Graveyard. Lot 27 of Section 28 in Greenlawn Cemetery, the lot owned by the city where the ten boxes were buried, is as barren and unmaintained now as the East Graveyard was in its day, with no markers of any kind and in need of filling.
It is said that many of the tombstones
remained in the East Graveyard until as late as 1959, when they were
dumped in Alum Creek to hold the banks in place during that year's flood.
One tombstone which survived until recently marked the resting place of
Catharine, wife of G. W. Free, and her two children,27 but a newer marker for her, apparently a
replacement, is now located in Greenlawn Cemetery.
LATER HISTORY OF THE COUNTY GRAVEYARD
The greater portion of the thirty acre
tract purchased by the county commissioners in 1876 was not used as a
graveyard. The graveyard itself was in the southeast corner of the tract.
From later deeds one can infer that it measured about 121 by 180 feet,
about one half acre.28 The board leased
the land to N. Anthony for one year29 in
1877; in December of 1881 it gave permission for the City of Columbus to
erect its pest house there (which was completed in January).30 In 1884 the board's minutes note that "The
Board have gone to the Franklin County graveyard in regard to the renting
of the same."31
The report of the Columbus City Infirmary
Director for the year ending in April of 1882 is the one piece of
documentary evidence which affirms that the land purchased by the county
for graveyard purposes was actually used as such:
The "City Cemetery," which is located some three miles south of the city, and which is owned jointly by the city and county, as I am informed, stands in need of some care. It lies in one corner of a large field, and is in an almost totally neglected condition. It frequently occurs that one who never begged his bread, or lacked of ought that was honest, is laid away in this neglect spot, through the strange vicissitudes of life. There may be some among us who cannot show a guarantee that his dust may not repose in these unclassic and uncared for yards of mother earth.
I would therefore recommend that authority be granted to some one, who may act in conjunction with the county authorities, to enclose the public burying ground with a suitable fence, and the grounds kept clear of rubbish and weeds, and that the head of each grave be marked with a simple board. Or, in lieu of this, a record be kept of the number of the grave and its contents.32
This indicates that within these few years after, its establishment,
43