glenwood-historical-cemetery

Cemetery Preservation

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 15:15:21 GMT

Cemetery Preservation with UM-Flint

Cemeteries such as Glenwood are a significant piece of Flint’s built heritage. Besides containing diverse, creative, and very personal histories, cemeteries are one of the few historic sites in flint still used for its original purpose. Houses get converted to museums, schools and warehouses into housing, and churches into venues or offices. But because of the unique use of these landscapes, cemeteries cannot be adapted into other uses. Perhaps this is why so many of our historic cemeteries are in need of intervention. And, it is intervention and preservation that are at the heart of the type of enraged research and learning partnership between Glenwood Cemetery and the University of Michigan-Flint, Department of History . A key element of that partnership is putting students together with community members to preserve the historic monuments and grounds of Glenwood Cemetery.

The most recent artifact of that partnership was a cemetery preservation workshop held in September 2021. Working with the Michigan Historic Preservation Network to sponsor and promote the event, UM-Flint and Glenwood invited community members from all over Michigan to learn the proper preservation techniques for historic cemeteries. The workshop was led by students and alumni of University of Michigan-Flint’s cemetery preservation program, a teaching and research project of the Department of History. Under the supervision of Thomas Henthorn, students led participants in the workshop in hands-on instruction of cleaning monuments – making sure to underscore the literature available from the State Historic Preservation Office . We finished the workshop by resenting the individual monument of Gov. Henry Howland Crapo and fixing a broken obelisk with the help of Tim Riley, owner of Legacy Headstone Preservation and alumnus of UM-Flint. While cleaning headstones is an activity that contributes immensely to the preservation of stones, moving and fix stones should be left to a professional who has the proper training and the right equipment. Look for more preservation opportunities at Glenwood, we would love to have your help in preserving this historic landscape.

A Hidden Gem

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:07:58 GMT

A Hidden Gem

DeAndra Larkin, Flint Watershed Coalition

Cemeteries aren't often on my top places to spend my time but Glenwood had been on my list of places to visit in Flint and Genesee County for quite a while. For years, residents would share with me about the many Flint greats that were put to rest at the historic gem as well as the beautiful nature. The opportunity finally struck when I was presented the chance to volunteer at the site during the Flint River Watershed Coalition's Cleanup Day. I was pleasantly surprised by Glenwood's serenity when I drove up the front drive for the first time this summer. The beautiful tree variety and manicured landscaping definitely made Glenwood worthy of its Arboretum designation. I spent a few hours alongside community members dedicated to preserving the integrity of this historic landmark. It's definitely a place to take an afternoon walk, meditate, identify trees, or a stroll down Flint's memory lane. I would recommend it to anyone looking for peace in the City.

The Significance of Glenwood

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:05:49 GMT

The Significance of Glenwood

Jack Stock

Glenwood Cemetery has a significant relationship with both me and my workplace, Kettering University. Personally, the physical beauty of Glenwood has always drawn me in as a pleasant, serene place to walk, contemplate and even observe nature. Admittedly, I'm an ardent birder, meaning I take binoculars outside and sit down and wait for birds to resume their busy lives. I identify them and make a list of my observations for both my own pleasure and for a small competition within my family. I have observed at least 25 different bird species there, most notably eagles, osprey, great blue herons, great egrets, a wide variety of ducks - and of course robins, blue jays, crows, blackbirds, woodpeckers, sparrows and so on. Suffice it to say that with the dense stand of pine and hardwoods and a spectacular view overlooking the Flint River, it is a great place for birding enthusiasts. I highly recommend it.

And speaking of views, you will never get a better one of our growing Kettering University campus as you look out from the northeast corner of Glenwood toward downtown and Chevrolet Avenue. It is really impressive and shows how connected we are. Some of the most prominent General Motors Institute (GMI) and Kettering University figures are buried there. The much beloved professor Reggie Bell, who taught for 50 plus years, is at a front-facing Court Street site. He is a legend. And then there is Albert "Major" Sobey, who founded Kettering (then the Flint School of Automotive Trades) back in 1919. He served into the 1950s and was instrumental in propelling Kettering into the nation's premier automotive engineering school. When you look over he and his wife's gravestone looking north, you see the modern-day Kettering campus on the horizon, and you cannot help but think that they, too, understood the significance of time and place when they chose this site.

The Ballengers

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 13:41:12 GMT

The Ballengers

William “Bill” S. Ballenger III

The great-grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier, William S. Ballenger, Sr. (1866-1951), known as "Will" or "W.S." to all who knew him, lies side by side in the Ballenger family plot with his wife, Minnie (1868-1949); their only son, William S. Ballenger, Jr. (1908-1987); and his daughter-in law, Marie Daley "Betty" Ballenger (1908-2003). The Ballengers lived most of the 19th Century near Cambridge City, Indiana. W.S. Sr. was invited to Flint in 1888 at age 21 by James H. Whiting, president of the Flint Wagon Works, to become a bookkeeper. Less than two decades later, W.S. Sr. became the first secretary-treasurer of the Buick Motor Co. He was one of the original investors, with Billy Durant, in the formation of General Motors in 1906-08. He then became the first secretary-treasurer of Chevrolet in 1911. He retired in 1926 and thereafter devoted himself to investments and philanthropy.

W.S. Sr. was longtime chairman of the board of the old Women's Hospital on Lapeer Street and was the driving force behind the building of a new hospital, which he insisted be named after the hospital's head nurse, Margaret McLaren. In 1949, he turned the spade on the first shovel for the new hospital located on what the city renamed Ballenger Highway. He set up two trust funds that provided what is now McLaren Health Care Corp. with a financial foundation of what has become hundreds of millions of dollars. He was a director for more than three decades of Citizens Commercial & Savings Bank. He created and endowed two private parks in Flint --- Memorial Park in downtown Flint and Ballenger Park at the corner of Flushing Rd. and Dupont. Many years after his death, a statue of him was erected in Ballenger Park, the only statue in any Flint park, public or private. A longtime member of the Flint Board of Education, he made multiple bequests to what has become Flint Community Schools, and what is now Mott Community College named its field house after him. Except for his friend C.S. Mott, no man has bequeathed more, in as many different ways, as W.S. Ballenger, Sr. His son W.S. Jr. was head of the trust department for Citizens Bank and a member of its board of directors for many years, and was also president of the Michigan YMCA. So the Ballenger family has been in Flint for nearly 130 years.

My Nanny

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 20:04:11 GMT

My Nanny

Thomas L. Capua, SR.

Mary Capua, a resident of Glenwood Cemetery since 1949, lies beside her son, Harold Gregory, who died in his youth. Mary, an immigrant from Lancashire, England, was a divorced mother of two, who then married my grandfather, Lorenzo Tomasso Capua, an Italian immigrant who also was divorced, and a father of two, in the 1930’s, a time when divorce not only was condemned by the church, but was disdained by “polite society”. Mary was a very kind lady with a happy disposition who loved to talk, and to listen, and to treat her inherited grandson (me) with song, candy, and love. When I began to write this piece, I tried to organize my thoughts by remembering “My Nanny”, a name I probably bestowed upon her while in my babbling stage; but I soon realized she was much a more than my childhood memories ever had provided to me. As a divorcee, a factory worker during the World War II era, the only one in her family capable of driving the 1941 Pontiac “slant-back” automobile, a staunch member of Saint Paul Episcopal Church who participated in many church activities including the “Ladies Club” which had an annual outing at the Brandt Cottage on Long Lake (now called Lake Fenton, of course) where a bathing suit would be provided by the hostess for Mary’s chubby little grandson (me). Mary Capua, my Nanny, had an air of independence that was a bit ahead of her time. I think she would have fit very comfortably into the twenty-first century . I visit her and Harold twice a year; at Christmas-time to place a wreath on the graves, and in Springtime to plant geraniums, her favorite flower.