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Uniontown Cemetery

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This cemetery is all that remains of Uniontown, a community established in 1848 that served as a trading post and pay station for the local Potawatomi Natives who lived in the area. It was located within the Kansas River Valley along the Oregon-California Trail and near a river crossing. After two bouts of cholera swept through the town in 1851 and 1852, the structures of Uniontown were burned. With the growth of nearby cities like Topeka, merchants left the area and Uniontown was abandoned by 1858. This small cemetery continued to be used into the late nineteenth century by area farm communities. Today, the cemetery lies close to the town of Willard and near the ruins of the Green family house and Green Memorial Wildlife Area.


Images

The Uniontown Cemetery

A photograph of the Uniontown Cemetery, located in a field with tree in the background. The cemetery is small and there are few graves visible. One is tall while the others are short. There is a short wall surrounding the graves made of limestone rocks. The photograph is taken from the outside of the wall, towards the small entrance.

Inside the Walls of Uniontown Cemetery

This photographs shows a view inside of the Uniontown cemetery. There are four graves visible, two are seen from the back and side and are unreadable. The visible graves are of Mary L. Nadeau and Joseph G. Bourassa.

The Grave of Mary E. Bourassa

A tall monument grave in the Uniontown Cemetery. Inscribed is: "Mary E. Wife of J. N. Bourassa. Born May 13, 1833. Died Jan 30, 1872." Below this is another inscription that reads: "Adamantinus Bourassa. Born Jan 30, 1872. Died Apr 21, 1872."

The Grave of Mary L. Nadeau

A small gravestone in the Uniontown Cemetery. There is an angel carved into the top of the stone, below it reads "Mary E. Nadeau. Born Oct 13, 1808. Died Dec 17, 1867. The sweet remembrance of the just shall flourish when they sleep in dirt."

Oregon-California Trail Crossing

A photograph of a post in the forest. The post marks the Oregon and California Trails Crossing.

Green Memorial Wildlife Area

A photograph of a trail at the Green Memorial Wildlife Area. There is a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees along the path and tall grass can be seen at the far end of the path, away from the photographer.

Post Creek in Green Memorial Wildlife Area

An photo of Post Creek within the Green Memorial Nature Area. It shows a view down the creek from the point bar, lined with small stones, and is pointing towards the cut bank. The water appears calm. There are trees on either side of the creek, it is winter and the trees do not have leaves.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

While Uniontown is often remembered as the last trading post on the Oregon-California Trail before the West, the town has significance to the Potawatomi Tribe. When the Indian Removal Act was signed into law in 1830 by President Andrew Jackson, many Native Americans faced forceful removal from their ancestral lands. In 1938 the Potawatomi were removed from their homes in the Great Lakes Region and marched South, an event now known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death. This splintered the tribe, with some fleeing before the march, some staying in Council Bluffs, Iowa (the Prairie Band), and some going to the area along the Marais de Cygnes River near Osawatomie, Kansas (the Citizen Band).

In 1846, Iowa earned its statehood resulting in a new surge of settlers moving west and government. The result was further Native displacement through a mixture of coercion and treaties. The Potawatomi once again moved to an unfamiliar land. The founding of Uniontown by government agents Richard Cummins and Alfred Vaughan in 1848 reflected a desire to trade with members of the Potawatomi Nation. A pay station was erected for the government to provide compensation promised in treaties, something that also created the potential for lucrative trade.

At its peak, the town boasted at least 300 residents and 60 buildings. As a trading post near a prominent river crossing along the Oregon-California Trail, and a place where Native people received their allotments and could conduct trade, Uniontown experienced a high level of traffic coming in and out of the town. There was a physician, two blacksmiths, a wagon maker, and gunsmiths.

In 1849 and 1850, a wave of disease rocked the town. Cholera killed and drove away the majority of the population. While rebuilding was attempted, there was another cholera outbreak in 1852. Historical records say as many as 22 to 33 Potawatomi were buried near the small cemetery in a mass grave. To halt the contagion, many of the structures of Uniontown were abandoned, and some were intentionally burned to the ground. Uniontown officially became a ghost town of Kansas when the pay station was torn down in 1858.

While the cholera outbreak and closing of the pay station were significant factors in the fall of Uniontown, there were a variety of other pressures which also contributed. When Kansas officially became a US territory in May of 1854, there was little effort by the government to defend the land given to Native Americans from encroaching settlers. Potawatomi had little incentive to stay in Uniontown, and trade with western-moving settlers was short-lived.

Recent collaborations between the Kansas Geological Survey and Citizen Potawatomi Nation have resulted in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and magnetics surveying of the area. The results of these non-invasive survey methods are still preliminary but have resulted in new areas of interest for further investigation.

After Uniontown was abandoned, the Green family came to live on the land that once held the town. They built a house in 1877, and their graves make up the Green Family Cemetery under the trees adjacent to the field that holds the Uniontown Cemetery. The two cemeteries lie near the Green Memorial Wildlife Area, a small nature park with trails. In the park, visitors can see the remnants of farming equipment from the Green Family, Post Creek, and a marker for the Oregon-California Trails.

Sources

Boursaw, Jon. The Flint Hills: A Major Chapter in Potawatomi Migration. Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal. p.28 - 37. Published 2011.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Remembering Uniontown, Citizen Potawatomi Nation. October 3rd, 2018. Accessed May 2023. https://www.potawatomi.org/blog/2018/10/03/remembering-uniontown/.

Ellis, Tom. Uniontown and Plowboy - Potawatomi Ghost Towns: Enigmas of the Oregon-California Trail. Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains, vol. 37, no. 4 p.210 - 225. Published Winter 2014-2015.

Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks. Green Wildlife Area, Kansas Outdoors. Accessed May 2023. https://ksoutdoors.com/KDWP-Info/Locations/Wildlife-Areas/Northeast/Green.

Kansas Historical Society. Uniontown, Kansapedia. July 2017. Accessed May 2023. https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/uniontown/12228.

Schneider, Blair B., Jon Boursaw, Scott Holzmeister, and Erik Knippel. Geophysical Investigations at Uniontown Cemetery, Shawnee County, Kansas, USA. First International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy Expanded Abstracts. p.3260 - 3264. Published September 1st, 2021.

Yoho, Carol. Union Town, Potawatomi Cemetery, Washburn University: Acme E-Media Archive. May 2008. Accessed May 2023. https://www.washburn.edu/cas/art/cyoho/archive/AroundTopeka/UnionTown/index.html.

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