Presenter: Rev. Jeremiah Gumm

Join us on the tour! The Union Cemetery Tour will take place on Saturday, May 31, 2025. Union Cemetery was first founded by St. John’s Lutheran Church (8th and Vliet) as St. Johannes Lutheran Cemetery in 1851. In 1865, the cemetery was merged with those of Grace (WELS) and Trinity (LCMS) of downtown Milwaukee. This cemetery is rich with the early WELS history of Milwaukee.

WELS founder, Rev. Johannes Muehlhaeuser, helped to select and purchase the grounds. Both he and later WELS President Johann Bading are buried there, as are the early directors of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary–Dr. Adolf Hoenecke and Prof. John Schaller, the latter of which also played a key role in establishing Dr. Martin Luther College for the training of Lutheran teachers in the Wisconsin Synod.