MICHIGAN HISTORIC SITE: Newburgh Cemetery, Livonia

Newburgh Cemetery may have its share of ghosts – as some believe – but it’s one of Michigan’s Historic Sites.

The area’s first settlers arrived in this part of Wayne County in 1825 after the Revolutionary War looking for new land. Salmon Kingsley, a Revolutionary War veteran, was one of the first settlers, and also the first person to be buried on the land that would become a public graveyard. The community was given the name ‘Newburgh’.

In 1832 the Newburgh Union Cemetery Society was formed to take care of this piece of land, the first cemetery in Livonia.

The records of the Society from 1832-1923 are kept in a ledger, which can be found in the Michigan Historical Collection in Lansing.

Plots at the time were 50 cents…you read right… fifty cents!

There are four Revolutionary War vets, fifty from the Civil War, four from WWI, one from WWII, and one from the Korean War.

When Livonia became a city in the 1950’s, the village of Newburgh became a part of it.

The Historical Marker reads: “An organization, later known as the Newburgh Cemetery Society, was formed on November 23, 1832, to establish and maintain this cemetery, the first in the present city of Livonia. One grave, that of Salmon Kingsley, a veteran of the American Revolution who died in 1827, already existed here. In the century that followed, three other Revolutionary War veterans, more than fifty Civil War veterans and other early residents were buried here in these grounds, a treasured reminder of the pioneer era.”

Located on Ann Arbor Trail, Livonia.

50 Haunted Michigan Locations

Below is just the tip of the iceberg—a list of fifty Michigan hauntings that have been "reported" in cemeteries, houses, woods, jails, businesses, neighborhoods...if you can name it, there's probably a haunting for it.

Take a look at the list of fifty Michigan hauntings below and come to your own conclusions.