Jurisdiction:  Berrien Township Sections 16 & 17

 

Established:   1880

 

Status:  Abandoned

 

Location:  Deans Hills Road Near Hochberger Road

 

Cemetery Governing Body:  Berrien Township

 

Location of Cemetery Records:  None

 

The Old Poor Farm Cemetery has many names associated with it, including Berrien General Hospital, Berrien County Infirmary, Love Creek Nature Center, and Lakeland Regional Health System – Continuing Care Center.  Over the years, the cemetery has since vanished, but some stones still exist and the history of what it once was has been documented.  From “The History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Michigan” by D. W. Ensign:

“There was also an old cemetery on the spot now used as the county poorhouse burial-ground.  The burial-grounds in the township now number five, viz., the Berrien Center Union Church, Franklin, Long Lake, Morris Chapel, and Maple Grove Cemeteries.”

 

The land that Love Creek Nature Center and Lakeland Regional Health System – Continuing Care Center occupy was originally a portion of the county poor farm.  Over the years as construction projects have occurred at the hospital, bodies have been discovered while digging.   There are still a couple of areas that former graves can be identified by sunken ground and pieces of headstone. 

 

Although not much is known about those buried at the Poor Farm Cemetery, one such person has been written about.  From “Historical Sketches of Berrien County Volume 3” by Robert C. Myers:

“George W. Monroe was a slave on a plantation near Grand Junction, Tennessee and when the Civil War broke out, young George ran away and ended up at the camp of Company I, Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry.  George worked as a camp orderly and gained the reputation for honesty and loyalty among the soldiers.   In the winter of 1863-64, Lieutenant John Graham returned home to Berrien Springs and brought George along.  John’s brother George had a large farm and took in the former slave as a hired hand.  On New Years Day in 1874, George W. Monroe married Annie M. Steward.  George grew more and more ill and finally sought medical care at the Berrien County Poor Farm in Berrien Township.  George Monroe died of consumption, probably tuberculosis on March 22, 1876 and rests today in an unmarked grave on the old poor farm grounds.”

 

 Written By David Barricklow