Tombestone Tuesday--White Cloud Cemetery (AKA Prospect Hill Cemetery)

 I must admit that the first time I saw the name Prospect Hill Cemetery, my mind flashed back to to Old West and images of Boot Hill.  But if you look closely at the name over the door of the utility building, the alternate name for White Cloud Cemetery is indeed Prospect Hill Cemetery 

 White Cloud Cemetery is a large and well maintained cemetery on the western end of White Cloud, the county seat of Newaygo county.  It is near the high school and on the main road through and out of town if you area heading west.  Since it is a fairly large cemetery, (and since I only have one cemetery left in Newaygo County after this) I will do as I did with Maple Grove and split it into a couple weeks.  This week I will give more of an overview, with a look at specific stones next week.

White Cloud Cemetery is wide open, with a lovely rail fence and towering trees.  Oak mostly,

 The stones are also varied, both old and new, in neat rows: tall and short, massive and small.

 Some of the stones are very similar, as with these two above.  Nearly identical except for the names, both have a finger pointing to heaven.  They each have the same etching draped around the top of the symbol, but you can see the the longer name is in a curved section and the shorter one is in a small straight section.

You can see above the drive that separates the older section on the left with the large shady trees, from the newer section on the right.  Surprisingly though, there are still quite a few trees in the newer section.  And as you can see, not all the graves on the newer side are that new.  There is a fine obelisk shaped monument in the foreground, as well as some farther back.

Here is one more overview of the cemetery.  In the background by the sign and past the road, is St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery that extends up the hill.
Next week, I promise we will look at individual stones, and then after that, our last stop in the list of Newaygo County Cemeteries.