Bodies on Campus

On Thursday, May 12, 2005, I was the guest speaker for the meeting of the Emeritus Faculty of Eastern Michigan University. The topic of my talk was the people for whom the buildings on campus are named. I was going to begin by saying as a historian, I know where the bodies are buried. Then I remembered that there might be bodies buried on the campus, as part of what is now the campus was once a cemetery. From 1865 to 1888 St. John's Catholic Cemetery was on the land now occupied by Phelps Sellers, Dining Commons #2, and part of Wish and part of Buell. The Church decided to move the cemetery, as all of the space was filled, and the new cemetery was moved to the present site on River Street in 1888. Well, all of the bodies were supposed to have been moved, but they may have missed a few.