Power of Place: Restoration
The Beyond the Headstones project preserves and restores two tangible links to our collective history. Following the War of 1812 and the establishment of Macomb County in 1818, migrants began arriving from the eastern states. These early settlers followed the Indian Trail road, which bisected Ray Township diagonally, on their way from Mt. Clemens to Indian Village, which became the Village of Romeo in 1838. Maps delineate the boundaries between the four northern Macomb County townships of Armada, Bruce, Ray, and Washington, with the Village of Romeo, however, residents have always been connected. The Procter and Romeo Cemeteries reflect the historical connections between our rural surroundings and life in the “city”.
History of Procter Cemetery
Procter Cemetery is a “country” cemetery prominently located on the busy 32 Mile Road in Ray Township and echoes the rural nature of our community. It is an extension of our community’s heritage together with the Ray Township Offices, once the 1871 Ray Union Church, and the Ray Township Public Library, originally the 1861 one-room Mill School named for the nearby Wolcott Mill.
Procter Cemetery is the final resting place for over 500 pioneers, community leaders, farmers, and businessmen, along with many of their families who lived in Ray Township and the surrounding communities. Once maintained by the Ray and Armada Branch Cemetery Society (as the cemetery is located in both townships), the Society’s name was changed to the Procter Cemetery Society on May 12, 1900 in honor of the Procter Family whose patriarch was General John L. Procter. The Cemetery was deeded to the Township of Ray in 1956.
The Procter Cemetery includes 130 family names, 22 veterans from the War of 1812, Civil War, WWI, and WWII, 18 Ray Township Officials, one State Representative, and three Masonic Lodge members. The ages of those buried range from one day (Rosannah Sutherland) to 100 years (Lydia Jewell). The first burial records the death of Emeline Bailey in 1828, the four-year-old daughter of Asahel and Cynthia Bailey who settled in Romeo In 1821.
The Beyond the Headstones project will continue the Restoration of the Procter Cemetery which began in 2016. This third phase will professionally restore at least five monuments, one granite companion stone, and forty-two marble. Depending on final costs, an additional fourteen tablets may also be restored. Under the supervision of the Romeo High School Machine Tools Trades Instructor, students will also design and reconstruct the deteriorating Procter Cemetery sign and gate that was erected in 1966.
History of Romeo Cemetery
Three miles east of the Procter Cemetery along 32 Mile (West St. Clair Street), the Romeo Cemetery rests within the historic Village of Romeo on its highest site with majestic trees and wandering pathways. The original section of the Cemetery, adjacent to the current Romeo Middle School, was established on one and a half acres purchased from Jonas Crisman on August 8, 1842. Martha S. Makepeace, the wife of Edwin W. Giddings, was the first recorded burial, although the remains from a nearby burial grounds were relocated to this area in the same year.
The Romeo Cemetery Association was incorporated on July 31, 1858 and deeded the burial grounds. By 1860 nearly all the lots were occupied and the Association purchased land to the north of the original grounds from Cordelia R Ames and Elizabeth B Dickinson known as the First Addition. More sections were added in 1887, 1895, and 1903 bringing the total to eleven acres.
The Beyond the Headstones project will initiate the Restoration of the Romeo Cemetery by professionally restoring five marble tablets and three monuments.
