Warren Union Cemetery has been neglected and vandalized for nearly 200 years. It began as a burying ground of the Gillett Farm in 1833. Mr Gillett sold parsels of it to 18 families in 1845. Areas of it were sjold to others including the large East part to St Paul's Church. Each family owned their own lots and were supposed to maintain them. Of course since families were busy with other matters masintenance was most often neglected. The cemetery was overgrown with weeds and vines. Thru the years various groups held clean up days.
It is shameful that the Warren Historical Society over many years has neglected their responsibility and duty and allowed the that have allowed stones to lie flat and not stood up causing them to disintegrate.

Since this cemetery is now in the hands of the Village Commission, They need to demand an annual maintenance amount from the city for upkeep other than grass mowing and trimming. We can transition this area into no mow clover, dwarf grass and other no mow plants. Mowing has damaged many old stones beyond repair. There were piles of pieces of them scattered around. Now even most of those piles are gone.

A few of the old stones are still savable and efforts should be undertaken to raise them to vertical position and do some restoration work on them before they totally disintegrate. This should be started now.

Dorothy Cummings (Peck) stated that her family had to buy additional graves in other cemeteries even though her dad was a Warren Township official and her family had a store in Warren Village and her family sold land to the cemetery. There were simply no graves available after WWII.

Records of other cemeteries verify this because even long time residents had to buy graves at Mt Olivet. Many old timers told me this cemetery was full by end of WWII. A few families may still had a grave waiting for family member.

Note is that this cemetery is actually much larger than the present 1986 fence encloses. The road was a narrower dirt road and there is about 100 feet of land at the North back side which runs the full 534 foot North-South length, much of which has been eroded away in which there are burials particularly still borns, paupers and burials by poor families who did not have money to buy a lot or who may have suffered multiple family deaths from the many common diseases.

Dimensions in round numbers from City of Warren survey, are 534 feet by 247 feet with a 73 foot decrease at 245 feet West of the East line.245x248 =60,760 + 285x175=49,875 combined 110,635 plus 53,000 b square foot back area =163,635 grand total square feet of burial space. 1/3 of the area for adults.

If this cemetery was used for cremains in the future there is room for 163,000 burials of human cremains at one square foot per person. If the space for an adult casket is counted at 3 feet by 6 feet that is 18 square feet and a child at one half of that at 9 square feet and if since 2/3 of burials was children that gives 163,635 divided by three giving 54,545 adult graves divided by 18 sq feet potential space for 3,030 adult grave spaces plus 109,090 divided by 9 square feet for child burials giving 12,121 potential child grave spaces. This appears so big because this is two thirds of the area as there are two children buried for each adult. AND AT LEAST TWO BABIES OR CHILDREN CAN BE BURIED ON AVERAGE IN EACH ADULT SPACE. So there are 15,151 potential baby and adult grave spaces in Warren Union Cemetery total area.

Of which researchers feel at least 3,000 have been used by burials based on surviving records and on census, population and studies of this cemetery.

The back area of 100 feet times 534 feet is 53,000 square feet which could potentially hold thousands of babies and many paupers. Some of it was used. We do not know how much. Bones and skulls have been found there. One skull was found there by teens and thrown up into a tree. Eventually it was buried but no record now exists of where.

As to the exact number of babies and adults buried there no one now knows.

But what is most likely? Figured by lots rather than area. If one counts lots there are 5-8 30x10 foot lots totaling 80 36 inch graves row for the first 17 rows =1360 adult graves. and 80-110 36 inch graves from row 28-49. 23x110=2,530 graves that gives potentially 3,890 adult grave spaces. Plus there are several aisles with a few burials in the aisles.

Also of one considers that since 2/3 of the adult graves have children and that 2 or more children may be buried in an adult grave add 2000 possible space for additional children. And also there were some children later buried on top of parents. Unknown number.

The possibilities are that as many as 5890 babies and adults could be buried here. Again no one knows. So as a historian I will say "Unknown Thousands but at least 3,000."

Since nearly 200 years have gone by and baby bones are soft and dissolve and since much of the north side has been eroded away even a scientific ground radar will not be able to recover the exact number of burials. And hate to say it but I must stick with "Unknown Thousands."

See the book Warren Union Cemetery Warren Michigan for extensive research.
Professor Wesley Arnold has an extensive index of all known burials and also a report on the plants there. Also he photographed every stone there twenty years ago. Now many have weathered due to the acid rain and are unreadable. See listings of stones.

Here is a Spring 2025 foto.

Here are some older fall Color Pictures.

Photography by Wesley Arnold humble historian