Stony Creek Cemetery / Stony Creek Cemetery

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. 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 surgeons; and her niece 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.