Deb Malewski
Contributing Writer

(Photo by Deb Malewski/FAN- Robin Webb has spent more than a year and a half with her Eaton Rapids’ team cataloging Rosehill Cemetery and uncovering some of the history buried there.)

Robin Webb probably didn’t realize the scope of what lay ahead when she became Eaton Rapids City Clerk in the fall of 2023.

She almost immediately launched into a 93-week deep dive through history, headstones, and handwritten ledgers at Rosehill Cemetery, the city-owned burial ground on West Street, documenting which plots are occupied and which remain available.

Webb and her team have now inventoried more than 12,850 graves. A part-time temporary assistant, Liz Titus-Hunter, was hired by the city to help with the monumental task, making numerous visits to Rosehill and spending countless hours entering data into the system. Leigh Tyler, the city’s finance specialist, also assisted with the project.

“It’s been a challenge to enter it all, but it will be very handy when it’s up and running,” Tyler said.

The project marks the first comprehensive cemetery inventory in the city’s history. It modernizes records for future planning, streamlines the sale of burial spaces, preserves long-neglected information, and improves public access for genealogical research.

City clerks oversee public records, elections, and administrative operations that keep a city running smoothly, including maintaining cemetery records. 

The job requires precision, organization, and the ability to manage countless moving parts at once. For Webb, a former accountant, the cemetery challenge proved surprisingly satisfying, as she enjoys working with numbers and organizing things.

The project required countless trips to Rosehill and paging through the city’s oldest burial records. Some of the earliest entries are preserved in fragile ledger books, their ink faded with time, but still telling their stories. Headstones also posed challenges, as many older markers are now difficult or impossible to read.

The project also revealed the large number of graves that were relocated to Rosehill in 1874 from an earlier cemetery located at what is now Howe Field. The original burial ground sat close to the Grand River and was prone to flooding, making the move necessary. 

According to local historian W. Scott Munn, author of “The Only Eaton Rapids on Earth,” families were responsible for moving their own loved ones, and not all did so carefully.

“I’m just thrilled to be so close to finishing this project,” Webb said with a smile. “I can’t wait to see it in action, and I’m looking forward to printing a new cemetery map for my wall.”

The current map, measuring approximately seven feet by four feet, was found rolled up in storage at City Hall.

As records were updated, the area long referred to as “Babyland,” where many of the city’s youngest residents were laid to rest, was renamed Section S. The change reflects a more standardized and respectful approach to cemetery documentation. The process also required adding six new cemetery sections.

All information is now being uploaded into Pontem Software, a Jackson-based cemetery mapping and management system that tracks plots, burial records, and interment history while integrating digital maps for easier administration and public searches. Though the new system replaces paper documentation, the city will retain all original records.

What began as a record-keeping assignment has become a remarkable preservation effort, bridging Eaton Rapids’ past with its future one grave, one name, and one page at a time.

Rosehill Cemetery is located at 1210 West Street in Eaton Rapids. The cemetery sexton is John Nobach.