Southfield Cemetery

Thaddeus Griswold sold several parcels of his farm to settlers who used the land for burial grounds. In 1847 these “proprietors” donated the land to the board of health which established a township cemetery. The most heroic figure memorialized here is Harry J. Brooks, a test pilot for the Ford Motor Company, who, in 1928, set a world distance record while flying the “Ford flivver.” On the return flight he crashed into the Atlantic. His remains were never found, but a headstone marks his place in the Brooks family plot.