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By Ken Wyatt
Mt. Evergreen Cemetery in Jackson is the resting place of some notable figures in both Jackson and Michigan history. They each played a role in that terrible national conflict that exacted the lifeblood of some 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. Of the 90,000 Michiganders who served during the war, more than 13,000 lost their lives – most from disease and sickness, but more than 4,000 as battlefield casualties.
Mt. Evergreen is the resting place of some key participants in the struggles of those days – both before and during the war.
Let me tell you briefly about each of those whose gravesites I visited, for their graves have lessons to tell …
-Seymour Boughton Treadwell, 1795-1867, was a notable abolitionist even before he arrived in Jackson, in the summer of 1839. He came here to serve as editor of an anti-slavery newspaper variously called the “American Freeman,” the “Michigan Freeman” and eventually after its transfer to Ann Arbor, the “Signal of Liberty.” He was what we might call a one-issue man. He hated slavery, wrote a book about it, and in 1854, was on the first Republican ballot that came out of the Under the Oaks mass gathering in Jackson. He was elected as commissioner of State Lands.
His voice, not merely opposing slavery but calling for its abolition, was one of those that might be viewed as a “severe mercy.” His and others’ voices raised the emotional temperature in the North, setting the stage for Lincoln’s election and that great president’s role as the Great Emancipator.
-Austin Blair, the Jackson attorney whose reputation among Republicans and anti-slavery people led to his election as Michigan’s governor in 1860. He took office in ’61 and became known for his quick and sacrificial support of Lincoln’s call for troops that spring to help put down the southern rebellion. He served valiantly as Michigan’s “war governor” through 1865. He lived from 1818 to 1895. Under his leadership during the war, he sent thousands of Michigan boys to the front, and many to their deaths. It was a terrible task for anyone, but he was an honorable man and carried out his duties in a way that ought always to be revered.
– Edward Pomeroy is one of those men who responded to Gov. Blair’s call to duty. He paid the ultimate price during the first Battle of Bull Run. From the Jackson County Michigan Historical Society’s summary of Pomeroy’s life and death: “Surgeon Tunnicliff passed over the ground immediately after the cessation of firing, beheld the body of his soldier comrade. The circumstances of the moment hurried him to another portion of the field, and it was not until Gov. Blair’s visit to the army in 1863 that the first wish of Dr. Tunnicliff was realized. The governor and the doctor visited the well-known spot where Pomeroy fell, brushed away the little dust and clay which covered the skeleton, and took possession of the skull, as the only relic that could then be found. Acting on the suggestion of Gov. Blair, this remnant of a hero was brought to Jackson, and is one of the most prized articles in the doctor’s study.”
– Charles V. DeLand was the son of William R. Deland, who was a key agent in the founding of Jacksonburg. It was through William’s friendship with Jonathan Stratton, who became an early surveyor of the Michigan Territory, that Horace Blackman, a family friend, came here to scout out a prospective place to settle. Once here, the DeLands began a long tradition of service to the community. Charles was a young “printer’s devil” for the first newspaper launched here in 1837 – the Jacksonburg Sentinel. He also served as an escort for fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railroad. In the late 1840s he partnered with another man to launch the American Citizen weekly newspaper. In early 1854 he served in a key role as clerk of the small group that called for and planned the July 6, 1854, mass rally in Jackson. He subsequently served in the Legislature as a “radical Republican” and then laid aside his editorial pen to wield the sword for a role as officer in the Union Army. Gov. Blair later commissioned him to recruit the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters, and DeLand served as its commanding officer through several major battles of the war.
– The “Laura Evans Memorial,” donated in 1916. If you drive past the cemetery on Morrell Street, the memorial enjoys a prominent position on that hillside. It was placed there under a bequest by Mrs. Evans to honor the lives of Henry and Mary Ann (Morley) Hague, her parents, and her husband, Emmet and of local soldiers and sailors. That’s about the extent of the information usually published about that handsome monument. However, in the newspaper archives there is a full record of her $5,000 bequest, the letting of the contract to Chicago sculptor Frederick C. Hibbard, and the unveiling by two of Mrs. Evans’ grandnieces that took place on July 4, 1916, before a great crowd of Independence Day celebrants.
Yes, the old cemetery is sacred soil. Its grounds are enriched by the mortal remains of many Jackson people who were part of the great conflict that saved the Union and emancipated millions of enslaved Americans.
