Mount Evergreen Cemetery / The Underground Railroad In Jackson

Mount Evergreen Cemetery, also, The Underground Railroad In Jackson. . , Mount Evergreen Cemetery. In 1843 Jackson's village council purchased land from Eunice Dygert to establish public burial grounds in the village. The grounds were officially named Mount Evergreen Cemetery in 1879. The Greenwood Wall on the west side of the cemetery was built in 1873 and rebuilt in 1980 using the original wall's stones. The cemetery contains the grave sites of several individuals who were involved with the Underground Railroad. Emma Nichols, a freedom seeker who fled from a plantation in Virginia and achieved her freedom through the secret network, is buried in the cemetery. She lived on Biddle Street in Jackson with her husband Richard Nichols, a barber who had also attained his freedom with the help of the Underground Railroad., The Underground Railroad In Jackson. At least seven people who assisted fugitives escaping from slavery are buried in Mount Evergreen Cemetery. William and Mary DeLand share a family memorial here along with their son, Charles. According to Charles's 1903 history of Jackson County, his family housed fugitives in their barn, and during the night he drove them by wagon to their next stop. The other four Underground Railroad contributors buried here are Abel Fitch, the first postmaster of Michigan Center; Lonson Wilcox, a deacon at First Congregational Church in Jackson: Norman Allen, a local politician who served as Jackson County Treasurer: and Seymour Treadwell, a leader in Michigan's antislavery movement who wrote an 1838 book entitled American Liberties and American Slavery.