Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, Cincinnati

Columbia Baptist Cemetery
Gravestone of Major Benjamin Stites.
Location Cincinnati, Ohio
Coordinates 39°06′23″N 84°25′42″W / 39.10639°N 84.42833°W / 39.10639; -84.42833Coordinates: 39°06′23″N 84°25′42″W / 39.10639°N 84.42833°W / 39.10639; -84.42833
Built 1790
MPS Columbia-Tusculum MRA
NRHP Reference # 79002709[1]
Added to NRHP August 24, 1979

The Pioneer Memorial Cemetery (also known as Columbia Baptist Church Cemetery) is a historic pioneer cemetery in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is located on a small hill overlooking Lunken Airport[2] at 333 Wilmer Avenue on Cincinnati's east side.

The oldest cemetery in Hamilton County,[3] it lies at the site of Columbia Baptist Church, founded in 1790. Columbia is the oldest settlement in Hamilton County, as it was founded in 1788, one month before Losantiville (later Cincinnati).[4] The cemetery is the only extant remnant of the Columbia settlement.[5]

Included in this cemetery is the grave of Major Benjamin Stites, 1734–1804, founding father of Columbia.[6] The fellow founder of Columbia and pioneer, soldier, and legislator Ephraim Kibbey (1756-1809) is memorialized here on the monument "To the First Boat-load" erected in 1879.[7]

Frederick L. Payne, then Supervising Horticulturalist for the Park Board, began a restoration project in 1967 for the cemetery.

The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under its historic name of "Columbia Baptist Cemetery".[1]

Since 1958, the Pioneer Cemetery has been known as an archaeological site — in that year, evidence was discovered that the terrace upon which the cemetery lies was once a Native American village site. Due to the presence of the cemetery, no excavation has ever been conducted there; consequently, all that is known about the village is that it was inhabited during the Woodland period.[8]

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pioneer Cemetery, Cincinnati.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, December 25, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.