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note: The Detroit News recently began charging to view their archives. I purchased this article off their site so that others could read it too. Below is an exact copy of the article that appeared in the Detroit News.
Efforts made to save old family cemeteries
Graveyard battles erupt as neighbors encroach, claim land
The Detroit News - September 3, 2000
By: David Josar
GROSSE ILE -- William Rucker was stunned when he saw how neighbors treated the Grosse Ile Cemetery, a private graveyard where his family is buried along a crook of River Road on the island's west side.
Decades-old lilac and black walnut trees, some planted by Rucker's father, were chopped down in April. Flowers that skirted the iron fence were pulled and headstones were moved. Overall, 95 percent of the foliage was removed.
"My heart was broken," Rucker, 52, told Grosse Ile police after discovering property owners adjacent to the small plot cut back the trees. "This was in my family for years."
Rucker's battle over a family cemetery has become an increasingly common fight in Michigan as tiny, old graveyards, in once-open, easily accessible farmland are now bordered by residential and commercial development.
Family members now may be denied access across private property to get to cemeteries, and that land that they once thought they owned is in the hands of private developers. Some graves have been moved or simply paved over.
Wayne Circuit Judge Paul Terranes ordered adjacent property owners to keep off the tiny Grosse Ile site, studded with tombstones that date to 1788, until a lawsuit filed by Rucker, a cemetery trustee, is resolved.
In Rucker's case, according to court filings, neighbors are asserting ownership claims to the land and say they have plans for the family burial plot.
The cemetery, still slightly overgrown, is sandwiched between two homes that are worth more than $500,000, according to Wayne County assessment records. Rucker wants more than $25,000 in damages for trespassing and emotional distress.
Development rules
The neighbors and their attorney, Richard Eagal, did not return calls seeking comment. However Esther Hayes, who lives about a mile down the road, said the cemetery is neater now that the lilacs and other trees have been cut.
"It always looked unruly. It's much better now," she said.
The migration of people and businesses into rural areas is a prime factor in cemetery land battles.
"Development is squeezing everything out," said William Spurlock, a former Pontiac resident who runs the Saving Graves Web site.
Spurlock, a Web page designer now living outside Atlanta, created Saving Graves in March to report on cemetery preservation efforts across the nation and in several other countries.
The site at www.savinggraves.com gets about three postings a day concerning endangered graveyards. There are links to historical societies and other groups, such as those that preserve graves of military veterans.
"People can't get access to cemeteries in many cases. They show up one year and what used to be open farmland and a dirt road is suddenly a new house and a private, paved road," he said.
There are few laws that regulate access and ownership of cemeteries, Spurlock said. "There is very little on the books that address the rights of people who have family buried there."
Endangered sites
In Michigan, the state Department of Consumer and Industry Services regulates cemeteries -- but checks only that customers are treated fairly and that the graveyards are fiscally stable. Because most of the endangered cemeteries were dug years before the state began regulating the industry, they aren't impacted by newer laws.
No private or public agency keeps statistics on how many cemeteries in Michigan are in danger of disappearing. But on Saving Graves, three Michigan cemeteries are listed as threatened, and that doesn't include the Grosse Ile graveyard.
In Livingston County, residents are banding together to preserve the Old Brighton Village Cemetery.
At one time, it had been on private property next to a downtown church, but through land transfers, deaths and foreclosures for unpaid taxes, the cemetery, with about 100 graves dating to the 1800s, has reverted to city ownership.
In recent years, Brighton has used the cemetery as a staging ground for heavy trucks working on local construction projects. Headstones have been destroyed and visitation hours curtailed.
"Our heritage, our links to the past are slowly fading," said Lori Darrow, who is drumming up support to preserve the cemetery and posted information on the graveyard on the Web site.
Blackmar conceded that the cemetery behind St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Brighton is rundown.
"It's a mess, but I don't know what else we can do," David Blackmar, assistant director of public works for Brighton said. "The cemetery is full and there isn't a perpetual-care fund to pay for upkeep."
Blackmar said he has a two-man crew to cut grass and weeds on the city's 60 acres of land, and Old Brighton Village Cemetery isn't a priority.
Limits put on volunteers
Darrow is dismayed that state laws don't protect such sites.
For example, her great-grandfather was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Leelanau until the graves were moved to make way for new construction. Her great-grandfather's headstone was lost.
"This happens all the time," she said. "Companies decided that they need the property, cities decide they need to expand and the graves are moved. Many caskets are displaced, disregarded and it's just wrong."
One day a month, the Friends of Potter Cemetery descend upon the graveyard in Ash Township, Monroe County, just off I-75, to chop weeds, cut grass and resurrect overturned tombstones.
The volunteers would come more often, but they have been limited to just once a month because the property is landlocked by private owners.
"It's very frustrating," said Sue Donovan of the Friends of Potter Cemetery. "We get out once a month to try and clean it up best we can. It's been neglected for 60 years."
Potter Cemetery was founded in June 1860 when Royal L. Potter deeded part of his farm to the Swan Creek Cemetery Co. The last burial was in 1930. The cemetery has about 80 graves.
In the 1940s, private owners started buying property around the graveyard. Now a private, paved road and four new homes block access to the half-acre cemetery.
Dispute takes toll
So far, the Friends of Potter Cemetery, founded by Mark Armbruster, the great-great-nephew of Royal Potter, have been unable to find any record of an easement -- a legal right to cross private property like those given to utilities -- to allow family visits to the site. The group is raising money to do a property search and hire a lawyer to help gain easements.
For now, Rucker's struggle over his family cemetery is at a standstill. He has not torn out the plants the cemetery's neighbors have planted, but the dispute has already taken a toll.
In the spring, his mother died. But after the problems with her husband's grave site in the Grosse Ile Cemetery, she left a request that she be buried someplace else.
After neighbors "chopped down, hacked, trimmed, cut trees and bushes in the cemetery," according to records filed by Rucker's attorney John Stevenson, "Mrs. Rucker reluctantly changed her burial intentions and decided not to be buried in the family cemetery.''
A hearing is scheduled in the case for early October.
Not resting in peace
These are among Michigan cemeteries that are endangered because of lack of care or lack of access:
* Livingston County: Old Brighton Village Cemetery, St. Paul Street, Brighton. About 100 graves date to the 1800s.
* Oscoda County: Mooney-McCollum Lake Cemetery, Comins Township. About 30 graves date to the early 1900s. The cemetery is about to be destroyed by developers.
* Monroe County: Potter Cemetery, Ash Township. There are about 100 graves, although people continue to find more as they try to preserve the cemetery. The oldest grave is from April 1847. The cemetery is landlocked by private property with no public access.
On Grosse Ile, William Rucker's battle over a family cemetery has become an increasingly common fight in Michigan as old graveyards, in once-open, accessible farmland are now bordered by residential and commercial development.
Family members may be denied access across private property to get to cemeteries. Adjacent property owners were ordered to keep off the tiny Grosse Ile site until a lawsuit filed by Rucker, a cemetery trustee, is resolved.
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