Quite by accident, I drove by historic Union Cemetery Wednesday while downtown. I had heard about this cemetery and some of the famous people buried there. The cemetery was not open to visitors, but the sexton's cottage is open a few hours per week.
In the early 1850's, due to the cholera epidemic, the towns of Westport and Kansas, facing expanding boundaries and increasing populations, started looking for more burial space. In 1857 forty-nine acres were donated by James M. Hunter. The new cemetery was located between the two towns and was to be used by both towns, becoming a union between the two, which is how Union Cemetery got its name.
Westport and Kansas became one town, Kansas City, and the cemetery now lies in the middle of a busy metropolitan area.
In 1889, fire destroyed the sexton's cottage and all cemetery records were lost, leaving hundreds of unmarked and undocumented graves. The Union Cemetery Historical Society was created to collect data about historic Union Cemetery and to gather biographical data about the people buried there.
