Berrien County Genealogy Project presents...

Benton / Mead Road Cemetery, Buchanan Township

Berrien County, Michigan

Markers transcribed by Daundra Baker, 1965. Additional info from 1944 transcription in Michigan State Library marked w *

This cemetery is located on the East side of the Walton Road Bridge in what was then Niles Township, Section 24. It is now Buchanan Township, still Section 24. This property once was part of the Village of Benton; settled in August 1832 by William Broadhurst and Joseph Stevens. The land records are on file in the Berrien County Court House. Benton was used as farm land, though all that remains of Benton is this small burial ground. For many years the Bunker family log cabin, built by settler Abraham Hall Bunker in 1849, stood as mute testimony to the town of Benton. It was written in a newspaper article about the time of the Buchanan Centennial that the Bunker Cabin was standing and the Benton Cemetery is located in a field behind it. There were "some 20 graves...marked with wooden markers." the article reported. Thanks to Daundra Baker for this great information, picture and transcriptions. Picture of Anna Babcock & Lurinda Hunter markers by Daundra Baker. Copyright Daundra Baker, 1965.

I update this page June 14, 2005 with information from Cindy Schroeder, descendant of William Broadhurst and Sarah Beans. Some of the data forwarded by Cindy is from 1944 transcription of the cemetery, located in the Michigan State Library. Pictures of Sarah Beans, Wm & Mary Broadhurst markers by Cindy Schroeder. Copyright Cindy Schroeder, 2005. See more about the Broadhursts below the transcriptions.

 

 

Deceased

Death Date

Inscriptions
Babcock, Anna  2 Dec 1839 51y, 2m, 20d, Wife of Russel [On marker with Lurinda Hunter] 
B., S.    [No dates, this is evidently a footstone]
Beans, Sarah  31 Dec 1841 27y, 3m, Wife of Harmon
Broadhurst, Mary A. (Ann) 1 Dec 1844 24y, 10m
Broadhurst, William Sr.   2 Sept. 1832 83y
Broadhurst, William Jr. * May 5, 1854 63y
Cotten, Floretta 17 Feb 1872 3y, 8m, 10d, Dau. of W & M
Cotten, Infant Daughter  29 Sept 1883  ..of W & M
Hunter, John  * Sept. 29, 1835 (b. Apr 3, 1789) Aged 46y
Hunter, Lurinda  30 Mar 1848 29y, 5m, 23d, Wife of A. G., Dau. R & A Babcock [Shares marker with Anna Babcock]
K., L.    [No dates, footstone]
Kane, Mary Ann *  16 Oct. 1838 21y 
Kane, Nancy 10 Oct. 1835 (1838*) 1y, 3m, Daughter of G. (*George) & M.A.
Richner, Irene K.  19 May 1856 64y (Likely the mother in law to Thomas Broadhurst)
Unknown 28 Sept. 184? 53y, 5m, 6d
There are approx. 12 indentations in the ground where it is evident that graves are located as air pockets were found when probed.

Berrien County Record 1 May 1985 "Tales of an Old Town" by W.C. Hawes, Chapter 154 - Mrs Irene Hagel writes of Old Days in Bend of the River:

Thomas Broadhurst told his daughter, Irene, about the death of his grandfather (William Broadhurst Sr.) "One day a woman of the Ives family came to the Broadhurst home and told a strange dream that she had the night before. She dreamed that several men were carrying a man, covered with a white sheet, up the stony hill to the Broadhurst home. A few days later William Broadhurst, then a sturdy oldster of 84 years, was chopping down a tree on that same hillside. In falling, the tree lodged on another tree. While Broadhurst was working to dislodge it, it fell on him, killing him instantly. He was found there by one of the family and was carried up the hill in a sheet, in accordance with the dream of the Ives woman."

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Niles Republican - 13 May 1854

DIED: William Broadhurst, one of the oldest residents in this town, having been here some 23 years, died on the 5th inst., aged 65, from the effects of an injury received by the running away of his horses a week previous. His father was killed some 28 (sic) years since, near the same place, by the falling of a tree which he was cutting.

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