Its oldest burials are veterans who served in the American Revolutionary War.

Woodland Cemetery was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site on July 21, 1988.

[3] Many of Monroe's earliest settlers, politicians, and war combatants are buried at Woodland Cemetery, including some of those that were killed during the Battle of Frenchtown in 1813.

[3] A notable burial plot belongs to the families of Monroe residents George Armstrong Custer and his wife Elizabeth Bacon Custer, although neither of those two are buried at Woodland Cemetery.

His younger brother, Boston Custer, and his nephew, Henry Armstrong Reed, are buried at Woodland Cemetery after having died alongside George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory on June 25, 1876.