Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Forest Home Cemetery is home to over 110,000 burials -Milwaukee, WI Established in 1850, a church committee situated the cemetery of the original 72 acres on a known former Indian village and sacred effigy and burial mound site. The first burial, a gentleman of the name Orville Cadwell, occurred on August 5 in the same year of the cemetery's founding. Cadwell found company shortly thereafter, as a cholera outbreak traced to a riverman from New Orleans via Chicago claimed lives in the newly-chartered city. Post Civil War saw a boom in industry and with it, a boom in population. The dangers of industrial city life lurked here as in any other city of the time. In 1883 Newhall House Hotel went up in flames as Milwaukee firefighters battled a smaller fire elsewhere in the city. Calls went out for reinforcements from Chicago and Racine with little to no response. Documents of the time report a range of 73-90 deaths from the tragedy. All accounts agree that more than half of those who perished and brought to several area morgues were beyond identification. A mass grave for 64 victims commemorates the unknown with a memorial erected at the one-year anniversary of the fire. In 1886 another notable tragedy occurred, as 14,000 laborers organized in Bay View to demonstrate discontent with labor conditions. The governor of the time issued a shoot-to-kill order, resulting in a 7 person massacre, including a young 13-year-old boy. The mayor of this time, Emil Wallber, is one of the cemetery's distinguished guests. Photographer, writer Corey Schjoth


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