Corporation Cemetery History

CORPORATION CEMETERY is located at the southwest corner of Church and Moss Street in downtown Lake Charles, Louisiana. The earliest known interment is that of the infant child of William H. & Sarah E. Haskell, buried January 24th, 1858. Over 250 men, women and children have been laid to rest at this site. Some of the early pioneer families who utilized this graveyard include: Clement, Gill, Gunn, Haskell, Kirkman, Lyons, Moss, and Reid.
Thousands of people pass this cemetery every day, most of whom don't even notice it.
Majority of the grave markers are gone. Vast empty patches of grass are now found where historian Maude Reid says, "A person couldn't walk two feet without stepping on a grave."
Highway and interstate construction in the 1950s divided North and South Lake Charles; essentially cutting off the cemetery from the community.
The sign out front reads ‘City of Lake Charles Cemetery' but early newspaper articles refer to it as Corporation Cemetery. The latter name being a reference to the graveyards founding as the first city owned burial plot. Corporation and Catholic cemeteries are the only burial grounds located in downtown Lake Charles that are not directly linked to a founding family. Bilbo, Goos, and Sallier all began life as private burying grounds for early settlers.
The Southwest Louisiana Genealogical Society, Inc. website provided the following information: "Corporation Cemetery, aka Magnolia Cemetery, Church Street Cemetery, and City of Lake Charles Cemetery. At some point and time it has been called Church Street Cemetery, Corporation Cemetery, and Magnolia Cemetery. It was read in 1957 and then again in 1971 by the Southwest Louisiana Genealogical Society, Inc.—there were 176 adults, 14 children, and 38 infants in unmarked graves according to the 1971 compilation."
In the 1870's a small German church occupied the lot directly opposite the cemetery. The church was used by the Methodist Episcopal German speaking congregation of Lake Charles.
Historians believe the cemetery sits atop an old Atakapa Indian mound. The site is located some 17 feet above sea level and is less than a mile away from ‘The Bel Site,' a well-documented Atakapa Indian camp. It is also believed that multiple graves were disturbed/destroyed when the interstate cut through the south side of the cemetery. This theory has yet to be proven. An aerial photograph of the cemetery dated 1942 compared to the current property lines appears to show no change in lot size. During WWII, some of the simple iron cross grave markers were removed and donated to the war scrap metal drive.
The Lake Charles Enterprise Club attempted to revitalize the cemetery starting in the late 1800s. Brush was removed, graves cleaned and 12 Magnolia trees were planted along the Moss Street entrance. The club pushed to change the cemetery name to ‘Magnolia Cemetery,' but the alias didn't take. This name change only added to the confusion, considering one of Westlake oldest graveyards is named Magnolia Cemetery.
While time ticked by, and the city grew—the opposite was taking place at the cemetery... You wouldn't image there'd be a lot of coming-and-going in the bone yard but sadly this is not always the case.
Shortly before Dr. Abraham H. Moss purchased the Judge Reid homestead on the corner of Hodges and Division in 1879, Reid paid to have his family members exhumed and reburied at Corporation Cemetery on Moss Street.
The Haskell family graveyard may have suffered the same consequence. Like the Reids, the Haskells occupy a large section of Corporation Cemetery, but some of the graves predate the cemeteries establishment in 1869.
The irony of this great migration to the new city cemetery lies in the fact that within a few decades this site would fall into disrepair. History would repeat its self as local residents began removing loved ones from Corporation Cemetery and reburying their dead at Orange Grove/Graceland Cemetery.
With the purchase of Orange Grove Cemetery, the city was satisfied it had a plot large enough to meet the growing demands of the population. Older cemeteries no longer in use fell into disrepair. The will of Mary F. Gray, wife of J.G. Gray, dated October 29, 1891, gives insight regarding this issue. Mrs. Gray requested that "our little baby be dug up from the Corporation Cemetery and a suitable lot purchased in the new grave yard and tomb put up."
As mentioned above, three years later, Corporation Cemetery was vandalized, tombstones toppled and vaults plundered.

Source: Trent Gremillion - From the book ‘There Among the Hill'