This Veterans Day, Milwaukee County honors the memory of its veterans, but for some, recognition remains stalled. In 2023, Milwaukee County installed five markers to honor veterans of the Civil and Spanish-American Wars, thanks to research by the Descendant Community. Another marker arrived late, and so was not ready for the 2023 Veterans Day memorial service; it has remained in storage. Additional research has identified three more veterans eligible for US Veterans Administration markers. These applications have been waiting for County officials’ signatures for more than a year, and legal guidance from the Milwaukee County Office of the Corporation Counsel has created obstacles that may prevent their approval entirely.
Read more about our work honoring veterans, and visit our virtual memorials to learn more about these and other veterans we have identified as being buried at Milwaukee County Grounds cemeteries:
- Friedrich Bartsch (marker in storage since November 2023)
- Charles Bummert
- Gottlieb Flügge
- Albert Melms
The Descendant Community continues to have hope that the County will have a change of heart. We have identified descendants of the veterans awaiting markers and put one in contact with the County; we have not reached out to descendants of the other veterans, however, because we do not know how to formally recognize the veterans’ service given the County’s stance.
Background
The Descendant Community has worked to ensure the proper care and memorialization of the County Grounds cemeteries. While the County participated in the 2023 Veterans Day memorial service, progress on honoring additional veterans stalled following approval by the Wisconsin Historical Society of the reburial plan for 831 Ancestors. Since then, the Corporation Counsel has taken an increasingly adversarial position:
- Legal Obstruction
- Accusation of Illegal Grave Disturbing
- Court Actions
- Misstated Legal Guidance
- Conclusion
Legal Obstruction
This past summer, the Corporation Counsel applied to elevate its own priority on the Register of Interested Persons from landowner to cultural interest, potentially undermining the Descendant Community’s legally recognized role in decisions regarding human remains. The sources cited to support this application are completely irrelevant, demonstrating either a misunderstanding of their own citations or disregard for the law’s purpose. This follows their repeated statements that the Descendant Community itself does not meet the definition for cultural interest.
Accusation of Illegal Grave Disturbing
Last month, the Corporation Counsel accused the Descendant Community of illegally disturbing Cemetery 3, claiming use of pitchforks and unlawful disturbance of graves. The August 2025 flooding unearthed gravestones, and our suggestion of using pitchforks to identify additional gravestones was purely hypothetical and contingent on Parks’ approval; no such action occurred. Placing of US and Wisconsin flags at markers (including those for veterans) and stone resetting complied with state preservation guidance regarding cemetery cleanup. The Corporation Counsel’s unfounded accusations distract from memorialization efforts and cast doubt on the Community’s lawful work.
It bears repeating that the Corporation Counsel’s letter treats a purely hypothetical suggestion—using pitchforks to probe the ground for hidden gravestones—as if it had actually taken place, portraying lawful, conditional planning as misconduct punishable by law. It is unclear how the Corporation Counsel so grossly misread our letter. This misrepresentation exemplifies the broader pattern of misconstruing the Descendant Community’s lawful preservation efforts, calling into question the reliability of the Corporation Counsel’s guidance.
Court Actions
Two ongoing legal cases initiated by the Corporation Counsel continue to threaten the approved reburial plan. While the Descendant Community is not a direct party, these actions put veterans’ recognition at risk and create unnecessary delays, driving up costs without advancing historical or public interests.
Future veterans markers could be installed at Forest Home Cemetery near the 831 Ancestors that are planned to be reinterred there. This is not currently feasible due to the drawn out legal appeals.
The Corporation Counsel has tried to use these issues as leverage to negotiate the reburial plan, but we have no authority whatsoever to amend the approved plan. Their appeals have been rejected at every stage, and it is unclear what outcome they expect—except for a delay to cause the plans to become unfeasible due to changing circumstances.
Misstated Legal Guidance
By substituting a subjective interpretation for legal analysis, and failing to read the second item in a four-item list, the Corporation Counsel has effectively paralyzed efforts to honor veterans who served this country. The County’s duty to preserve the burial sites is not in conflict with its moral and civic obligation to recognize those buried there. Additionally, conservation requirements enacted by the County do not in fact prohibit installation of memorial markers, as the Corporation Counsel claims.
Definition of Disturbance
In April 2024, the Corporation Counsel issued a letter claiming that Milwaukee County’s only responsibility regarding veterans buried at the County Grounds is to receive “proper and decent care”, and to avoid “disturbing” the graves. The letter further argued that terms such as desecrate and disturb are subjective, warning that what one group considers respect might be viewed as desecration by another, even suggesting that “placing a grave marker for a veteran over the final resting place of a committed pacifist would be considered desecration by many”. While one might prefer that markers be placed at the correct gravesites, it was the County that lost the cemetery maps, making such precision impossible; in any case, the grave might have been destroyed or disinterred by previous construction projects. Cenotaphs (monuments honoring those whose graves are elsewhere or unknown) have existed since Ancient Greece. The Corporation Counsel’s example, therefore, misses the point entirely.
The Corporation Counsel’s reasoning is both irrelevant and absurd. Their suggestion that honoring veterans might constitute desecration bears no relationship to the County’s actual obligations under state law. The statutes do not forbid respectful commemoration; they prohibit physical disturbance of burial sites and human remains. The letter’s attempt to blur that distinction misstates the law and undermines the purpose of both the Burial Sites Preservation statute and Wisconsin’s long tradition of veteran memorialization.
Indeed, Wisconsin law places a positive obligation on counties to apply for VA markers for veterans who died while living in the county. This obligation exists regardless of who owns the cemetery. While an argument could be made that this does not apply to historical burials, the most natural reading of the Corporation Counsel’s argument would be that this obligation does not exist at all.
If placing cenotaphs for US veterans—or placing US and Wisconsin flags at gravestones—is to be considered desecration, what then should be said of the County’s own history of bulldozing graves for buildings and paving roads over others?
County Grounds Conservation Restrictions
The same letter also misrepresents the County Board’s 2020 conservation restrictions, asserting that they prohibit “any structures other than mowed areas, parking lots, benches, and picnic tables”. In fact, the restrictions explicitly allow “interpretive signs, kiosks, observation platforms, and boardwalks”, among two other sets of exemptions.
The 2023 installation of five markers—arranged by the County and facilitated by County funding—demonstrates that such memorials are fully compatible with both the restrictions and the law. It is difficult to say how the Corporation Counsel’s summary of the conservation restrictions came to be so incomplete, but it appears to be part of a pattern. One can only hope that greater care is exercised in their other official duties.
Conclusion
This Veterans Day, we are reminded not of new installations, but of the veterans still waiting for recognition. The Descendant Community continues its work to honor those who served, while bureaucratic misguidance might leave some veterans unacknowledged for generations and keeps their living descendants in the dark, with no clear path forward. Proper memorials are not just a matter of law, but of justice, dignity, and respect.
Each veteran deserves to be remembered with dignity. Researching burial records and ordering pension files for marker applications requires both time and resources. Contributions to the Descendant Community help continue this work even when official support has stalled.
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