CACHE: UPDATED 3-5-18: No longer a park and grab. The road commission has closed this road until further notice. It's a muddy mess and not a priority. You will have to walk to the cache from one end or the other.
SQ stands for spirit quest, a designation often given to cemetery caches
HOW stands for House of Worship, often used for old churches
ME stands for Methodist Episcopal, used on old maps in the 1800's and early 1900's
HISTORY: There was a church on the southwest corner of Church and Brown City Roads. The only thing that remains is a set of steps in between the two houses here. They can be seen from the road, when the leaves are gone from the shrubs it's easier to notice them. The church was here prior to 1880 and after 1936. It held two known denominations, Methodist Episcopal and Methodist. I have not found photos of the church, but I'm going to assume it was a typical wood frame structure like the ones in Attica, Clifford or West Deerfield.
A map for Imlay Township in 1906 shows a cemetery here. I spoke with the landowner in the 1990's and he gave me a little bit of history handed down to him from his father. Henry Bechtel's wife and daughter had died and they were buried here next to the church, with the church having intentions of creating a burial ground. Bechtel was a property owner who had donated the land. The current owner said that his father told him they were buried not far from the road where that day lilac shrubs were growing. Their land records even include a mention of the burials, but not in details. An obituary for the wife confirmed being "buried on the home farm", which at the time was next to the church. The daughter was an infant.