So now sprawls the 98-acre cemetery, which while filled with the names of past city and county leaders like Millikin, Symmes, Fitton and Beckett, still boasts room for another 110 years worth of burials, said Steve Kapp, who runs the sales and marketing of Greenwood.
Residents can still scan the entries of the original Register of Interments books, where by a sad twist of fate they will find Sarah Bebb, the 2-year-old daughter of Gov. Bebb, listed as the first burial Oct. 12, 1848. It is said her loss was the reason the governor did not seek re-election, ultimately retiring with his family to Illinois and taking his daughter’s remains with him, Irwin said.
“Cemeteries have a huge historical significance to any community and I think this is an exceptional cemetery for that reason,” Irwin said.
Wandering the lanes of the cemetery, residents will enjoy a peaceful walk through the city’s history.
Among its monuments and family plots dot the names of prominent leaders — Millikin, Symmes, Fitton and Beckett —who helped make the city and Butler County into what it is today.
The cemetery is the final resting place of veterans from each war . It also includes the only Civil War general from Butler County, according to Irwin.
Greenwood Cemetery is one of the oldest members of the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, surpassing the organizations 100-year history, which will be celebrated Friday, Jan. 29 at the Courtyard by Marriott-Hamilton.
Greenwood serves as a prominent business and historical keepsake to the city.
The 200 victims of the 1849 cholera outbreak buried there mark a bleak time in the city’s history, when many fled to Mt. Pleasant — now named Mt. Healthy to honor its good fortune at escaping the illness. The graves serve as a reminder to today’s trustees to plan for how to deal with another such epidemic, which sales manager Steve Kapp said would be painful but necessary to know how to accommodate.
When it was established in 1848, Greenwood Cemetery was designed to flow like a landscaped garden, offering a retreat for residents from the noise and bustle of the city. So popular was the area on weekends that residents had to have a ticket to prove they were a lot holders to get in , Irwin said.
Over time the cemetery has changed along with Hamilton’s population — just 10,000 when Greenwood was founded compared to the 62,000 as estimated today . Back then, families were more tied to the community and bought large plots with room for 24 to 36 burials. Now the more mobile lifestyle of residents has plots sold singularly or in pairs.
“Plots used to be passed down through the family because they were born here, their children were born here and they died here,” Irwin said. “But now no one plans like that.”
But those who were lucky enough to have a plot passed down from those earlier generations can incur significant cost-savings when its their time. Plots sold for a few dollars decades ago now go for $800 to $2,000 depending on the location and marker, Kapp said.
And while residents had shorter life expectancies and infant deaths were much more common in the 1800s, interments are much more frequent now. When the cemetery was established, burials were months apart and held off in the winter because the ground was too frozen to dig the graves. Today, burials occur almost daily, with 250 interments in 2009 alone, said Jim Fitton, president of the Greenwood board of trustees.
Who is buried within the 98 acres of Greenwood Cemetery has grown in significance, especially due to the Internet. While its still boasts its original hand-written books cataloging each interment since 1848, the cemetery has created an electronic log. So seriously does the board of trustees take its commitment to genealogy that the records are stored in a fireproof safe in site as well as electronically in two other off-site locations.
Greenwood Cemetery is located at 1602 Greenwood Ave. For information, call (513) 896-9726 or visit greenwoodcemeteryhamilton.com.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843
or jheffner@coxohio.com.
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