The annual West Granville Cemetery Tour will take place on Saturday, June 18, 2022, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Please meet at the main cemetery entrance at 6815 N. 107th Street which is one block south of the intersection of 107th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue. Parking is available across the street at the historic Salem Landmark Church.
West Granville Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in Milwaukee County. It is located in the far northwest corner of the county that was known as Granville Township. The first burial took place in 1844, and the land donated by Jonas F. Barndt was incorporated as a cemetery in 1852. Many of the early settlers and their families who lived in the settlements of Granville Station, Granville Center, and West Granville, all parts of Granville Township, are buried in the cemetery.
The location of the cemetery was a deciding factor in the founding of one of the oldest Christian congregations in Milwaukee County. The Evangelical and Reformed Church of Granville, founded on December 25, 1847, was located directly south of the cemetery. Today that church is Salem Lutheran Church located across the street from the cemetery. The Salem Landmark Church, built in 1863 which served the congregation until 1977, is today a museum for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
The cemetery contains the final resting places of a variety of people. Some families were like the DeWerths who came and farmed the land when settlement first began in the 1840s. Others were like the Tices, merchants who settled in the small community of West Granville and worked their trade. Some families came later like the Moellers (early 1900s) who were new to the neighborhood when they bought their farm. Still others came in the 1960s like Pastor Winfred Nommensen and family who served Salem congregation. This year’s cemetery tour will look at these generations of families and their impact on the community.
The tour will be conducted by Jim Moeller, a son of Salem congregation who has several generations of relatives buried at West Granville Cemetery. He is a retired elementary school principal and teacher who served in the schools of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod for 44 years. This year’s tour is the tenth tour conducted by him, and he enjoys sharing the history of Granville Township and these early and later settlers. For more information he can be contacted at [email protected].
Courtesy link: Links to the past (Milwaukee County cemeteries website)
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