Save The Headstones

We’re still cooking the feast!

Beginning April 15 2026, we will begin accepting adoption donations using this page – we’re still working out some details.

Until then, please feel free to contact us at oakhill@pinegrovewisner.org for any questions OR if you’d like to save a headstone before then.

Thanks so much for your patience.

Like any historic cemetery, Oak Hill has monuments or gravesites in need of restoration.

The Save The Headstones project lets you contribute to our efforts to repair or restore specific headstones, gravesites or lots in the cemetery.

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 are in the historic sections of the cemetery, and are people from all walks of life. They 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.

A Before and After:

Corporal Tenadore Miller, 8th Michigan Infantry (1844-1864). His monument was restored in 2025 after being adopted by Kevin Bellant.

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. Work will not begin on a monument until it is fully adoped.

When a monument is adopted, we will prepare a brief story about the life or lives of the people you’ve memorialized, and

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. And we’ll acknowledge your contribution in our Gazette and at our annual cemetery walk.

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.

The monuments we are offering for adoption are shown below, but we’re not quite ready to launch – look for adoption opportunities within the next two weeks.

If you want to get a jump on donating to this project, please contact us.

Are you interested in helping but don’t want to adopt a monument, you can donate here.

Name	Cost	Comments
Adam Vrooman West, Lot 1-027-1 p	$467.50	1824-1892 Possibly served in the Civil War.
Maria Brainard, Lot 1-027-2 p	$255.00	1814-1885 Nurse matron in the Civil War.
Captain William Albertson, Lot 1-076-6 p	$170.00	1811-1887 Served in the Civil War.
Reverend Joseph Frey, Lot 1-076-4 p	$425.00	Prominent early Christian missionary.
John Carter, Lot 2-1-156 p	Adopted	Formerly enslaved.
Eunice Bromley McCracken, Lot 1-141-4 p	$382.50
Robert “Old Bob” McCracken, Lot 1-141-3 p	Adopted
John H. McCracken, Lot 1-141-5 p	$382.50
The McCracken Lot 1-141 p	$1,190.00	Adopt all three monuments to the McCracken family.
Richard Hunt Whitehead, Lot 1-169-4 p	$425.00	Served in the Civil War.
Almeron and Mary Ann Whitehead, Lot 1-169-5 and 6 p	$510.00	Prominent early Waterford businessman.
Henry Scott, Lot 1-200-2	Adopted	Formerly enslaved
Laura Talbot Dwight, Lot 4-020-1 p	$340.00	Half sister to Evelina Drake. Part of the Drake lot.
Evelina Drake, Lot 4-020-4 p	$340.00	Wife of Thomas J Drake. Part of the Drake lot.
Judge Thomas J. Drake, Lot 4-020-5 p	$255.00	Prominent early Oakland County lawyer and politician. Served on the Utah Supreme Court and as Michigan’s third lieutenant governor.
The Drake Lot – Lot 4-020 p	$935.00	Adopt all three damaged monuments in this lot.
Walter Ash, Lot 4-192-2	$382.50
Jonathan Ash, Lot 4-192-3	$340.00	Served in the Civil War.
Nancy Bagley, Lot 4-204-1	$510.00
Elvira Bagley, Lot 4-204-4	$255.00
Judge Amasa Bagley. Lot 4-204-2	$340.00
James Carpenter, Lot 4-204-6	$340.00
Judah and Mary Colby Church, Lot 4-315-5 and 6	$510.00
Clarissa Bronson, Lot 4-355-1	$425.00
Luman Bronson, Lot 4-355-4	$382.50
Hannah Collier, Lot 4-370-1	$255.00
Eliza Collier, Lot 4-370-2	$255.00
Isadore Collier, Lot 4-370-5	$255.00
Jennie Collier, Lot 4-370-6	$255.00
Emma Leggett, Lot 4-447-5	$212.50
Percival Leggett, Lot 4-447-6	$340.00	Served in the Civil War.
1855 Stone – Part of the Leggett Lot	$425.00