Stony Creek Cemetery

Stony Creek Cemetery. . , Side 1 , The first burial here occurred in 1825 for Michael Van Wagoner Sr. His grave remains unmarked; however, in 1978 a monument was erected in his honor. Some of the township's most illustrious residents are buried here: Stony Creek Village's first settlers, Lemuel and Sarah Taylor; their son Joshua, who participated in drafting Michigan's constitution in 1836; Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, one of Michigan's first female sugeons; and her neice Dr. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones, an animal geneticist who by 1933 transformed her family farm into a prize-winning dairy farm and bull breeding facility. The cemetery, later named "Stoney" Creek, displays an array of headstone styles popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. , , Side 2 , Stony Creek Cemetery contains the graves of some of Avon Township's most important pioneers. Nathaniel and Sally Millerd, who in 1839 sold 1.7 acres of this land with the understanding that it would be "forever used as a public burying ground," are buried here. Nathaniel Millerd had built a gristmill in 1824 and operated a general store and the Stony Creek Post Office out of his home. He also served as Oakland County's second probate judge. The Stony Creek Masonic Lodge No. 5 owned the cemetery from 1924 until 1981. A monument erected in 1929 pays tribute to the lodge , the only one in Michigan to hold meetings throughout the anti-Masonic fervor that lasted from 1826 to 1844.