Lakeville Cemetery will have a little piece of its history revived next spring, after the Addison Township Board approved a request to install a decorative windmill in the same place one once stood nearly a century ago.

According to Lakeville Cemetery Auxilliary President Marlene Mallia, the historic cemetery once featured a functional windmill pump which supplied water to the property.

The only remnants today of the windmill that once stood there are three posts and a small, blue sign which reads “Original Windmill Well Site.”

But Mallia is looking to change that.

The decorative windmill is set to be provided and maintained by Potteryland in Shelby Township, with the purchase and installation totaling approximately $2,300.

Thanks to a donation of more than $7,000 from the recently-shuttered Lakeville United Methodist Church, Mallia said the project is likely to begin in the spring.

“It was a joy (to receive that donation). We’re eternally grateful. Without it, we certainly would have had to work harder and longer to get our windmill,” said Mallia.

The Lakeville Cemetery, located off Drahner Rd. in Lakeville, emerged in 1843 after Addison Township settler Ernest Mann donated one acre of land to the township. The cemetery has since expanded and now stretches more than 11 acres.

Even through its growth, the cemetery remains a historical landmark within the community.

Along with serving as a historical landmark, Lakeville Cemetery is also the final resting place for Private Derrick Hullick, a veteran of the American Revolution who enlisted in the New Jersey militia in June 1776 and later settled in Addison in 1839. He died in 1843.

“We’re trying to bring back some of the things that were once there (in order) to continue to call it a historical place,” Mallia added.