| Byron Cemetery | 
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| Byron Cemetery originated with the 1837 interment of Theodore H. Provost, the son of one of Byron's founders. According to local historians, Chippewa lived on this site until it became a cemetery. Byron Cemetery contains some sixteen hundred graves. The remains of fifty-six Civil War soldiers and veterans are interred here, including those of James Sleeth, a surgeon during the war who later became a lawyer and newspaper publisher. A large pedestal with crossed rifles honors unknown Civil War dead. |
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Side 2 |
| Fieldstones from local farms, urns, obelisks and monuments with common Christian symbols such as angels and weeping willows mark the graves in Byron Cemetery. In keeping with Judeo-Christian tradition, burials are oriented east to west. A mysterious exception is the grave of Richard Tubman, a thirty-five-year-old Irish horse groom. His grave, marked by a pulpit with a closed book, is oriented north to south. A seated maiden honors Ellen May Tower, a Spanish-American War nurse who died of typhoid fever in Puerto Rico in 1898. |
Registered Site L1960
Erected 1998
Location: Hamilton and Water Streets
Byron, Shiawassee County
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