1859 Old Cemetery

Yesterday's history lesson spoke about the new cemetery that was being created at the northeast corner of East Grand River and Cemetery Road. In 1884, it was known as Oakwood Cemetery. Before this time, though, another (or the original) cemetery was used by the residents of Fowlerville. It was located at the northeast corner of East Grand River and North Hibbard Street. If you look on the plat map, you will find Section 11 at the top of the map, at the center (note: this map has east at the top). The second map shows the layout of the cemetery. This is a hand-drawn map I found in a book compiled by Milton Charboneau, entitled Greenwood and Mount Olivet Cemeteries, Fowlerville, Michigan, published in 1985. In addition to the cemetery, of interest is a small notation at the bottom center of the map, "Toll H." Once the Plank Road was built, there were eight tollhouses located in Livingston County. It would appear this was the location of the one on the east side of Fowlerville. Reportedly, the west tollhouse was located at about where Gregory Road intersects with West Grand River. More information and pictures can be found in my book, The Fowlerville Chronicles.

As an additional note, by 1888, all of the remains must have been relocated to the new cemetery, as evidenced by a short article indicating, There will be a meeting at the old cemetery one week from tomorrow (Saturday) in the afternoon, purpose of for the cleaning it up. All interested are requested to be present.