Volunteers are restoring Union Cemetery
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Union Cemetery in the fall. Photo: Abbey Higginbotham/Axios
Armed with brushes, buckets and a biodegradable cleaner, volunteers are quietly restoring Kansas City's oldest public burial ground.
Why it matters: Union Cemetery holds more than 55,000 Kansas Citians, but decades of neglect and an 1889 fire that destroyed nearly all of its early records left hundreds of graves marked only by wooden stakes that have since rotted away.
State of play: Union Cemetery Historical Society, which started in fall 2024, has been leading workshop volunteers through more than 5,000 markers.
- Heather Faries, the society's vice president, runs the classes. Volunteers learn to use a biodegradable cleaning solution called D2 that lifts lichen without damaging the stone, then keeps working every time it rains.
- The society got an $800 grant from Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area to fund supplies for more than a dozen classes in 2024 alone.
Context: The cemetery dates back to 1857, when Westport farmer James M. Hunter deeded 49 acres halfway between Westport and the town of Kansas after an 1849 cholera epidemic filled both towns' burial grounds.
- By 1910, the property had fallen into such disrepair that the Union Cemetery Association sold off 18 acres at 27th and Main to pay for maintenance.
- KC Parks took over what remained in 1937 and continues to maintain the grounds today.
- The society finished digitizing more than 35,000 burial records in 2022 to help fill in for what was lost in the fire, and is now reviewing them for errors, according to UCHS.
Zoom in: Among the gravestones being restored are those of veterans who served from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam.
- Lt. Joseph A. Boggs served in the Pennsylvania militia during the Revolutionary War. He died in Westport in 1843 at age 93, and his remains were later moved to Union Cemetery.
- Pvt. Nathaniel Gwynne was a 15-year-old Union soldier when he charged a Confederate position at the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia, retrieving his unit's flag. He later moved to KC, where he served in the Missouri House.
If you go: Union Cemetery is open 8:30am to 3:30pm Monday through Saturday. Self-guided walking tour maps are available at the sexton's cottage inside the cemetery.
- To volunteer, text 816-916-9980 or visit their website.
The bottom line: Nearly 170 years after it opened, Kansas Citians are still showing up on Saturday mornings to preserve their own history.