Continued from The Monroe Buzz, featured the week of October 7, 2013
When you drive past them, cemeteries look like mere plots of land with squatty buildings and wrought iron fences. People visit them in grief, sometimes huddled in their coats or shielded by umbrellas. No matter the weather or time of day, cemeteries are places to bury the dead, nothing more and nothing less.
Right?
But cemeteries contain stories that, without inspection and introspection, become forgotten. Perhaps this doesn’t sound too devastating, but those stories are the chapters of a community’s history. They tell the sagas of great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, parents, and friends.
They tell the sagas of you.
Whether you do or don’t know the person whose last name springs from a bronze grave marker, you own their story because you are a part of the community. That individual might have once held a door for your ancestor or waged battle to preserve your freedom. He or she may have built a road you drive on or plowed the farmland behind your house.
The concept of community stories is a message the Friends of Potter Cemetery Association wants to impart on residents of Monroe. Potter Cemetery is itself full of narratives that, without the efforts of local residents Mark Armbruster and Sue Donovan paired with Dave Carter of Carter’s Cemetery Preservation, would never have been told. But today, restoration efforts have helped identify many of those buried in the village cemetery.
Eighty-four graves are already documented in the more than one-acre cemetery. An additional 35 spots have been marked by cadaver dogs from Michigan Search & Rescue as potential gravesites. In October, ground penetrating radar will hopefully reveal more information.
But for Mark, Sue and Dave, the number of graves is incidental. What matters is repairing and restoring the cemetery’s headstones so individuals and families who are buried there receive the respect they deserve. Mark Armbruster, president of Friends of Potter Cemetery, feels strongly about protecting village cemeteries.
“Families should care about the conditions of little cemeteries, regardless of how old those cemeteries are or how far away the families live. These monuments are the deceased’s last marks of being here on earth. Years ago, mementos were often lost to fire – photos, maps, family records. Families need to get more involved with these cemeteries to learn all they can about ancestors. There are thousands of these little places just in Michigan. They’re important.”
Part of Mark’s vehemence stems from having several of his own relatives buried in Potter Cemetery. Dave Carter shares this vision and, with a team from his preservation company, is taking each of the cemetery’s headstones and going through the painstaking process of leveling bases, cleaning and repairing markers and pulling them upright.
The first monument Dave fixed belonged to the Manor family. Thanks to a bank of research, including 15 years of work undertaken by Sue, we know that Frederick Manor was a soldier in the Civil War. His daughter Hazel died at one year old. And while such information doesn’t impact our day-to-day activities, it helps us to appreciate and understand the way of life that came before our own.
Roswell Flint was the first resident buried in Potter Cemetery in 1847. Thirteen years later, in 1860, Royal Potter – who lived on Swan Creek – and John Flint – whose parents are buried in Potter Cemetery – each deeded ½ acre of farmland to the cemetery. Their foresight and generosity are even today heralded, more than 150 years later, as clean-up efforts continue.
In addition to repairing broken and crumbling headstones, the Friends of Potter Cemetery Association has also cleared more than 80 trees and battled against plant growth and vegetation. The work is made even more cumbersome in inclement weather, and yet the group forges ahead. “We are so grateful to Dave Carter for what he’s done,” Mark says.
Beside physical labor, the task of handing down history has been accomplished. Royal entered the Civil War when he was 42 years old and later died in Libby Prison. He is now buried in a mass grave in Virginia. However, a stone is erected in his memory in Potter Cemetery, and both of his wives, his four children and his parents are all buried there.
But none of this information would be available to us if the Friends of Potter Cemetery Association did not insist on preserving the cemetery and each of its many stories.
If you would like to get involved with the Association, please email Sue Donovan at . You can also participate in the Adopt-a-Stone program for a minimum donation of $25. All monies go into the cemetery fund to continue preservation efforts. You will receive documentation on the person whose stone you adopt and can contribute additional monies at any time. More information on this program and the tasks being undertaken at Potter Cemetery is available at Facebook.com/FriendsofPotterCemeteryAssociation.
