Terhune Pioneer Memorial also know as the Terhune Burying Ground, was the cemetery plot set aside by Luke Whitmore after his daughter of 18 years died and there was no local cemetery available. A total of 21 individuals had connection to the cemetery. There are a few original gravestones that still exist on site. Access to the site requires climbing a set of stairs. The park is marked with a park sign.
More information
- Web site: Terhune Pioneer Memorial at Washtenaw County
- Ensign John Terhune grave information at Waymarking
- Yesterdays on Yost, Mike Gould for the Ann Arbor Observer
The old road headed south from our house, and walking along it, you would pass a deserted (and no doubt haunted) water tower, several frog ponds, the old hollow tree by the creek (near where the Forestbrooke Swim Club is now), and finally, the old graveyard. This was what is now called the Terhune Pioneer Cemetery, but in those days, it was a quintessential scary burying ground. It was filled with weeds and had a rusting metal fence, all in great disarray in the middle of the woods. This was sort of the Pet Sematary of my childhood - one entered on a dare and then ran home as fast as possible before the ghosts could get you.
- Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Published by G.P.O., 1913, Item notes: v. 15-16, p. 41
- Parkathon 2009, Garden Faerie's Musings weblog, March 2009
One of the most interesting parks was Terhune, which is also the site of a small pioneer cemetery, founded in 1825. At the time, Ann Arbor, which was founded in 1824, had no other cemetery, so Luke Whitmore created the first plot when his daughter Emily died at age 18. The cemetery was renamed Terhune at some point due to one of its more famous occupants, John Terhune, an American Revolutionary War veteran who died in Ann Arbor in 1839.
