying ground, 16 Indians were known to have been buried, along with a few whites whose bodies later were moved to new grounds. The last burial on Morris Avenue was about 1856. There was a story, generally believed, that the first wife of Martin Ryerson, who was an Indian, had been buried in Indian Cemetery. A picket fence and a wooden cross at one side of the cemetery gave the impression that Ryerson’s wife was there. She had died in Kalamazoo in 1856 and her body taken to Grand Haven and buried there.
Martin Ryerson, Sr., had a wooden fence built about the entire acre and had a man from the mill staff look after it and see that the grounds were kept in good condition. Boys had a baseball diamond there at one time and horses were turned loose there to graze and keep the grass from getting high.
In July, 1904, a new wooden picket fence was placed about the burying ground, a new wooden cross set up and all were painted white by order of Martin Ryerson, Jr., who was in Chicago. In April, 1911, through efforts of the Woman’s Club, Mr. Ryerson offered to deed the acre to the city to be kept as a cemetery or park if the city would take care of it. But city officials at that time did not act on it.
In 1920, two sons and a nephew of Louis Badeaux started a suit in circuit court against Martin Ryerson seeking to prove that his claim to the Indian cemetery was not valid. The case was tried in Ottawa County and appealed to the state Supreme Court which upheld the Ryerson Claim. In 1926, a new iron fence placed around the acre, to provide a new entrance gateway, a large stone with an inscription on it as a monument and a new cross to replace the former wooden one.
He paid $2,500 for the improvements and $5,000 to the city perpetual care fund to maintain the burying as such. The old council and mayor form of city government had been replaced by a commission and the new proposal was accepted.
On the First Street side of the cemetery was a row of houses owned by Alexander Rodgers and occupied by workmen employed in the Rodgers Foundry and Iron Works. A small house at the Morris Avenue corner of First Street had originally been on the corner of Second Street and Western Avenue where the Elks Temple stands. It had been the home of Joseph Davis, a pioneer of 1852 who was the first county treasurer. The row of houses was razed in October and November of 1948 and the space was converted to an automobile parking lot. It might be a suitable and appropriate site for a county museum. A large number of tourists visit the old Indian Cemetery.
(From Charles H. Yates column, January 5, 1957 in Muskegon Chronicle.)
William Badeaux testified in the trial that his brother and sister were buried there and also a girl named Laveque. 1938 Chronicle said that the Indians had moved some bodies from an old burial ground down among the dunes at Lake Michigan Park.
(Research by Evelyn Buckingham)
Thank you to Anita Shawboose for taking these photos. April 17, 2014.
