Local Group Works to Memorialize Milwaukee’s Civil War Veterans

The abuse and desecration of graves at the Milwaukee County Grounds cemeteries in Wauwatosa began 125 years ago.

by

Milwaukee History

Using long-lost ledgers, the county’s vital statistic records, and other historical sources, a not-for-profit group was formed in 2022 to memorialize the individuals who were buried in unmarked plots because of poverty, disability, or anyone able to identify the body. Descendant Community of Milwaukee County Grounds Cemeteries has undertaken the Herculean task of identifying some of the more than 10,000 people buried in four distinct graveyards. Her group is comprised of 75 dedicated volunteers—including 10 lead genealogists—who share the seeming endless workload.

Judy Klimt Houston, founder of Descendant Community, has 65 volunteers and 10 lead genealogists who share the seeming endless workload. Some of Descendant Community’s staff are currently working to get markers placed for a dozen Civil War veterans. Houston said memorialization efforts have been stymied since November 2023 because of incorrect legal guidance from the county. Board members cited the 2020 Conservation Restrictions for the County Grounds to justify the delays. “The passing of Veterans Day is a reminder of loss, service, and responsibility, Houston said. “It’s not about assigning blame; it’s about fulfilling a civic and moral duty to honor those who served.”

A marker for Friedrich Bartsch has remained in storage for two years. Applications for headstones for Charles Bummert, Gottlieb Flügge, and Albert Melms have not been submitted to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs by the county due to the same legal red tape. Albert Melms was a brother to Carl Melms, one of Milwaukee’s pioneer brewers. The Melms brewery was purchased by the Phillip Best brewery which eventually became Pabst. Albert was supposed to be buried at Forest Home with his brothers, but something prevented that from happening.

Cemetery 1 at Windsor Court and West Wisconsin Avenue holds Friedrich Bartsch and Gottlieb Flügge. Their plots are located alongside a 60-foot sewer vent stack. Charles Bummert was buried in Cemetery 2 where 13% of the graves are lying beneath Doyne Avenue. Cemetery 4 with Albert Melms was abandoned in 2001.

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Although post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t fully understood until 1980, the symptoms — nightmares, hypervigilance, numbness, and despair—have existed for centuries. Civil War soldiers suffered the same invisible wounds, then known as “soldier’s heart.” Many veterans endured unbearable psychological pain and some took their own lives.

Charles Bummert shot and then hung himself. Gottlieb Flügge cut his own throat with a penknife, despondent that drinking caused his family to leave.

Before the Civil War

The disrespect shown to the dead began as early as 1850 when indigent and unknown individuals were buried in the East Side potter’s field located between Maryland and Prospect Avenues. It was estimated that 300 coffins were removed to the county grounds at 87th and Wisconsin. Still, bones were being unearthed by construction workers as late as 1950, with some buried in only 18 inches of soil. Maryland elementary school now occupies the former east side pauper burial grounds.

Sentinel reporter Fennell Smith did a clandestine investigation of Cemetery 2 in 1912. Accompanied by a photographer, Smith encountered open graves and piles of coffins, some with bones. In tiny boxes were the bodies of infants. Pictures revealed other coffins broken into along with piles of burned bones. One of the inmates even produced a skull he kept hidden in his room. At a hearing Smith testified that what he wrote in his newspaper article was true. Superintendent Ferdinand Bark dismissed the testimony and photographs, claiming to have only seen a few boards in a pile.

In 1928, Milwaukee County began construction of a Nurse’s Residence east of Cemetery 2. To accommodate earth movers and dump trucks, some of the gravesites had to be moved.  Markers were collected and landfill was used to restore holes left by coffins. The fence around the cemetery area was dismantled, leaving the site with no credentials as a burying ground. A scandal emerged when an investigation that revealed many of the coffins and corpses were ground up for more landfill instead of being reburied at a designated spot. New roads, additional building construction, and installation of steam tunnels and utility conduits disturbed as many as 50% of the remaining graves in Cemetery 2.

Untold hours of research await the volunteers at of the Descendant Community of Milwaukee County Grounds Cemeteries. They’re excited to mine information from dusty ledgers and obscure death records that will allow us all to learn more about the Civil Warriors buried in Wauwatosa’s unmarked graves.

“These soldiers fought for their country in the 19th century,” said Judy Houston. “They’re still waiting to be honored,”