History of the Romeo Cemetery

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for Monday August 3, 2026.

This weekend, I joined in a walk through the Romeo Cemetery, that was produced by the Romeo Historical Association, designed to make people more aware of the cemetery and its many historic graves. On the 8th day of August in 1842, about 1 1/2 areas of ground was purchased from Jonas Crisman and set apart for a burial place on the west line of the present village limits, on the north side of St Clair Street (32 Mile Road). The first burial in these grounds was that of the wife of Edwin W. Giddings, whose maiden name was Martha S Makepeace. Once established, the remains of soldiers and veterans from the Revolutionary and Civil War were interred along with those who fought in every war through the 20th century.

An earlier area for burials was located at the Romeo Driving Park on North Bailey Street and the remains were reinterred in the new location. As there are no records to be found on the management of this first resting place, the facts are partly from traditions pasted on over the years. The Romeo Cemetery Association was first incorporated on the 31st of July in 1858 for a term of 30 years.

The first addition to the burial grounds was added on the 21st of December in 1860, and this area was just north of the original grounds. With space once again becoming a necessity, 2 more acres were added just to the north of the first addition in 1887, this being known as the Second Addition. Another four acres were added in 1903. The old fences around the grounds and all added purchases over the years, were removed and along the front on St Clair Street and replace with an iron fence in 1905 and wire fencing on the east and west sides.

The Association history lists the names of the following officers of the society from it’s incorporation in 1858 to the year 1909 as: Presidents – John W Dyer, Edwin W Giddings, Timothy A Smith, Dr Watson Loud, John A Brewer, George G Hartung and Charles C Thorington. Vice-Presidents – John C Benjamin, James Gray, Edward S Snover, John Brewer, Moritmore P Owens, Isaac N Brabb and Edward C Newbury. New street names for the paths into the cemetery were all renamed after former members of the Association who served on the Cemetery Board. The cemetery was deeded over to the Village of Romeo by the Cemetery Association in 1861. The Association group would continue to re-incorporate the organization until 1918.

While researching these names and their historical homes, there is an odd sense of familiarity when walking through this peaceful and lovely cemetery and seeing this is where those same founding members who shaped the growth of this community, made this their finally resting place.

I would like to thank the Romeo Historical Association for all the help on the research being done to bring these founding members of the village to life on the written pages of this next book. On that ‘wee note’ till Monday September 7, 2026.

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Please if you haven’t already, enter your email address in the subscription form below to receive my blog by email on the first Monday of each month.

It might be time for number 8

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for July 6, 2026.

When I finished my last Arcadia book in the spring of 2025, the ‘Lighthouses of the Southern Atlantic Coast’, I felt I might have run my limit. Normally my time frame would be to start during the summer to work on the next book, then contract by fall with Arcadia Publishing. They give you six months to research and write your book, before you send it to them for editing and ultimately publishing it. I have done in the past, my research and writing during the fall and winter months. Then I am able to deliver the finish book to Arcadia by the early spring and it will be published by late summer, early fall. It has been the first time in 8 years, without having a book published, and I feel that I might have another book in me…….

About ten years ago, I volunteered at the Archive of the Romeo District Library to do some genealogical work on the people and historic homes in the Village of Romeo, to make up some files of information, to be used if a new home owner wanted to know the history of the home they live in. While making a set of files for the archives, I furthered the research and created a set of files for myself. Now I feel I could make good use of them, by doing another book for Arcadia’s ‘Images of America Series’, on the ‘Historic Homes of Romeo’. Most of these homes were built throughout the mid 1800’s and as early as 1830’s.

Above, the George E Dewey house on Church Street, has a story to tell………

The above image here, is the George Washington Brabb House on South Main Street in Romeo. And it has a story to tell……. and I am hoping I can tell the many stories of these homes and the people who created them.

I have been able to connect with the Romeo Historical Society, for help in acquiring images of the many houses, and as a resource, and they have kindly offered their help. So I might have answered my own question on whether or not to write another book, so might have found my topic. The images used in this blog, are the author’s.

On that ‘wee note’, till next month Monday August 3, 2026.

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Please if you haven’t already, enter your email address in the subscription form below to receive my blog by email on the first Monday of each month.

This is what comes next……

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for June 1, 2026.

In April’s blog I wrote about, ‘what comes next’. I might have found what actions needed to be taken, with the mound of paper work, binders of images and files in general, that I managed to create with each and every book that I had published. Just taking a step back for a moment, I found that when working with the more than 200 images you need to have per book, that knowing how many images, and where they would be placed could be very over whelming to work with and keep straight. I decided to make a ‘mock book’ in the form of binders, where page protecters were used for each page needed, and in those pages images could be places and moved around when necessary to give me a complete look as to what I would need and what I might still be missing. I was able to number my pages and then when my images were placed, numbered the images, something very important that Arcadia insists upon.

Next came the container of file folders that I managed to collect full of information, images, contact information for individuals that were involved with the making of the books. These file boxes would hold advertising images, and anything that connected to the book I had been working on. So now what do I do with all this material, for the books that had already been published, did it still have value, but to anyone else but me?

Having finished these books, and not sure if I will write another, my thoughts turned to, what do I do with all this material, that I had acquired? In talking with the librarian, Stacie, at the Community Archives of the Kezar Library in Romeo, I was saying that I wondered if the Macomb County Library in Mt Clemens would want the material from my first three local history books, with me giving the same material from my lighthouse books to the Lighthouse Association in Mackinac. She asked me, why wasn’t I giving the material to them? All of the seven books! I guess I hadn’t thought it had any value, except to myself, because it showed all the work and commitment I had put into each and every book. To say I was overwhelmed and honored would be an understatement. The collection would be listed under my own name, that in itself, being a very humbling experience.

So what was next? Putting these files and binders in a manageable order. So three containers down, only four more to go! Now what do I do with all the shelving that was used to store this material?

On that ‘wee note’ till next month, Monday July 6, 2026.

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Please, if you haven’t already, enter your email address in the subscription form below to receive my blog by email on the first Monday of each month.

‘A Little Taste of a Generous Gift’

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for May 4, 2026.

In 2017, I went to the Kezar Library in the village of Romeo, to inquire about doing research, for I had been researching my family history, for what would be now about 30 years. I was asked if I would be willing to do the genealogical research on the owners of the many Romeo historical homes in the village. It would be used when an inquiry might be made about who had lived in these homes before a present owner might have bought their home. I created files that the library could use, and found this research to be very interesting, while also ‘getting to know’ the subjects I was working on. They were stories about how this area and the village in general became the community that is thriving today.

One of these stories is about Samuel and Nancy Kezar, who originally came to the area from Turner, New York, where they built a home in the ‘Queen Anne’ style at 180 Church Street in 1894. Samuel would pass away in 1898. The Romeo Book Club and the Romeo Monday Club would organize the Romeo Public Library and be maintained by Nancy Kezar and her daughter in their home until 1908. Mrs. Kezar and her daughter eventual moved to the west coast. She would come into an inheritance and remember their time and life in Romeo, asking her agent to come up with a plan to give a free standing library building to the village of Romeo.

A well known architect named Henry Whitfield from New York created a design and local contractor Archibald H. Robertson would build the library according to a design, where the general appearance was to be ‘home like’ and imitate and ‘old English Inn’. For anyone having used this library, that was accomplished. A lot was secured on the corner of Church Street and North Main (Old Van Dyke Road). The deed contained a proviso that this gift would revert to the heirs of the Kezar’s if and when the property was no longer used for library purposes.

Original standing building

In 1911, the building was dedicated in a public ceremony, and a gift of a $1000 dollars worth of books from Henry Glover Stephens, a philanthropist and collector was added to the already 871 books in their collection. The library was to become then known as the Romeo Free Public Library. The library would acquire a new name in 1969 when the Romeo District Library was formed by a resolution of the Romeo village council, in conjunction with the Bruce and Washington Township Boards. With the village of Romeo sitting in both Washington and Bruce Townships, there would be two representatives from each entity. By 1970, it was realized that an addition would be needed that would triple the size of the structure, and a dedication ceremony would take place in March of 1971. A second branch of the library would be opened in 2001, from a generous donation from Roland and Kathleen Graubner, of land and called the Romeo District, Graubner Branch.

The Romeo Community Archives would open to the public in the lower level of the Kezar Branch in 2017, a home away from home for those of us interested in researching. It continues to expand its research abilities and now has the complete Romeo Observer Newspapers from the early 1870s, all digitized for easier access. If you are an obituary reader, you have never read an obituary until you have read the works of art that have been written all those years ago while documenting with a flair the lives of those that had passed way.

I want to thank the Kezar Community Archives for use of the documented material used here today. And on that ‘wee note’, till next month Monday, June 1, 2026.

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Please if you haven’t already, enter your email address in the subscription form below to receive my blog by email on the first Monday of each month.

After Writing… What comes next?

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Musings for April 6, 2026.

Having seven books published through Arcadia Publishing since 2019, this is the first winter I have gone through without a book pending publication, since then. I would usually become contracted during the fall months and work on the books during the winter months, and then submit the finished book in the spring, and sometime during the late summer to early fall Arcadia would bring it to publication at that point in time. A years worth of work between my time and their’s.

At this point, my thoughts turn to whether or not I want to further my writing, which I love doing, but I have to decide whether or not I want to deal with editors and the publishing company and the ‘fun’ that brings. Have had some thoughts on going back to the ‘Images of America’ series, as I worked on with my first three books. Whereas my four lighthouse books, were part of Arcadia’s Post Card Historical Series. So what comes next? More thought needed.

One of the ‘requirements’ that Arcadia likes their authors to participate is in book presentations. If you are not a comfortable public speaker, you need to learn to adapt at becoming comfortable in talking with an audience. That was a big learn for me! But if you believe in your subject and have the passion for what you have written it does become somewhat easier. And audiences are very understanding and just want to learn about your subject matter.

On Thursday March 26th, I gave a presentation at the Graubner branch of the Romeo District Library, that had first been slated for just before covid hit. It would be seven years till we could make up that canceled presentation night. But better late than never. So instead of covid we did have a major rain storm, but having done a presentation in the middle of a snow blizzard before, there was great hope nobody would mind getting a ‘wee bit’ wet. Other than the comedic fun of a microphone that was somewhat temperamental, and my voice not stretching to the back of the room, all went off very well. Talking to residents of Washington Township, about Washington Township, did create questions and it was very pleasing to see the interest.

A large Washington Township plot map showing, all the individuals who purchased the original land grants starting in 1827, usually brings great interest in people looking for where their residences are located in today’s time.

On that ‘wee note’ till next month Monday May 4th, 2026

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Please if you haven’t already, enter your email address in the subscription form below to receive my blog by email on the first Monday of each month.