RCA Photo of the Week - March 23, 2023

Today, I present a photo of a map that one can currently find on our Archives Catalog as part of the new digital Daughters of the American Revolution, Cannon Cemetery Collection.

It's a plat map of the Cannon Cemetery located in Washington Township, Michigan. It specifically highlights ground surrounding the octagonal Family Circle Monument. It was created in 1928 and revised in 1969 by Guy H. Cannon - a member of the same Cannon Family who are buried in said cemetery - for the Cannon Burying Ground Association.

The cemetery itself was established on August 23, 1872 by four sons and three grandsons of Pearl and Mary (Fuller) Cannon. Their purpose: “Having a proper regard for the care of the grounds containing the last resting place of our dead, and cherishing with tender solicitude their memory deeming it highly proper that our family and descendants, so far as practical should bury on common ground, we form ourselves an Association.”

In the mid-1870s, a Detroit, Michigan, architect was consulted as to the design of the cemetery. The suggestion was made for a family circle arrangement, similar to the one used in Gettysburg National Cemetery. There is also a memorial erected by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution located between the plots of Pearl and Mary (Fuller) Cannon in 1928. This marker informs people that Mary was a 'Real Daughter' of a Revolutionary War Soldier, Lt. Isaiah Fuller.

The Cannon Cemetery was bequeathed as an endowment to the Alexander Macomb Chapter. The chapter provides, in perpetuity, the supervision, maintenance, proper use, and care for the cemetery.

Images and Sources courtesy of Canon Burial Ground|Alexander Macomb Chapter, NSDAR website and Romeo Community Archives; Alexander Macomb Chapter NSDAR, Cannon Cemetery Collection, 1928 and 1969