|
♦Township Cemetery♦
Cemetery Sexton: Ron McDaniels 517-819-2833
|
|
DANBY CEMETERY SOCIETY
Founded 1921
One Wednesday in October of 1921, a group of determined women of the Frost neighborhood met at the Will Fishell home at Frost corners and organized the Danby Township Cemetery Society.
The first officers were:
President - Effie Fishell
Secretary - Tina Phillips
Treasurer - Bertha Culver
Those along with: Clara B., Nell Peake, Ella Rice, Hattie Graft and Lylia Smith. Eight in all.
A charter was written and approved at a later date. The society grew by leaps and bounds and in time there were close to 100 members. (Dues 1.00 per year). Very few graves since 1921 would be missed if we had an emblem for membership.
On Armistice Day of 1922, the first chicken dinner was served and proved to be a large success. Each year it was served on the Saturday nearest to November 11th.
The society was divided into five groups. Each with a chairman. Sebewa, Compton, Abbey, Mulliken and Portland.
Each chairman was responsible for a booth of saleable articles.
When the society and the town board started working, several of the oldest pine trees were dead or dying and it was thought best to cut them down. That caused a commotion. Later the hedge had to be taken out from the north and west side. That caused another storm. This time the cemetery was ruined.
My Grandfather Conkrite and family came to Michigan in 1836 and took up a section of land. He gave the land for the cemetery before selling to the Peake and Rice families and moved to the Compton neighborhood. In 1837, a daughter, Martha, who was burned in a brush fire, is presumed to be one of the first buried in the cemetery. One hundred thirty three years later, I am writing this as history.
The society was mentioned in the Wills of Lucenda Pennfield and Carrie Lyon. The well and water system and the pump house were completed in 1929. A new tool house was also built. When the Charlotte Hwy. was black topped a new drive was made into the cemetery. The brick pillars were built and the archway was built in memory of Grace Deatsman who gave money to the cemetery after being active to the society. The archway had been used over the old drive. The boulevard was planted with shrubs and the maple trees were set.
The Danby Literacy Club planted the trees in the triangle outside the cemetery in memory of our World War I boys. Later the marker was moved into the cemetery and the flag pole put beside it. In 1923 the first memorial service was held for the Boys in Blue ? 1861, Spanish American War -1898, World War I ? 1917 and World War II ? 1941. Also the Korean conflict, Vietnam and Cambodia later were remembered.
It is for us, the living, to be dedicated to the unfinished task so ably advanced that those dead who gave their last free measure of devotion, shall not have died in vein and that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and the government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. In 1971 the society was fifty years old.
Fern Conkrite
May 31, 1970
|
|
