Telling the story of Minneapolis through its oldest cemetery

Telling the story of Minneapolis through its oldest cemetery

The oldest cemetery in Minneapolis holds the lives of ordinary people who helped shape the city and the state. However, these stories are often the ones left out of the history books. The Hennepin History Museum?s tour of Pioneer and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery highlights some of these forgotten individuals. FOX 9's Soyoung Kim has the story.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The oldest cemetery in Minneapolis holds the lives of ordinary people who helped shape the city and the state. However, these stories are often the ones left out of the history books.

The Hennepin History Museum’s tour of Pioneer and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery highlights some of these forgotten individuals.

Glimpses of History

The backstory:

Pioneer and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery is a 27-acre cemetery in south Minneapolis. It is the final resting place for over 22,000 people.

The cemetery was known for being affordable, and only 1,820 grave markers remain standing. Many were never marked to begin with. So, most of the stories of those laid to rest there will remain a mystery. 

Most were buried there between 1853 and 1919, and the everyday residents of the time help tell the story of Minneapolis as it emerged as a major metropolis.

Cemetery known for diversity

What they're saying:

Alex Weston gave his final tour of the season Sunday of the series "Grave Matters: The Story of a City as Told Through its Cemetery."

"Tantalizing glimpses. Very interesting story if only we knew all the details," said Weston.

The cemetery was known for being affordable and as the name suggests, is the final resting place for pioneers, soldiers, and a diverse mix of ordinary residents.

"Markers are expensive. Even if this cemetery was cheap, a lot of people couldn’t afford it. So, there are many people who were buried here, who were never marked to begin with. Others were initially marked with a simple wood marker, but those rot away over time. Others that have stone markers, those get eroded through acid rain and pollution. They fall over; they crumble. And unfortunately, there’s also been a lot of vandalism."

The Hennepin History Museum said understanding how the cemetery started, gives glimpses into the lives laid to rest there.

"The first and only non-denominational cemetery in Minnesota. Until the 1920s, the only non-segregated cemetery," said Weston.