Where Do We Park?

Stony Creek Cemetery 

Date Visited:  July 21, 2019

Stop:  #24

A trip to an historical village would not be complete without a trip to its cemetery, which was exactly our next stop on our historical tour of Stony Creek Village.  Surprisingly, the cemetery was actually quite a distance away – nearly a mile away from the schoolhouse. Looking at a map, however, one can imagine that the inhabitants of Stony Creek Village probably made the trek to the cemetery by way of the Old Romeo Road (which is now a foot trail), which reduced the distance to 0.6 miles from the schoolhouse.  In any event, we headed westward on Tienken Road to Letica Drive, and then headed south for about 0.38 miles. The cemetery is on the east side of Letica Drive, at the top of a hill, and just before you get to Romeo Street. The challenging part about accessing the cemetery is that it is closed off and there is no parking. Based on my observations, there are a couple of options – park on Moran Drive or Krista Court (north of the cemetery and a walk of about 750 feet), or park at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (southwest of the cemetery on Romeo Street and a walk of about 0.32 miles), or try to park in the very small drive at the site of the historical marker (preferred, but I struggled to get my Suburban to fit in the space without my rear bumper sticking out into Letica Drive).

The historical marker is a two-sided sign located at the northern gate to the cemetery.  Both sides are titled Stony Creek Cemetery, but the cemetery is now referred to as “Stoney” Creek Cemetery (check out the sign that spans the southern entrance to the cemetery - see photo below).  The “frontside” of the sign provides a little history about the cemetery. It mentions that Nathaniel and Sally Millerd donated 1.7 acres of this land in 1839 to serve “forever” as a burying ground for the public.  Nathaniel was a very prominant person in his time – he built a grist mill in Stony Creek Village in 1824, operated a general store, and ran a Post Office out of his home. He also served as Oakland County’s second probate judge.  Both Nathaniel and Sally are buried in this cemetery. The sign also mentions that the Stony Creek Masonic Lodge No. 5 (see my Stop #21 blog for more info about this Lodge) owned the cemetery from 1924 until 1981. The cornerstone from the original Lodge resides as part of a monument that is located in the cemetery.

The backside of the marker focuses on the important historical figures that are buried in the cemetery.  The first person buried here was Michael Van Wagoner Sr. in 1825. You won’t find his grave because it is unmarked, but the historical marker will tell you that a monument was erected in his honor in 1978.  Also buried here are:

1. Lemuel and Sarah Taylor (referenced in my Stop #22 blog)
2. Lemuel and Sarah’s son, Joshua, who participated in drafting Michigan´s constitution in 1836
3. Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen (referenced in my Stop #22 blog)
4. Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones (Bertha’s niece, and also referenced in the same Stop #22 blog)

The last burial took place here in 2017.

It would have been fascinating to walk around the cemetery looking for these important historical people, but the north gate was locked, and none of us thought to walk down to the south gate and check if it was open.  So, we loaded up and headed to downtown Rochester to hit our next targeted historical marker.

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