All Roads Lead to Cemeteries

While typing up the list of cemeteries in Newaygo County, I decided a brief description of how the roads are named in the county may be of help.

The two main roads that the others are named from are Baseline, which runs through the middle of the county east and west. The north/south center line is named Centerline Rd. Original huh?

Anyway, the roads south of Baseline are numbered, with each half mile being eight higher than the mile before. Half miles are numbered four higher. Thus, 80th Street would be 10 miles south of Baseline. And 44th Street is 5 1/2 miles south.

The roads north of baseline are numbered by miles--One Mile Rd, 14 Mile, etc. When there is a half mile road, those are what I call the presidential roads. One half mile north of Baseline would be Washington, 1 1/2 mile north is Adams, and so on. The names don't repeat, so John Quincy Adams doesn't get a street. But if you know the order of the presidents, you have a relative idea of where you are, knowing that Jefferson is before Lincoln.

Then we have the north and south roads. To the east of Centerline the roads are named for trees. There is Evergreen, Beech, Pine, etc. To the west the roads were named for local dignitaries from the times the roads were named. Our county histories are littered with the same names as many of the roads--Stone, Warner, Luce and so on.

I hope that anyone planning on hunting up some of the local cemeteries finds this helpful. Or if I have you completely confused, stop by the Local History Room of the Fremont Area District Library. We have county maps that can clear the confusion I hope.