In 1948, a plaque was placed on 1111 Summer St. NE, declaring the land to be known as Beltrami Park. It was named after the first European explorer to claim to have found the headwaters of the Mississippi River in 1823. But the site’s past was not forgotten.
Jumping almost a century earlier, in 1849, Robert W. Cummings established a private cemetery in what is now Beltrami Park. It wasn’t until 1857 that it would receive the name of Maple Hill Cemetery.
The cemetery served as a resting place for pioneers of Minneapolis and “46 soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic,” according to a plaque still in the park. These are soldiers from the Civil War. Between 1847 and 1890, more than 5,000 people were buried here.
In 1978, a report was written stating the cemetery kept “absolutely no records.” The health department forbade further internments in 1890. The cemetery was crowded, uneven burials were common and some caskets were only as low as five feet below the ground in hand-dug graves.
The Minneapolis City Council condemned some of the land in 1894 to open Polk and Fillmore Streets, which still serve as the East and West borders of Beltrami Park. Graves had to be exhumed for these new roads.
More than 1,300 caskets and 82 monuments and tombstones were moved to the Sunset, Hillside or Lakewood cemeteries. This still left approximately 3,700 grave plots in the park.
From 1894 to 1908, nobody maintained the cemetery and it fell into disarray. Vandalism and littering became prominent and the people around the area grew upset with the City’s lack of response.
The Maple Hill Improvement Association was accused in 1905 of taking work horses and clear-cutting the cemetery. Garbage, debris and tombstones were left in ditches nearby.
In 1908, the Minneapolis Park Board purchased the cemetery for $8,000. The department put a fence up, but that wouldn’t do much to curb the vandalism on the plot of land.
The City started removing more markers and tombstones after the purchase, still finding remnants of the cemetery as late as 1973, when a marker for Janet Sleigh was found in some bushes after a heavy rain.
The park went through various plans, cleaning most of it up by the 1940s. It was named Maple Hill Park until 1947, and the plaque went up in 1948 to honor Giacomo Beltrami.
A few stories have found their way out of the cemetery, including unusual deaths and forcefully exhumed tenants that still haunt the park.
The plaque stating the civil war soldiers that were previously, or may still be, buried in Maple Hill Cemetery. (Provided)
George Boyd Jr.
One name on the plaque of Civil War soldiers is George Boyd Jr. of New Brunswick, Canada. Boyd enlisted as a sergeant in Company E, 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry on April 29, 1861.
Before he left active duty in 1866, he was promoted to Captain of Hatch’s Independent Battalion of Minnesota Cavalry, which was a volunteer regiment separate from the regular Army and militia. This type of regiment was common at the time and still considered part of the Union Army.
He died in 1879 and was buried in Maple Hill Cemetery. A news report from The Tribune, titled “An Unusual Accident,” in 1879 stated, “Capt. George Boyd and Mr. Edward Hill … were crossing the river in an ordinary skiff, just above the brow of the (St. Anthony) falls, an undertaking not ordinarily dangerous at the present stage of water” when their boat capsized.
The St. Paul Globe stated Hill survived, but “George Boyd lost his life.” Boyd’s name is on the present plaque in Beltrami Park. His body has been lost to time and poor record-keeping.
LeDuc’s tombstone, which he allegedly is still looking for. (Michael Rainville Jr.)
Louis P. LeDuc
A 2018 article from Mill City Times by Michael Rainville Jr. talks about Louis P. Leduc, a Canadian born on May 7, 1845 who died on November 18, 1883.
The tombstone states, “Ici repose en pay, le corp de Louis P. LeDuc.” This is French for “Here lies in peace, the body of Louis P. LeDuc.” Not much more can be found on his life, but his afterlife has a little more documentation.
Rainville Jr. writes that a few “souls still roam the park, some of them looking for their tombstones.” LeDuc has reportedly been one of those spirits people have seen looking for his tombstone, which happened to be in the possession of the Rainville family.
“My great grandfather received it many decades ago from his neighbor who was redoing his front steps, and the first step was poor old Louie’s tombstone,” Rainville Jr. wrote.
The next time you find yourself at Beltrami Park, Rainville Jr. reminds you, “If you hear a faint whisper in your ear when you enjoy the bocce ball courts or feel a tap on your shoulder during your next picnic, tell Louie LeDuc that his friend Michael Rainville Jr. is keeping his tombstone nice and safe.”