Like any historic cemetery, Oak Hill has monuments or gravesites in need of restoration.
The Save The Headstone project lets you contribute to our efforts to repair or restore specific headstones, gravesites or lots. With your help, we can memorialize the people buried here by bringing their monuments back to good shape and by telling their stories.
These monuments or gravesites are in the historic sections of the cemetery, and these people came from all walks of life. Their gravesites are in various states of disrepair from small projects (such as re-standing a fallen stone into its socket) all the way to replacing a missing headstone.
We hope to begin work on these stones in the spring of 2026, with a goal of completing repairs by the fall, although scheduling may push repairs into 2027 or even further.
When you adopt a monument, you’ll be asked to make a one-time donation of any amount toward that repair. We ask that you donate the amount listed, but any amount will be accepted. Any funds remaining after the repair is completed will be used on other restoration projects.
When sufficient funds are available to make the repair, we’ll schedule it and prepare a brief story about the life or lives of the people you’ve memorialized, and we will acknowledge your contribution in our Gazette and at our annual cemetery walk (unless you choose to remain anonymous). When the repair is complete we will send you photographs of before and after the repair and a brief history of the person or people you’ve memorialized by repairing the monument.
Each listing below contains a current photograph of the damaged stone or area, an estimate of the cost of repair, and a brief outline of the information we know about the person or people interred in the gravesite.
There are also several lots – a group of gravesites related to a family – that need repair. The costs for these are naturally higher than for individual monuments. They’re an excellent opportunity to memorialize ancestors or people of like interests. Contact us for information about restoring an entire lot.
Using an 1841 map as a guide, here are the gravesites. There are six in Block 1 (top right), one in Block 2 (top left) and eight in Block 4 (bottom right). They’re listed below.
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Maria Brainard
1814-1885
Location 1-027
Elmina or Imina Maria Brainard was a nurse matron in the Civil War.
The top of Maria’s monument is broken off, but present.
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Adam Vrooman West
1824-1892
Location 1-027
Adam was a prominent building contractor in Pontiac.
Adam’s headstone is prone, just to the right of Maria’s monument.
He is listed here as part of the Maria Brainard lot.
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William Albertson
1811-1887
Location 1-076
Captain William Albertson served in the Civil War. He was an organizer of the 22nd Michigan Regiment, serving as the leader of Company A until the end of the war.
William’s headstone is prone, laying next to its base. |
Rev. Joseph Frey
1771-1850
Location 1-076
Reverend Joseph C.F. Frey was William Albertson’s father-in-law. He was a well known missionary for the Christian faith after converting from Judaism early in his life.
Rev. Frey’s headstone is broken, with the top half of the stone laying prone in front of the lower half, which is still standing.
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The McCracken Lot, Location 1-141
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McCracken Lot
Location 1-141
There are six burials in this lot. Three are in need of repair.
This lot is an excellent opportunity to restore all of the damaged stones. |
Robert McCracken Jr.
1777-1840
“Old Bob McCracken the Poet” was a broom and basket maker. He owned a farm in Waterford until 1837. He was known in the area as a poet, and had published two small volumes of his work. |
Eunice McCracken
1793-1835
Eunice is Robert McCracken’s wife and the mother of sons Stephen Bromley McCracken and John McCracken. She died at 41 or 42 years old. |
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Lieutenant Robert McCracken
1736-1777
Private Robert McCracken was a Revolutionary War soldier who died while serving in Pennsylvania. This stone is a cenotaph placed here by his wife, Eunice. |
Stephen Bromley McCracken
1824-1902
Stephen was born in Waterford, and after receiving an education here became a newspaper publisher in Ann Arbor, where he worked for over twenty years.
On his death, he was cremated and his ashes interred in the family plot in Oak Hill. |
Mary McCracken Coffin
1849-1908
Mary Coffin was the daughter of Stephen Bromley McKracken. She was a prominent Detroit attorney. She died by suicide and was cremated – her ashes were scattered.
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