Maple Hill Cemetery, Cadillac, Wexford, Michigan – Block H Lot 199

Maple Hill is a larger city cemetery, located on the south side of Cadillac, Michigan. I have collected a number of photographs from this cemetery and will post my photographs by lot number.

This lot is owned by James Johnston, and the printout at the Cadillac Library shows that he purchased it 27 August 1894. James was my great granduncle; he came to Cadillac with his sister Jane, my great-grandmother, sometime after the death of the other family members in Huron County, Ontario, Canada.

Elizabeth Kaiser Johnston, his wife. Elizabeth was a sibling of my great-grandfather, William Kaiser, who married James’ sister Jane.

Katie Johnston. The death record for Katherine Johnston, daughter of Elizabeth and James, gives a death date of 10 June 1894, age 3 years, 26 days.

There may be other interments on this lot, and the records are inconsistent or incomplete. I found a death record in Wexford County, Michigan for a still born male child of James and Elizabeth with a date of 11 October 1899 . That child may be interred without a marker on this lot, or somewhere else in the cemetery, but I have found no record of the burial.

The cemetery log, which I viewed at the city complex in Cadillac several years ago, shows an interment for a male infant of James Johnson on 3 August 1888, but does not give a lot number. The Johnston/Johnson error is common, and that date would be approximately one year after Elizabeth and James married, so that may have been their infant. The Johnstons may have arranged for burial in a single grave at another location, since this lot was purchased in 1894, after the death of their daughter, Katie.

The handwritten log is alphabetized similarly to other indices of the time, the interments are listed in an index under the beginning letter of the surname of the deceased person, by year. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a page or pages, but the records are listed as they occur, so the “J” surnames are listed in order if interment, and this one does appear in order with the 1888 records. There is no death record in Wexford County for any infant with a surname of Johnston or Johnson in 1888. I do believe the infant was buried in 1888, but more research is required, and I may never know if the child’s parents were James and Elizabeth Johnston.