This was our first visit to this cemetery and we had some specific gravesites to find. Lucky for us the cemetery office was open and manned by Loretta Stanaway, the president of the "Friends of Lansing's Historic Cemeteries."
She marked the sites for which we were looking and we headed across the street to find them.
The R.E. Olds mausoleum. Olds and his wife, Ursula Woodward had four children, only two of whom survived to adulthood. Ralph lived one day, Mildred lived for twelve. Gladys lived until she was 89. They all rest here with their parents. Gladys' son, RE Olds Anderson and his wife Doris, also reside here. Their fourth child, Bernice, had three children of her own and is buried elsewhere.
Next was the memorial to the boys who died as wards of the state while residing at the Boys Training 'School', 1856-1933. Up until recently, their graves were unmarked, but the aforementioned cemetery friends raised the money to provide markers for these 60 boys.
We found the long-lived Lucy Karney, born a slave in New Jersey in 1762.
Luther Byron Baker was a member of the Union army's intelligence service and was present when John Wilkes Booth was trapped in a barn. Another member of the party then shot and killed Booth. After the war, Baker moved to Lansing where he lived out the rest of his life.
The story of the Bath school massacre is well-known to locals but the worst school massacre in American history is not well-known outside of Michigan. We paid our respects to two of the children killed in 1927.
Information & photos from our recent visit to Bath:
There is lots more to discover in this cemetery and we just touched the surface today.
This was all excellent reading ,thank you
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