Chronicles of Boone County

Woodside Cemetery (Oxford, Ohio)

Item

Title

Woodside Cemetery (Oxford, Ohio)

Description

"Oxford's original cemetery was located at the southwest corner of Spring Street and College Avenue on land given to the village for this purpose by the trustees of Miami University. The first recorded burial at the site was of 11 year old William Keely, who died May 2, 1818. When, in October 1853, Oxford Village Council granted a right-of-way through the cemetery for the C.H. & I Junction Railroad, this was no longer appropriate as the town's only graveyard.

"A new Oxford Cemetery, privately incorporated with its own Board of Trustees, was opened in August, 1855, on Colerain Pike (Route 27), just south of town. Some people who bought lots in the new cemetery transferred their family graves to the new location. In 1865, a Catholic Cemetery (Mt. Olivet) was opened at the corner of Church and Locust Streets. Burials were made at all three sites until May 8, 1876, when the Oxford Village Council minutes record that it receive "...a petition to prevent any more interments in the Old Graveyard."

"By 1880, however, the Township Trustees were ready to act. Their records for May 15th show the purchase of six and 5/100 acres of land from Harriet N. Logan, Martha N. Rose and James Logan for the price of $543.75. This land was on the southside of Chestnut Street (then called Exterior Street South) between Oak and Campus and outside the village limits. On June 26th, the Trustees paid James A. Kennedy $20.62 for surveying the new Township Cemetery, and on July 10t, 1880 the first burial took place: Margaret Boston, who died of consumption, and was buried in Lot 15.

"At some point the new graveyard was christened Woodside Cemetery.

"In September of 1882, a large group of graves was moved into Woodside and re-buried in plots purchased by their families. Toward the back of the cemetery, in Lot 8, is a group of graves that appear to have been moved in to Woodside at one time and laid out in neat, tight rows, many with both head and foot stones. This area is known as the 'Pioneer Quad' and it is assumed that these people no longer had any relatives living in the Oxford area and were re-interred by the village. Among those in the Pioneer Quad are Oxford's first mayor, Colonel Isaiah Leigh, who was a veteran of the War of 1812, several veterans of the Revolutionary War, and a distressing number of victims of the cholera epidemic that struck Oxford in 1849.

"Council minutes for July 16, 1888 state: "Special meeting of council to take action in regard to final abandonment of the old graveyard. All bodies have been removed so far as is known. Total expense $305.85. Committee discharged."" --from cemetery webpage at the City of Oxford website

Has beginning

1880

Identifier

Find A Grave Cemetery: #44192

Wikidata: Q117570308

Full address

East Chestnut Street, Oxford, OH 45056

Political division

Oxford (Ohio)

Related resource

Woodside Cemetery webpage

Latitude

39.4992

Longitude

-84.7378

Source

Woodside Cemetery webpage at the City of Oxford website

Find A Grave.com

Item sets

AA--Cemeteries--Ohio