Green Lawn Cemetery

Green Lawn Cemetery was conceived and established as a replacement for and improvement upon the North Graveyard of the City of Columbus. The "Green Lawn Cemetery of Columbus" was incorporated by the State Legislature in March of 1848. The first parcel of property of the present grounds, some 39 acres at the Brown Road entrance, was purchased in March of 1849 and the first lots were soon laid out. The first interment was that of a child of A. F. Perry, on July 7, 1849. The first monument erected was that of Olive Clark, wife of William G. Deshler, whose remains were removed from the North Graveyard to Section C, Lot 20 in October, 1849. A total of 247 removals were made to Green Lawn from other graveyards by January, 1858. The oldest marker now at Green Lawn appears to be that of Elizabeth, wife of Nathan Goodale, who died in 1809 and was originally buried at the Franklinton graveyard; this marker is also in Section C.

The Green Lawn Cemetery Association is known by researchers as far away as New Jersey as one of the most careful of record-keepers. Even so, complete records were not kept of all of the removals which were made from the City graveyards. In order to find as many as possible of these removals, the author has walked through the older portions of Green Lawn, sections A through 38, making notes of any inscriptions which were or which appeared to be too early to represent original interments. While walking through the sections and while looking at the Association's lot books, other interesting features of these older sections were noticed, which are here called to the attention of the researcher.