Memorial Place Cemetery is located at the corner of South Monroe and West Seventh Streets. It is a very small cemetery.

HISTORY OF MEMORIAL PLACE CEMETERY

"The first cemetery was a quarter of an acre at the corner of West Front and South Monroe Streets (M-125). No name for the cemetery, only that it was a Protestant cemetery. This land was donated by Samuel Agnew. Among some of the first buried there, were some of the remains for the men of the Kentucky Militia, who died during the battles and massacre of the River Raisin in Jan. 1813. Their bodies, mutilated, had laid on the battle field, guarded by the Indians for more than six months. These remains were later exhumed and taken to Detroit, Mi. and then sent to Kentucky for reburial. The cemetery was then abandoned. There are NO burials in it."

Samuel Agnew and Daniel Mulhollen donated the plot of land for a second burial cemetery in the city of Monroe for the residents, after the first one was abandoned. It is now known as Memorial Place Cemetery. It is located 6 blocks south of the first cemetery. Most of the burials, here, a large number of women and small children, are from the cholera epidemic of the 1830's, when Monroe was swept by the dreaded disease. The graveyard was allowed to deteriorate. The last known burials in this cemetery were earlier than the mid 1850's. Citizens wanted this overgrown, neglected, eyesore abolished. The Monroe women's group, "Civic Improvement Society", took control in 1902, and was able to get the State of Michigan and the City of Monroe to erect a monument in honor of the Kentucky Militia Soldiers who had died in Monroe, trying to preserve some of Monroe's history of the town. This large granite monument was placed in 1904, at the front of the Memorial Place Cemetery. Over the years the cemetery was often called the Kentucky Soldiers Park Cemetery, because of the monument placed there honoring the soldiers. There are no known Kentucky Soldiers buried in this cemetery. It was only the spot chosen by the State of Michigan to place the monument in their memory, because the other cemetery was abandoned, and a city built over it. "Thus the confusion."

Sadly, again, this second cemetery was allowed to deteriorate. Some markers were unearthed about 2004 by an unknown group. On June 8, 2013, the GSMC of Monroe County, with permission from the City, has started to unearth the markers. Most of the stones have sunk 3 to 4 inches deep into the ground and totally dirt and grass covered. An ultra sound done by the City of Monroe, helps to show the locations of the markers. The 56 memorials listed with markers, are the only ones known to have markers. (Lo Marie)