SQ - Old Wayne Cemetery Multi-Cache
Hidden : 12/17/2014
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

This is a TWO-stage multi and should take you less than 30 minutes to complete.







The "SQ" in the name of the Geocache is to
designate this as a "Spirit Quest" cache.

The series was started in NorthWest Ohio and It has since expanded across the United States and into Canada as well and is designed to differentiate the listing to have more meaning and give time to pause, and reflect on things. Most "SQ" caches are in Cemeteries and/or memorial gardens and are many times limited access by time-of-day or posted-hours. Michigan rules are sun-up to sun-down for cemeteries unless otherwise posted.

Please be respectful of the area and take time to reflect back on the
lives of those that have gone-before us...
and their contributions to life and society as we know it today.

Thank You.




SQ Old Wayne Cemetery

(aka Michigan Ave. Cemetery, or Derby Cemetery)



The Old Wayne Cemetery (aka Michigan Ave. Cemetery, or Derby Cemetery) is located here on Michigan Avenue, west of Wayne Road, in the city of Wayne, Michigan. It is currently inactive, however, has Wayne Historical markers at it's gate. The site of the cemetery itself has been remodeled, with new steps, iron fence, and cement planters.  The stones however probably didn't have much protection, years ago, as many of them are broken and worn, or completely missing.  Today, there are several pine trees that cover the grounds, so there is some sheilding from the elements for what is still here.

There are a few stones, that are worn or broken that were also not readable when a team that was documenting what was here collected their stone readings...unfortuneately, this information may have been lost forever, unless family members make available the missing dates.

The cemetery may not be as large as some in the area, but it does have a great amount of local history associated with it.  Many folks come to visit the nearby State-Wayne theatre, or have driven past here on their way to somewhere else, and probably not given too-much thought to what is here, or more appropriately, who is here and their contributions to the growth of the local area.



Ezra Derby

Pioneers Ezra and Sally Derby had come to the area from Massachusetts after being married in 1826.  Ezra was a surveyor and it's presumed that he was here to assist with the surveying of the newly-formed State of Michigan.

The Derbys settled here when they purchased land from the orphans of George M. Simmons.  Simmons was the owner and proprietor of a log tavern that he'd built in 1824 during the early days of Wayne.  He would later be known as the first and only man to ever be sentenced to the death penalty by hanging in the State of Michigan because he had killed his wife in a drunken rage. The hanging took place in Detroit.

Ezra Derby is the man credited with building the early village here and he started a saw mill, built a blacksmith shop and was appointed the Justice of the Peace in 1834.  His wife Sally passed away that same year, and he buried her in the eastern section section of a piece of his land.  Mr. Derby’s town plat, 15 lots and the burial plot, was recorded in 1835 and Ezra donated the burial plot to the fledgling community to preserve his wife’s resting place and for future burial needs.   The community would become known as Derby’s Corner.


Ezra Derby's marker

Most folks who lived during this time period led very difficult lives.  The women were expected to marry, take care of the home and bear as many children as possible.  Though their husbands were the bread winners and received public recognition and acclaim for their endeavors, it was the women who were the backbone of the community.  In bearing many children to help with the farm and daily living duties, women put their lives in jeopardy.  Pregnancy and childbirth could be a harrowing experience in the 1800’s.  Even if mother and child survived the rigors of the birthing process, raising children to maturity was fraught with the perils of disease and accident.

After Ezra Derby buried his first wife Sally, he would go-on to marry four more times.  His second wife, Harriet Hawley Collins, was a widow with two sons, Ira and Giles.  All three of them were buried in the Derby plot in Old Wayne Cemetery.  His third wife, Hannah Smith, was a widow who resided two households away from the Derby family in 1850. She was buried in the cemetery after her death in 1856.  Henry Derby, son of Ezra and Sally, died in 1866 and is buried near the eastern edge of the cemetery outside of the family plot.  Ezra Derby eventually passed-away in 1877 at the age of 74 and was buried with his first three wives.


Sally Derby marker

In Ezra's lifetime, he witnessed his settlement go from the sawmill that he'd built to a small village, renamed to Wayne in honor of General Anthony Wayne.  The incorporation of the village took place on April 12, 1869.

Other noted burials here include Eliza P. Corlett who died within three weeks of giving birth to her daughter Eliza.  Due to the harsh nature of the time, the infant died at the age of one month and 15 days.  Patricia Rose Smith Knickerbocker, wife of Richard Washington Knickerbocker, survived one week after giving birth to son Richard, who passed three days before her.  Grave stones in the Old Wayne Cemetery mark these sad events.

Between 1837 and 1844, Obadiah and Laura McBain buried four children who did not live to see their first birthday.  Sophia Low and her husband Fredrick buried five children during the last two weeks of August in 1865.

The cemetery tombstones and grave markers display and reflect the great number of deaths of men, women and children at very young ages.   While modern medicine and better diets have increased the life expectancy for people today, there were a number of people buried in our Old Wayne Cemetery who did live well into their 90's on this earth.




Even though life was hard and often tragic for folks, especially women, of that time period, there were bright spots and happy times.  Women were beginning to become a part of the community and its workings. 

In 1830, a small log school was built to provide schooling to the few children in the area.

Cornelia Hawley, sister of William Hawley and Harriet Derby, was the first teacher of this school and never married.  She passed away at the age of 91, in 1893.  Sarah Perrin Morrison and Sarah Myers Houston were instrumental in getting a chapel for religious services for the inmates at Eloise Sanitarium.  Margaret Barnard followed her husband Charles as Postmaster in 1874.  Fanny and Loren Doolittle’s daughter Susan was a prominent photographer in the Wayne area from the late 1890’s through the 1930’s.

Other early settlers who lived into their nineties were Laney Brockway (1768 – 1860) from Connecticut, Hannah Bogardus (1803 – 1897) from New York, and Charlotte (Hall) Alexander, a doctor’s wife, born in 1825 and died in 1915. The Wayne area was a melting pot of settlers who were born in many eastern states such as New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine.

Some settlers came from as nearby as Ohio and Detroit.  Mitchell Raymo was born in Detroit in 1813 and is buried in the Old Wayne Cemetery.  His family tree can be traced back to France in 1630’s and his ancestors first settled in Montreal, Quebec.  Early Wayne settlers were truly a mix of people from all over and the proof was in their names, and the ideas and talents that they brought with them.


Wayne welcomed many immigrants from Europe who pursued new lives in this growing community.  Some came from England like Henry Stokes, an English sailor who settled in our area in 1840 and became a farmer. 

Ireland was the birth country of many Wayne area citizens such as the Crawfords, McKillops and the Killens. 

The Scots were well represented in Wayne with Dr. Thomas Morrison who settled here in 1861 and James Dawson who came to Wayne in 1840.  Also, Robert and Isobelle Hosie lived in Wayne by the 1860’s.  They were the parents of James Hosie who founded the Standard Bank and was a city councilman in 1900.    

Jean Beeman, wife of Archibald Beeman, was born in Scotland in 1813, immigrated to the United States, bore 9 children, and lived in Nankin Township until she passed away in 1906.

Beeman marker

A number of families came from Germany such as the Schaible’s, Sawslayer’s, Schrader’s, Buhrer’s and Muller’s.  Some of the old tombstones hold epitaphs written to memorialize loved ones and were all written in German. 

The last burial at the cemetery took place in 1916 when John Frank was laid to rest with his parents and brother and the cemetery would shortly be closed by the City Council of Wayne a couple of years later in 1918.



In 1971, over five decades after the last burial, the fences were repainted and the brick pillars facing south to Michigan Avenue were erected before a ceremony for the dedication of the Michigan Historical Marker which stands guard over the cemetery today.

Many of the names of these people who lived in this small (then rural) community long ago can be found on the tombstones in the cemetery today.  The men, women and children who lie here have stories to tell and those stories live on in the form of the tombstones and other history that is still available to those that wish to learn about it.

As you walk through this, or any cemetery, you can learn a great deal by reading the names, dates, and epitaphs written on the gravestones contained within.   Many times, the epitaph is the phrase that is the "final word" on a persons life, mostly given by those that knew them.  It can be something simple like "Gone Home" or something much more complex like verses from the Bible or other known texts to comfort family and friends.  It can be as common as “Gone but not forgotten” or “At Rest,” or it can be an original phrase that the deceased chose during his life as a representation of his life, personality, and served as an eternal remembrance to the passerby.
Sometimes the most simple and straightforward can be the most heartfelt.  Michael Schaible’s family noted that “We miss him at home.”  And the parents of John M. Snyder, who died at 3 years and 4 months, simply told the world that “We loved him.”


The most original and personal epitaph in the
Old Wayne Cemetery is that of John Tinkham:
“John Tinkham is my name,
America is my nation,
Michigan is my dwelling place,
And Christ is my salvation.”





This cache is here to remind us of those stories and the folks that
made this community what it was...and helped create what it is...

...today.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ynoryrq gura n svany pbagnvare

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


Attributes

No attributes available

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