“
Michigan Spirit Quest”
The MICHIGAN SPIRIT QUEST
series of
geocaches will take you to a number of
historic cemeteries built by MICHIGAN Pioneers.
Free Church
Cemetery is owned by
Superior Township and is at the SW corner of Ford &
Gotfredson Roads in Section
14. After the First Free
Church of Michigan was built there in 1855, the settlement
was renamed Free Church, although little evidence of it
remains today.
Burials go back
to 1825, the last one occurring in 1952. A listing of those buried
can be found here
and
here. When Ford Road (M-153) was widened back in 1934 several
burials in the cemetery had to be relocated. At that time the
church was also demolished. Colonel John Brewer purchased land in
Section 12 in 1826 from the federal government, established the
Superior Post Office in 1838, was the Superior Township supervisor
in 1848 and 1849, a justice on the township board in 1852, and
again the township supervisor in 1858. He died in 1870 and is
buried at Free Church Cemetery. According to geneology records he
was "killed by a horse" at the age of 70. He was one of the people
instrumental in building the Free Church. Prior to the building of
the church his home was evidently used for church services as it is
identified as a church on the Washtenaw County property owners map
of 1856. The nearby Brewer house was built in 1837 making it one of
the oldest structures in the township.