BURLINGTONCEMETERYWI.COM
Best if using Google Chrome
There are a number of water spigots throughout the cemetery to use to water plants.
DO NOT CONSUME THE WATER
If shop page comes up HIT on the GREEN HOME button at bottom right or top left to get to the main page when done with that page. To get SHOP page hit on Shop White button.
COMING IN THE FALL OCT-NOV 2024 Whispers series similar to prior one in 2021-2022-2023. We will list the persons being covered when the decision has been made. . More on this later. Hit on WHISPERS BUTTON above or to the right to review last three year's activityies
FOR 2023 T IS OVER AND MORE THAN 120 PEOPLE HAD A GREAT TIME LEARNING HISTORY WITH SOME GOOD HUMOR ADDED IN. SEE PICTURES SPREAD OUT BELOW
YOU RAISE ME UP-SISSEL
EVERY DAY , IT IS THE TIME FOR REMEMBERING THE PERSONS THAT CAME BEFORE US, AND ARE NO LONGER AROUND AND IT "IS ESSENTIAL", AND IN THE LONG RUN GOOD FOR US TO DO SO.
Burlington Historical Museum being renamed DONALD VANDE SAND HISTORICAL RESEARCH CENTER-Dedication was 1/15/2023 1-3PM
SOME OF THE VOLUNTARY WORK TAKING PLACE
What Volunteer BOARD MEMBERS DO to keep Burlington Cemetery operating efficiently and with less expenses:
The members attend board meetings; email back and forth on issues; sell spaces; handle the receipts and disbursements and preparation of financial records; handle calls and emails from persons with questions; update maps; update the long list of burials and spaces available (7193 to date); do research into historical items; create and update occasionally the Web page; pick up road debris if they are driving through the cemetery; handle burials with funeral homes and relatives of the deceased; keep a Veteran’s list for burials in the cemetery up to date; put some monument pictures up on Find A Grave; help plant trees; clean moss, algae and other stuff off monuments; determine road work needs and make it happen; work with surveyors to set up new lots and spaces; coordinate things with organizations wanting to participate in keeping the cemetery looking special; help people find out where their relatives are buried and how to get to the grave site; keep the two information boards (located at the main entrance and the last entrance} updated periodically; deal with City, Town and State representatives when the need requires; help in doing genealogy research into the persons buried there for persons inquiring.
Probable total hours for all this mostly volunteer work cannot even begin to be estimated accurately, but listing the people involved and estimating what time they put in results in about 750 hours. That does not count the time organizations that help out put in with their volunteers. There also is no way of knowing the time put in by City and Town employees cutting grass, trimming around monuments, plowing roads, dealing with water line issues, and removing trees that they are able to remove. It will be nice if the Burlington Cemetery can continue to be kept looking as nice as Saint Mary’s or Saint Charles Cemeteries. That would say something about the City and Town of Burlington and the people that live there.
If we as a Board would abandon the cemetery, the State of Wisconsin Statutes say the City takes it over. Not sure how that works with part of the cemetery land in the City and part of the land in the Township but the Statute says City. If that happens they cannot just cut grass and plow roads. At that time a great share of the above listed volunteer time would still have to be done, especially handling burials for people who bought burial spaces already. So, as long as the volunteers are willing and able, and replacements come forth, it would be great if they could continue to operate as they have been with the coordinated effort of the Burlington Cemetery Board, the City of Burlington and the Town of Burlington and all the other volunteers.
By the way, the Sexton gets paid for some of his time but puts in a lot more than a normal Sexton would do, and without pay. And his business, Jim’s Lawn and Landscape, is used sometimes without being reimbursed. The financial record keeping also gets paid but it has been only $ 150 a month and the actual billing for that time would have been substantially higher. The persons handling record keeping get paid more for their time by their employer than the receipt every month.
ORGANIZATIONS GIVING AID:
The main entrance and the civil war monument have been beautifully adorned with flowers for as long as I can remember, and at this point the Burlington Garden Club has been handling that with much success. Other organizations doing something for the cemetery have been: The Burlington High School Girls Tennis Team, Thrivent (Shoreline Group), BHS Girls Soccer Team, Rotary, Local Veteran Groups, and Burlington Historical Society. We also keep a record of veterans in the cemetery. A Veteran’s group in Racine donates annually a certain dollar per veteran and spouse to our organization.
TO DO:
Finish Evergreen road, redo the last road into the cemetery when going northeast on W, and also the circle named Serenity Circle. Survey part of the area to the east of the cemetery Block 17 and set it up for burial space use and for needed roads. Determine whether to do green burial areas, and/or a cremation columbarium. Put up signs for the main roads, but that is included in the currently proposed contract with the CITY and TOWN. Clean off very old monuments of algae and moss, etc, where no family is currently around to keep the monuments cleaned off so they are easy to read and visibly better looking. Dig up monuments that have become buried and reposition them so they can be easily read. Update the Web page.
DONATIONS:
The website at burlingtoncemeterywi.com has a list of donations for the year 2021 and some in 2022. So far to date we have received $185,600.22 in 2021-2023. However, a good deal of that was directed to be used for restoration of the Chapel, and also for road reconstruction. That does not include the financial aid from the City and Town related to road construction, which has been over the last 6 years $43.346.68, breaking down as $23,673.34 from the City and $19,673.34 from the Town. Total overall cost so far for road reconstruction has been $151,201.01. The major contributors for roads, the Chapel and other smaller items, were the Wagner Foundation, Rotary, Burlington Community Fund, Burlington Woman’s Club, the Everett Family, the Vorpagel Family, the Historical Library Group running Whispers, the Stan and Nan Wilson Family, BW Surveying, Bob Riggs Construction, Inc., and about 25 other individuals. If you drive out there you will see that the roads have been substantially improved. The only other road issue is on the bottom end of the first road into the cemetery, Evergreen Road. It is done down past the Chapel but will need to be finished. A water runoff issue has stalled the project, but $30,000 is set aside as the probable cost to finish and deal with the water issue. And see below related to Serenity Circle.
If you are ever able to attend a gathering at the Chapel, once it starts renting out or otherwise being used, you will see how it has been improved inside. You can see the exterior improvement now. New roof to replace a leaking roof and new cement walkways. Plus a cleaned up building exterior as good as it could be done. By the way the chapel normally is open the day of the Whispers from the Past Walk and maybe will be open this year on October 8. See the cemetery website for info, or check their info on the Library site: burlingtonhistory.org. Paul B. Edwards
​
​
​
​
Requested by Bev Gill
WHISPERS 2021 & 2022 Continued
Proceeds will be used to improve the inside of the chapel.
Lt. Robert Zimmerman- Matt Bieneman
Louis Zimmerman- Bob O'Neill
Edwin Ruthven Smith- Dan Meadaugh
Ross Wilcox- James Howe Mrs Caroline Wilcox (Carrie)-Tara Petrozelli
Florence Patterson- Stephanie Rummler
2022 STORIES IN STONE 10/9/2022
NOW ACCOMPLISHED-SEE BELOW
​
​
Double click the X,
then click the item appearing at top right and if it goes away then hit on the arrow top right with line below it and when excel worksheet comes up, hit on home and then over to find and hit on it. In box that comes up put in last name. May have to do this more than once if a name was used in the first name column. Top row has been frozen so may have to hit on spaces below to find person you are looking for. If you pull up the excel sheet you can save it on your computer and then make changes. Let us know what needs to be added or changed. 262-763-7616
YOU SHOULD SEE THE FOLLOWING TYPE ITEMS:
LAST NAME and FIRST NAME
BLOCK
LOT
SPACE
DATE OF PURCHASE
FULL BURIAL DATE
CREMAINS 1 BURIAL DATE
CREMAINS 2 BURIAL DATE
VETERANS:
WAR AND BRANCH OF SERVICE ALSO
GENEALOGY :
COLUMNS WITH FAMILY INFORMATION
​
​
There are more excel worksheets related to VETERANS, THE OLD CEMETERY AND GENEALOGY. Go to the top page button with each of those and follow the same instructions as on this page under the GREEN X.
GENEALOGY AND OUR CONTINUING RECORD
Double click the X,
then click the item appearing at top right and if it goes away then hit on the arrow top right with line below it and when excel worksheet comes up, hit on home and then over to find and hit on it. In box that comes up put in last name. May have to do this more than once if a name was used in the first name column. Top row has been frozen so may have to hit on spaces below to find person you are looking for. If you pull up the excel sheet you can save it on your computer and then make changes. Let us know what needs to be added or changed. 262-763-7616
There are more excel worksheets related to VETERANS, AND THE OLD CEMETERY . Go to the top page button with each of those and follow the same instructions as on this page under the GREEN X.
The City and Town have a closed door joint meeting on Monday January 29 & this may be on the agenda. The Cemetery Board has an annual meeting and normal meeting on January 30th at the Town Hall 6:00P.M.
The City and Town personnel updated an agreement the Cemetery Board had with them from 2015 to 2021. Various items in the update were not 100% agreeable with the Cemetery Board Members. We have revised the Contract presented and are now awaiting a meeting to discuss the revision with City and Town representatives. Part of our revision has to do with working with approvals of the City Council and Town Board for certain items as opposed to dealing only with personnel. Our revisions follows. It may change after the needed meeting.
​
Status : And the Town Board has set up a closed meeting to discuss our revision of the presented contract, on December 14 after the normal open meeting. Not sure what the City Council is doing unless they are also attending.
WHISPERS 2023
BURLINGTON'S EARLY INFLUENCERS
PLINY M. PERKINS
DR. EDWARD G. DYER
NETTIE KARCHER
EDA MEINHARDT
ELIAS NELSON
WHITE
Eda Meinhardt was Burlington Cemetery Treasurer from 1911-1943, then Albert Meinhardt took over and then Harold Koch. All dealing with Meinhardt Bank. Until 1974
_JPG.jpg)
NAME OF EARLY INFLUENCER / NAME OF ACTOR / NAME-POETRY READER
​
PLINY MERRICK PERKINS JAMES HOWE MICHAEL STAEGER
EDA MEINHARDT TARA PETROZELLI MARY ANN HOFF
DR EDWARD G. DYER JEFF LETTOW DAN CHRISTENSEN
NETTIE KATCHER ANNIE PHILLIPS ELIZABETH PARK
"She wrote all the poems"
ELIAS NELSON WHITE DANIEL GILL JOHN BISER
​
Tara Petrozelli, Actor
and Deb Everett who grew up in the Meinhardt house on Kane Street. The house is museum worthy and is a nice house with neat grounds.
THE ACTORS (4 of 5) As one had to leave before picture taken. --->
The one that had to leave
THE PLINY PERKINS FIRST GROUP VISIT
DR. DYER GROUP VISIT
MEINHARDT MONUMENT
DR DYER MONUMENT
In chair-John Biser-poetry reader
WHILE ON THE WALK
ELIAS WHITE MONUMENT-ANNA MARY, GRACE & CHARLES
KARCHER MAIN MONUMENT
INSIDE THE MAUS0LEUM-4 SPACES
THE CEMETERY WATCH OVER ANGEL-John Degan
Pictures by Michelle Blink, Ann and Paul Edwards
CAPS TITLE
BEV G. DREW S. JIM S. PAUL E.
TO ADD: Michelle B., Kim B., Bill M., Bob K., Ann B., Ross E., Bill S., in the future