HISTORY OF THE McLAIN CEMETERY

The following history was compiled by Douglas McLain and Neal McLain based on public records and information provided by Beverly Huckins.

During the 1820s Fulton Jack (1799-1843), of County Antrim, Ireland, immigrated to the United States, and settled in Livingston County, New York.  

Northwest Territory in 1787 (Wikipedia)

Little is known about his life there, but it appears that he planned to move further west to the newly-opened lands lying northwest of the Ohio River, an area then known as the Northwest Territory.

Fulton Jack lived at the time of what Klose and Jones call "The Great Migration" — the migration of people from New York and other east coast states to the Northwest Territory.   Numerous factors contributed to the western migration:
  •   The Land Ordinance of 1785, enacted by the Congress of the Confederacy, established a procedure for surveying and selling the lands of the Northwest Territory.
  •   The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, also enacted by the Congress of the Confederacy, specified how new territories were to be created and governed, and it guaranteed that new territories would be admitted as states on an equal footing with the original thirteen states.   It also established guarantees designed to encourage settlement in the new territories: assured civil liberties, secure land titles, religious freedom, local self-governance, and the prohibition of slavery.
  •   The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 greatly reduced the cost of migration,
  •   And, as Klose and Jones note, it provided the opportunity to escape the political, social, and economic discrimination of the static communities of the East and of Europe.

During the first two decades of the 1800s, three territories within the Northwest Territory were admitted as states: Ohio (1803), Indiana 1816), and Illinois (1818).   The remaining area came to be known as the Michigan Territory.

Michigan Territory in 1831 (Wikipedia)

In 1831, Fulton Jack migrated to the Michigan Territory and purchased a 240-acre farm in Lenawee County in the portion of the Michigan Territory that would eventually be admitted to the United States as the State of Michigan.   The original certificate, conveying the property from the United States Government's General Land Office to Fulton Jack, is now in the custody of the Bureau of Land Management.  A copy of the certificate is reproduced below:

A transcript of the certificate follows:

                                                              385
Certificate No. 1273

                The United States of America
    To all to whom these presents shall come, Greetings:

Whereas, Fulton Jack of Livingston County New York has deposited 
in the General Land Office of the United States, a certificate 
of the Register of the Land Office at Monroe whereby it appears 
that full payment has been made by the said Fulton Jack 
according to the act of Congress of the 24th day of April, 1820, 
entitled "An act making further provision for the sale of the 
Public Lands," for the North East Quarter and East half of the 
North West Quarter of Section Ten, in Township Six South of 
Range four, East, in the District of Lands subject to sale at 
Monroe, Michigan, containing Two Hundred and forty acres, 
according to the official plat of the survey of the said Lands, 
returned to the General Land Office by the Surveyor General, 
which said tract has been purchased by the said Fulton Jack.

NOW KNOW YE, That the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in consideration 
of the premises, and in conformity with the several acts of 
Congress, in such case made and provided, have given and 
granted, and, by these presents, do give and grant, unto the 
said Fulton Jack, and to his heirs, the said tract above 
described: To Have and to Hold the same, together with all the 
rights, privileges, immunities and appurtenances, of whatsoever 
nature thereunder belonging, unto the said Fulton Jack, and to 
his heirs and assigns forever.

In testimony whereof, I, Andrew Jackson, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, have caused these Letters to be made Patent, 
and the seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed.

Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the eighth day 
of February in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred 
and thirty one, and of the Independence of the United States the 
fifty fifth.

               By the President, A.J.

               E. A. [?] Commissioner of the General Land Office

The legal description of this property, in modern surveying terminology, is:

     NE1/4 Section 10 Town 6 South Range 4 East
                        and 
     E1/2 NW1/4 Section 10 Town 6 South Range 4 East

The location of this property is identified on the following map.  This is a fairly large map (266 Kb), so it may be necessary to scroll down to locate the property.

After purchasing the farm, Fulton Jack and his family constructed a brick home (the "brick house on the hill") on the property.   One of their close neighbors was an old friend whom Fulton Jack had known back in New York, Walter Whipple.

In 1833, Walter Whipple's father, Thomas Whipple, and his wife Rhoda Merrill Whipple, both died.   They were buried in the southeast corner of Fulton Jack's farm, the first graves in what would become the McLain Cemetery.   In subsequent years, Walter's wife, Susan Donaldson Whipple; his father-in-law, Lothario Donaldson; and his son, Lothario D. Whipple, also died, and were buried nearby.

In 1837, Fulton Jack's sister-in-law, Mary Boyd, was buried nearby (Marker #22), the first member of Fulton Jack's immediate family to be buried in what would become the McLain Cemetery.

In 1843, Fulton Jack fell ill with tuberculosis.   Apparently anticipating that he didn't have long to live, he took steps to legally separate the cemetery from the remainder of the farm.   By deed dated June 15, 1843 (and recorded May 23, 1844), he and his wife Ellen conveyed a half-acre parcel at the southeast corner of the farm to four of their neighbors, Robert Boyd, James Boyd, William Colvin, and James Holdridge.

This parcel already contained five graves (Markers #8, #9, #10, and #22).   In future years, it would come to be known as the McLain Cemetery.   The cemetery remains a separate parcel to this day, administered and maintained by the Raisin Township government.  

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If we zoom in on a map of Section 10, we note several features dating from Fulton Jack's day that still exist today:

• The cemetery, located in the southeast corner of the property, at the highest point on the property (822 feet).  The date on which it was officially designated "McLain Cemetery," is unknown; however, it was known by that name by 1938.   It is identified on this 1972 U. S. Geological Survey map as "McLain Cem."
  
  
• Fulton Jack's original brick home, located about 0.3 mile north of the cemetery, at a slightly lower elevation (about 810 feet).
  
  
• The River Raisin, crossing the western end of the property.  The bottomland along the river is at an even lower elevation (below 750 feet), and is heavily forested (indicated by the green overprint).
  
  

Fulton Jack died of tuberculosis on July 6, 1843, about three weeks after he dictated the deed separating the cemetery from the farm, and was buried at Marker #21.   His wife, Ellen, died two years later and was buried at Marker #20.

After their deaths, the farm (except for the cemetery) apparently passed to their daughter, Jane Jack McLain (1833-1916), and her husband Fulton McLain (1828-1879).   They continued to farm the property, and occupied the brick home on the hill.

By 1870, the family had five children, not counting a son named Fulton who had died in infancy.   The 1870 Census lists the occupants of the home, at lines 25-32, as follows:

An abridged transcript of lines 25-32 follows:

In the years since 1870, the farm has changed hands several times, and part of it has been subdivided.   Most of the property is now owned by the Robert and Darlene Moore Trust; however, the south half of the NE¼ has been subdivided into smaller tracts.

The cemetery itself is still bounded by the same boundaries that were established in 1843, when Fulton Jack deeded the land to four of his neighbors just before his death.

The portion of Section 10 located west of the River Raisin is now owned by The Nature Conservancy.   This land is part of the Conservancy's Ives Road Fen Preserve.

The following picture shows the property looking northwest from the cemetery.   Note how the elevation of the land drops off to the west.

The row of trees in the distance is part of the forested bottomland bordering the river.