| Wesleyan Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 Wesleyan cemetery in Ohio. | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1843 |
| Location | 4003 Colerain Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45223. |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 39°09′36″N84°32′49″W / 39.16000°N 84.54694°W |
| Owned by | Wesley Chapel [1] |
| Size | 24 acres |
| Website | Wesleyan Cemetery Unofficial Website |
| Find a Grave | Wesleyan Cemetery |
Wesleyan Cemetery is a prominent cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the oldest continuously operating cemetery in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The cemetery was founded in 1843 by the Methodist Church when its old cemetery behind Wesley Chapel had become full. [2] The church then bought approximately 25 acres (100,000 m2) on Colerain Avenue adjacent to Mill Creek. Bodies from other cemeteries were moved there from downtown. Originally, the cemetery was located in Millcreek Township. [3]
Wesleyan is an historic cemetery and the first cemetery in Cincinnati designed in a park-like fashion, with winding drives, trees, and shrubs. Spring Grove Cemetery, another historic Cincinnati cemetery of similar design, was founded two years later in 1845. Wesleyan Cemetery was also the first in the city to keep and maintain records of its burials and grounds, which it has done since its founding.
The cemetery once played a pivotal role in "The Escape of the 28", one of the largest and best documented runaway slave escapes in the history of the Underground Railroad, when an abolitionist farmer named John Fairfield led 28 fugitive slaves through the city of Cincinnati in the daytime. With the help of anti-slavery Underground Railroad agent Levi Coffin's plan to pose as a funeral procession, they marched themselves to the north end of the city into the cemetery, where they found shelter, and were later led to Coffin's safe house. They then made their journey across the border into Canada and to freedom. [4]
In 1939 and 1941, the City of Cincinnati attempted to annex Wesleyan Cemetery, which was by then an enclave fully surrounded by the city. However, burial lot owners and relatives of people buried at the cemetery successfully defeated the annexation over fears that the city would run a street through the cemetery. [5] [6] In 1943, Millcreek Township's border was reduced to be coextensive to the cemetery. [5] [3] [7] The remaining township could not function as a government because its only residents, the cemetery's superintendent and her young son, could not fill the three trustee positions required by state law; at the same time, she could not vote for annexation, because she did not own the cemetery property. [7] [8] Despite being in the middle of an urban area, the cemetery had no provisions for police or fire protection. [9] The cemetery formally became a part of the City in 1953, [10] although news articles refer to the cemetery as constituting nonfunctioning Millcreek Township as late as 1961. [11]
During the 1990s and 2000s, the cemetery passed from one caretaker to another amid controversy about mismanagement. The cemetery grew unkempt and attracted prostitutes and drug dealers. Attorney General Jim Petro stepped in, obtaining a ruling in Common Pleas Court that removed the caretaker and declared Wesleyan a public cemetery. Cincinnati unsuccessfully fought in court to avoid taking over management of the cemetery. [12]
Veterans of every United States war are interred at Wesleyan Cemetery. It is the resting place of Richard Allison, the first resident physician of Cincinnati, [13] who also held a rank in the military equivalent to Surgeon General from 1792 to 1796. Six additional Revolutionary War veterans are buried in the cemetery.
A section of the cemetery is devoted to soldiers of the American Civil War, in which Medal of Honor recipient William Steinmetz is buried. Steinmetz served as a corporal in the Union Army in Company G, 83rd Indiana Infantry, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on May 22, 1863, at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The citation on his gravestone reads "Gallantry in the charge of the "volunteer storming party."
John Halliday Patrick, colonel of the locally raised Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, is located in Section B. He was in command of the regiment at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was killed in battle at New Hope Church, Georgia, on May 25, 1864.
In recent years, the cemetery has rarely held services for either Memorial Day or Veterans Day. The cemetery has also recently been the subject of several lawsuits, and has become known among locals for its dilapidated appearance. The city of Cincinnati has begun maintenance of the cemetery. Volunteers can be seen cleaning the grounds. There is clearly a resurgence of care. In 1992, visitors reported unearthed bones in discarded dirt piles at the cemetery, and claims were made that filled-plots were being resold.
In 2014, the National Park Service formally recognizes Wesleyan Cemetery's role in the audacious plight by naming it a Network to Freedom Landmark. [14] The cemetery is located at 4003 Colerain Avenue, in Cincinnati, Ohio 45223.
Wesleyan Cemetery was featured in a season 3 episode of Mysteries at the Monument in 2015 and tells the story of "The Escape of the 28" fugitive slaves.
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to the mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. The network was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. The enslaved persons who risked escape and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad". Various other routes led to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession, existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790. However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad began in the late 18th century. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. One estimate suggests that by 1850, approximately 100,000 enslaved people had escaped to freedom via the network.
Loveland is a city in Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 13,307 at the 2020 census. Considered part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area, Loveland is located near exit 52 off Interstate 275, about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of the Cincinnati city limits. It borders Symmes, Miami and Hamilton townships and straddles the Little Miami River. Once a busy railroad town, Loveland is now a major stop along the Little Miami Scenic Trail.
Springfield Township is one of the twelve townships of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 35,862 as of the 2020 census. Springfield Township is home to the largest private school in Ohio, the largest lake in Hamilton County, and the Cincinnati area's annual Greek Festival.
Millcreek Township is a survey township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio, that also existed as a civil township from 1810 until 1943. Once the most important township in the county, it was largely absorbed by Cincinnati and its suburbs, nominally remaining as a paper township from 1943 until 1953. It was abolished when the rest of its unincorporated territory, consisting of Wesleyan Cemetery, became part of Cincinnati. As the original survey township covers a large portion of present-day Cincinnati, references to it are frequently encountered by genealogists.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a museum in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, based on the history of the Underground Railroad. Opened in 2004, the Center also pays tribute to all efforts to "abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people."
Bond Hill is a neighborhood of the City of Cincinnati. Founded as a railroad suburb and temperance community in 1870 in northeastern Millcreek Township in Hamilton County, Ohio, it is one of a number of neighborhoods lining the Mill Creek, an urban stream in southwestern Ohio. The population was 7,002 at the 2020 census.
Levi Coffin was an American Quaker, Republican, abolitionist, farmer, businessman and humanitarian. An active leader of the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio, some unofficially called Coffin the "President of the Underground Railroad," estimating that three thousand fugitive slaves passed through his care. The Coffin home in Fountain City, Wayne County, Indiana, is now a museum, sometimes called the Underground Railroad's "Grand Central Station".
The term paper township refers to a civil township under Ohio law that nominally exists for certain purposes but does not act as a functioning unit of civil government. Such townships usually exist on paper as a legal fiction due to municipal annexation.
Margaret Garner, called "Peggy", was an enslaved African-American woman in pre-Civil War America who killed her own daughter rather than allow the child to be returned to slavery. Garner and her family had escaped enslavement in January 1856 by traveling across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati, but they were apprehended by U.S. Marshals acting under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Garner's defense attorney, John Jolliffe, moved to have her tried for murder in Ohio, to be able to get a trial in a free state and to challenge the Fugitive Slave Law. Garner's story was the inspiration for the novel Beloved (1987) by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and its subsequent adaptation into a film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey (1998).
Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway, formerly and locally known as Cross County Highway, is a west-east freeway in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. It stretches 16.4 miles (26.4 km) from southern Colerain Township to Montgomery, connecting many of Cincinnati's northern suburbs to Interstate 71 and Interstate 75. State Route 126 is routed over most of the highway, while the remainder is a county-maintained road.
State Route 450 is a short east–west state highway in southwestern Ohio, specifically near the eastern Cincinnati suburb of Milford. The western terminus of State Route 450 is at the Milford city limits, just west of a partial cloverleaf interchange with Interstate 275, with the road continuing into Milford known as Milford Parkway, which passes by the River's Edge Shopping Center and several distribution-oriented businesses prior to meeting U.S. Route 50 at the intersection marking the western terminus of State Route 131. State Route 450's eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 50, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Interstate 275.
Columbia-Tusculum is the oldest neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is located on the East Side of the city. The population was 1,523 at the 2020 census.
During the American Civil War, the Ohio River port city of Cincinnati, Ohio, played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army. It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio, which was charged with the defense of the region, as well as directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee.
Henry Walton Bibb, was an American author and abolitionist who was born into enslavement. Bibb told his life story in his Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, which included many failed escape attempts followed finally by success when he escaped to Detroit. After leaving Detroit to move to Canada with his family, due to issues with the legality of his assistance in the Underground Railroad, he founded the abolitionist newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive. He lived in Canada until his death.
The Underground Railroad in Indiana was part of a larger, unofficial, and loosely-connected network of groups and individuals who aided and facilitated the escape of runaway slaves from the southern United States. The network in Indiana gradually evolved in the 1830s and 1840s, reached its peak during the 1850s, and continued until slavery was abolished throughout the United States at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It is not known how many fugitive slaves escaped through Indiana on their journey to Michigan and Canada. An unknown number of Indiana's abolitionists, anti-slavery advocates, and people of color, as well as Quakers and other religious groups illegally operated stations along the network. Some of the network's operatives have been identified, including Levi Coffin, the best-known of Indiana's Underground Railroad leaders. In addition to shelter, network agents provided food, guidance, and, in some cases, transportation to aid the runaways.
Storrs Township was a civil township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio. It was established in 1835 and annexed to Cincinnati in 1870 but remained in nominal form until at least 1890 due to an oversight.
Peter Fossett was an enslaved laborer at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation, who after he attained his freedom in the mid-1800s, settled in Cincinnati where he established himself as a minister and caterer. He was a captain in the Black Brigade of Cincinnati during the Civil War. Fossett was an activist for education and prison reform. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. His remembrances, Once the slave of Thomas Jefferson, were published in 1898.
Spencer Township was a civil township in southeastern Hamilton County, Ohio. It was established in the early 1840s and annexed to Cincinnati in stages from 1855 to 1909.
Cincinnati Township is a paper township and former civil township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio. Originally one of Ohio's largest townships by area at its inception in 1791, it was abolished in 1834 when the City of Cincinnati became coextensive with it through annexation. Since then, it has remained solely as a paper township.
Elijah Anderson was a free Black man and leading conductor of the Underground Railroad (UGRR). According to other abolitionist such as Rush R. Sloane, Anderson assisted at least 1,000 slaves to gain freedom. He grew up during a time when the state of Virginia was imposing especially harsh restrictions on free blacks as a response to various slave revolts, specifically, the Nat Turner Rebellion. He later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in his mid-20s and remained there until he married his wife, Mary. They had one daughter named Martha. Together, they settled in Madison County, IN between the years of 1835 and 1837. There, Anderson was able to earn a decent living through his work as a blacksmith.
