of a people on going into a strange community, resort to the cemetery,
the manner in which it is kept furnishes a good criterion:
if well kept it is evidence of uprightness and intelligence;
if not, the reverse."
~unknown
This is by no means intended to be a complete list. Simply a collection I have accumulated. If you have information you would like added please use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
U.S. States | |||||||||||||||||
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Alabama | The Mobile Register (Mobile, AL)
Sunday, July 29, 1984 Page: 103 tells of a cemetery with multiple re-locations.
In August 2007 the remains of 227 burials from the 3 acre Foster Cemetery at Doublehead Resort, near Town Creek were exhumed and reburied about one mile away. The reason for removal of the cemetery is based on an agreement made at time of purchase of the property, presumably sold by the family of the deceased. In an interesting twist, some of the families of the deceased were pleased with the situation, as some forgotten graves were now being identified. "If this relocation hadn't taken place, these people would probably be lost to history," Tom McKnight said. "Out of ashes of adversity, something positive has taken place." A very well written article in the Decatur Daily,By Deangelo McDaniel, dated August 31, 2007 In the 1920s when Lake Martin Dam in Elmore County, Alabama was built several old family cemeteries were moved because the area was to be flooded. Darden Cemetery was moved to Harmony Church Cemetery in Coosa County and to Mount Gilead. FindAGrave page with description and USGenWeb data regarding moves | ||||||||||||||||
Alaska | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Arizona | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Arkansas | Large number of cemeteries moved in Montgomery and Garland counties in Arkansas.
Click here for website with thorough information as can be found. | ||||||||||||||||
California |
Salmon Falls, Negro Hill, Condemned Bar, McDowell's Hill, the cemeteries at Dolton's Bar and Carrollton Bar in Place, County, Mormon Island in Sacramento County Natural Dam Cemeteries in El Dorado County were all moved in 1954 to Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, created by the Army Corps of Engineers because the lands were to be submerged below Folsom Lake when the Folsom Dam was built. In 1996, remains from the Prairie City Cemetery in Sacramento County were interred after being discovered during the construction of the Prairie City Road on-ramp to Highway 50. In San Francisco, California a blog website named Sparktack has gone to great effort to record the history of San Francisco's many forgotten, moved and lost cemeteries and remaining 3 burial grounds. I recommend anyone interested in California history examine his excellent work. | ||||||||||||||||
Colorado | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Connecticut | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Delaware | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
District of Columbia | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Florida |
The South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale reported on May 1, 1993 about a body of a woman identified as 'an original black settler in area' found by construction worked while digging a ditch. In the article, Louis Benton says his father founded the city's first black funeral home in 1923, and he believed the bones were from an old gravesite. A cemetery for blacks was near the place where the bones were found, but it was moved in 1926 to make way for the city's sewage treatment plant. Most of the remains were transferred to North Woodlawn Cemetery. Benton said, "When my father moved the cemetery, they moved all they known graves. There could have been other graves that nobody knew about. They may have been unmarked." Benton said the area was sparsely populated at the time. | ||||||||||||||||
Georgia |
Many Fayette County Cemeteries Destroyed for various reasons. Click here to visit an outside site that has good information. In 1997 the Marietta Journal reported that an "American Indian burial ground and a black tenant farmer cemetery had to be relocated" on the property which was being converted to a new water treatment plant in Bibb County, Georgia. 67 graves from the Wages family cemetery in Jefferson, Georgia were relocated to make was for the Bear Creek Reservoir, according to the Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA.), dated December 15, 1998. the remains of the family were sent to Barrow Memorial Gardens with shrubbery and four flat, corner markers with a W on each. Although the family would have preferred to not move the cemetery they decided it was the best choice, as the close proximity of the reservoir would risk the cemetery flooding. The article affirms that Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority did everything they could to make this easier by working with the family directly. | ||||||||||||||||
Hawaii |
This cemetery will not be moved! and one grave saved from lava flow
Kamoiliili Cemetery was relocated to Kawaiaha'o Church in the late 1960's. Notices were sent out in the late 1960's to families of the pending relocation and re-interment but as often happens in these situations very few got responses. "Native Hawaiian tradition holds that a person's spirit resides in the bones of the body. At death, the bones are planted in the soil to rejoin the island that gave them birth. The spirit remains in the bones; it does not go to a heaven or hell. Moving the bones or even disturbing the ground that houses them disturbs the spirit and disrupts the spiritual communion." ~Cindy Scheopner | ||||||||||||||||
Idaho | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Illinois |
St. Johannes Cemetery was originally consecrated in 1849 with the most recent burial bein in 2006. 4 years later the City of Chicago and Chicago O’Hare Modernization Program started the process of re-locating the remains of almost 1,500 deceased to add runway for O'Hare Airport. Their project was completed in 2012.
Chicago Department of Aviation Cemetery Relocation and Family Assistance site
Back in about 1843, part of Chicago’s famous Lincoln Park was actually a cemetery. Concerned about cholera, city officials decided to relocate the dead - including about 4,000 Confederate soldiers - to a less central location that might protect the living from disease. When work began on a parking garage in Lincoln Park in 1998, at least 80 bodies were discovered, making it pretty clear that not all of the cemetery’s residents had found their way to the new digs on the south side of Chicago. At least one tomb is obviously still there; you can find the mausoleum of innkeeper Ira Couch located behind the Chicago History Museum. On August 2, 1984 The Register Star (Rockford, IL) reported that the owners of Forest View Abbey north of Greenwood Cemetery asked permission to remove 130 bodies entombed in the building, so the structure could be demolished. At this point the company had already contacted the families of 40 of the interred and moved their ancestors remains with permission. Apparently the condition of the building was so neglected it had deteriorated beyond repair. Historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. — the final resting place of civil rights icon Emmett Till and singer Dinah Washington — was grotesque. But by week's end, the macabre tally had grown: nearly 300 graves, possibly more, were destroyed in an apparent grave-resale scheme that took in an as-yet-unknown amount of money. Historic Burr Oak Cemetery opened in the 1950s and is predominantly African American. Many of the cemetery records — including maps to eight of the cemetery's 10 sections — appear to have been intentionally destroyed.
Time Magazine article dated July 11, 2009M |
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What good is love That no one shares And if my life is like the dust That hides the glow of a rose What good am I Heaven only knows." | |||||||||||||||||
Indiana | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Iowa | When efforts to collect and identify the remains are completed the remains will be reburied in a common burial vault at Mount Olivet Cemetery. | ||||||||||||||||
Kansas | In December of 1952 Omaha World Herald announced that graves at the Webster, Kansas cemetery would be moved to the Stockton Cemetery unless next of kin expressed a preference for another location.
The cemetery was in the area to be inundated by the Webster Reservoir. The elementary and high schools were to be moved also. Boot Hill, Dodge City, Kansas as of June 1982 had no bodies buried there! The city had re-interred 27 sets of remains from cowboys, gunslingers, drifters and one "soiled dove" named Alice Chambers. IN 1879 the town decided to build a school on the Boot Hill Cemetery site and re-interred the bodies just outside the town cemetery fence. When the coroner exhumed the wooden coffins he checked the remains and announced to the townspeople "The boots are still on the bones." Now the question remains, did local historian Vic Hull ever get the remains back in their proper resting place? (as recorded in the Omaha World Herad, June 6, 1982 on August 13, 1922 the Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO) reported that up to 1,500 bodies,, were to be moved from Sts. Peter and Paul Burial Grounds after All Souls Day of that year. St. Peter and Paul was located at 25th and Brooklyn Avenue, Kansas City. The parish of St. Peter and Paul church is described as the only really German German parish remaining. Reasons for moving the cemetery include higher taxes and the parish not large enough to sustain the cemetery. Also, a state law required a cemetery be closed when burials can no longer be made. When the cemetery was established in 1877 it lay outside the city limits, with no streetcars available. It was necessary for funeral processions to walk from the church to the cemetery. | ||||||||||||||||
Kentucky | Happening NOW! July 2013 Colvin Calvin
Cemetery, Boyd County, Ky is being relocated to make way for construction to widen U.S. 60 between Ky. 180 and Interstate 64. Anyone with relatives at the Colvin Calvin Cemetery is encouraged to call (800)817-2551, ext. 278 to discuss relocation arrangements. There are about 150 interments in Colvin Calvin Cemetery. As this is a current event a simple web search will provide multiple results for the many news outlets covering the story. findAgrave memorial for Colvin Calvin Cemetery | ||||||||||||||||
Louisiana | Girod Street Cemetery was an above-ground burial ground for victims of Yellow Fever and cholera in New Orleans. Though the cemetery was de-consecrated in 1957, not every body buried there was moved. If someone didn’t claim their long-dead relatives, the deceased were just were just left there, coffins and all. This is evidenced by the fact that when ground was broken for the Superdome back in 1971, crews brought up bones by the backhoe-full. | ||||||||||||||||
Maine | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Maryland | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Massachusetts |
In Clinton, Massachusetts 4,500 bodies were to be removed from the local Catholic cemetery due to the building of a big basin under supervision of the Metropolitan Water Board. New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) Tuesday, April 25, 1899 August 30, 1964 Paper: Boston Herald (Boston, MA) Page: 154 Littleville cemeteries circa 1776 being relocated to build a dam/reservoir. | ||||||||||||||||
Michigan |
In Republic, Michigan, Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries on the Negaunee Marquette range were planned to be moved to a new site because Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company wished to mine for a large body of ore lying beneath a portion of the
burial grounds. Source: Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, MN) Sunday, April 24, 1910 Note- this article also mentions a similar situation in progress at Hibbing, Minn where the land that formerly was the village cemetery was in the Buffalo And Susquehanna companys Susquehanna Mine, being stripped for open pit mining. | ||||||||||||||||
Minnesota |
In Hibbing, Minn bodies were removed from the former village cemetery was because the Buffalo And Susquehanna companys Susquehanna Mine, planned to have the land stripped for open pit mining.
Source: Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, MN) April 24, 1910 | ||||||||||||||||
Mississippi | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Missouri |
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Montana | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Nebraska | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Nevada | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
New Hampshire | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
New Jersey |
Lost Cemeteries of Hudson County, NJ includes Hudson County Cemetery, aka Snake Hill cemetery, which has ceased to exist and been replaced by a New Jersey Turnpike exit.NOTE - My great grandmothers brother died at 4 years old. His death certificate lists this cemetery. Hendrickson Cemetery, Holmdel, Monmouth, New Jersey In the summer of 2010 The Beau Ridge development, near South Laurel Avenue and Beau Ridge Drive, Holmdel, NJ removed headstones because, apparently, one of the residents didn't like the view from her condo when the during the winter months. In summer months the leaves blocked the view of the cemetery. Most of the headstones were destroyed. Source - The Holmdel - Hazlet Patch Johnson's Cemetery, 39th and Federal Streets, Camden, New Jersey. From the Courier Post, Camden, NJ dated 2 July 1857: The relocation of 100 bodies of Negro Civil War veterans from Johnson's Cemetery 38th and Federal Street, is expected to start within a few days..." The bodies were to be moved to The United States National Cemetery in Beverly, New Jersey. | ||||||||||||||||
New Mexico |
May 20, 1895
the New Mexican newspaper (Santa Fe, NM) reported that the mouldering dust of fifty soldiers buried at the old Masonic cemetery north of the federal building were moved to the Santa Fe National Cemetery. The soldiers had all served in either the Mexican war or war of the rebellion (Civil War) or in Indian campaigns.
A list of the dead with all procurable information included was forwarded to the quartermaster general. The list included Gov. Charles Bent, a volunteer in the Mexican war and first territorial governor of New Mexico, assassinated in his home in 1847. 137 bodies of officers and soldiers buried at the Fort Stanton cemetery were moved to the Santa Fe National Cemetery. It was reported that they were all "neatly and carefully coffined" and every grave given a regulation stone, giving "all procurable information respecting the one sleeping beneath it." Source: New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), June 20, 1896 page 4. | ||||||||||||||||
New York |
On February 9, 1907 the Irish American Weekly newspaper (New York, NY) reported that Trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral
decided to sell the Old Eleventh St. Cemetery located between Avenue A and First Avenue. The remains of 41,016 persons moved to Calvary cemetery. One of the reasons considered in the decision making was that is was a multi-cultural neighborhood including "Jews and Greeks, and many others, and few or none of them have any reverence or respect for the cemetery. These people throw rubbish over the fence and place (is) littered with refuse of the filthist and vilest sort, which no amount of effort within reason is sufficient to prevent. The article continues with history of Catholic cemeteries in New York City, the first being near St. Peters Church on Mott Street, operated 1813 - 1833. During that time they recorded 32,153 burials.
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North Carolina |
The Spratt Family Cemetery was at the location of the current parking lot for Mercy Hospital Charlotte, NC. The earliest known description of the Sprott Cemetery is this: Thomas (Spratt) Sprott’s burial place as “buried in the angle of the woods near his dwelling.” Although Thomas was the first Spratt buried there, the first person buried there was actually a stranger passing through, who was thrown from his horse and died. Link to PDF file with entire archeological survey of Spratt Cemetery In 1957, Duke Power Company began a study that would become Duke power company's final damn on the Catawba River. James B. Duke began buying Catawba River land, approximately 33,000 acres were purchased. Homes, family farms and entire towns would end up under water. The village of Long Island, once a bustling river town with three textile mills, would be completely submerged. Buildings had to be dismantled and moved, churches and cemeteries relocated. The Greensboro Record (Greensboro, NC) on August 9, 1977 included a letter to the Hot Line which noted that a cemetery on Freeeman Mill Road going southwest a cemetery was being moved. The writer saw tombstones on a large flat-bed truck and entered I-40 toward Winston Salem. The newspaper matter-of-factly reported that more than 200 dead buried at the old Zion cemetery were being relocated at various cemeteries nearby to prepare for the new Hwy 220 connector link between I-85 and I-40. The Highland Baptist Church on Crowder Road, 8 miles outside of Garner, NC has decided to replace a cemetery on their property with a parking lot. They are proceeding with help of a consulting firm, Of Grave Concern, that helps homeowers and businesses restore of relocate cemeteries on their property. The church is paying to move those buried in about a dozen graves in the Ellis Family Cemetery to Oakwood Cemetery. | ||||||||||||||||
North Dakota | SEPTEMBER 2016! Pipeline Co. Bulldozing Burial Sites | ||||||||||||||||
Ohio |
Cleveland, Ohio - a cemetery started in June of 1797 was relocated in 1825 because the rapidly growing village decided the burial ground was too close to the center of the community. Source: newspaper- Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) Sunday, October 13, 1985, Page: 199 The Old Dover Cemetery in Belmont County was desecrated by huge strip mining machines on May 10, 1978. On that day Cravat Coal Co. used bulldozers and front end loaders, dug up and moved what they believed were 30 of the 38 known graves. The company planned to mine under the cemetery as it strip-mined veins of coal in the bowl-shaped valley know as Captina Bend. Descendants, who believe there were more bodied buried than the standing 38 headstones revealed, sued the Coal company. In 1973 the Army Corps of Engineers moved the old Cheshire Cemetery in Delaware County to make way for Alum Creek Reservoir. It is estimated that they moved approximately 1,400 graves. Well, they missed a few. In 2009 caskets with human remains started popping up along the east bank of the reservoir. At the time they were talking about re-interring the remains at the Berlin Cheshire Road Cemetery west of Alum Creek Reservoir, but I have not confirmed this. Unfortunately, this is not the first time things have surfaced here. In 1991 a grave value surfaced. Source: Columbus Dispatch Newspaper, April 10, 2009
35 bodies were disinterred at Erie-st. Cemetery to be moved to Highland Park cemetery, with plans to remove hundreds of bodies in the coming fall and spring. Reason for moving bodies was that the cemetery was operating at a financial loss. Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) December 10, 1905, October 17, 1906 and March 11, 1906. In Cinicinatti, Ohio area, the Wilson Family was to be moved from the Family burial Ground in the Ballyshannon neighborhood, off Longbranch Road to Union Rice Cemetery off Mount Zion Road. August 2016. | ||||||||||||||||
Oklahoma | Nowata Cemetery, Nowata County,Oklahoma - 3 cemeteries moved by the Corp of Engineers | ||||||||||||||||
Oregon |
October 1, 1959
Paper: Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Page: 24 reports that locals are unhappy that the Powell Grove Cemetery at NE 122nd Ave and Sandy Blvd. will be relocated to another site to allow extension of NE 122nd Avenue. The Oregonian (Portland, OR) dated September 10, 1971 reported that a K-Mart shopping center was to be built on the former location of St. Mary's of the Valley convent west of Beaverton. The location given i SW Murray Boulevard and Tualitin Valley Highway. The final resting place of the Sisters, which had about two dozen graves over fifty years, of was moved to a location nearer to their Mother House. The one acre Powell Grove Cemetery, one of the oldest in the county, containing 135 known graves, was designated to be moved to Douglas Cemetery, in an effort to consolidate cemeteries to save the expense of places scattered throughout the county. And while that may be true, and article in the Oregonian (Portland, OR) on June 5, 1959 states that the cemetery was selected in order to clear the way to widen NE 122nd Avenue, near Sandy Blvd. | ||||||||||||||||
Pennsylvania | Atrocious! Temple University turned historic Monument Cemetery into a parking lot; headstones and memorials were used in foundation of Betsy Ross Bridge. Monument Cemetery was established in 1837 on North Broad Street, across from Temple University, as a park-like burial ground. The last burial here was in 1929. In those 90 years 28,000 people were buried at Monument Cemetery, including the founder of Temple University Dr. Russell Conwell, and his wife; and John Sartain, one of the original designers of the cemetery, as well as publisher for Edgar Allen Poe while Poe lived in Philadelphia.
In 1956 Temple University purchased the cemetery and all the graves were disinterred, Almost all bodies were placed in a mass grave. Then they dumped thousands of beautiful and historic stone monuments into the Delaware River, including the center Egyptian style obelisk designed by John Sartain. See links below for full story showing photos of gravestones at low tide. The Cemetery Traveler Blog: The Watery Remains of Monument Cemetery
The German Lutheran Cemetery at 31st & Lehigh - in the 1950s bodies were moved to Philadelphia Memorial Park in Chester County. In June of 1987 the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation unexpectedly exposed a forgotten cemetery while building the last segment of Interstate 279 and 579. They respectfully (if not anxiously) contacted archeologists and 727 graves in The Voegtly Church Cemetery (1833-1861) were exhumed. The remains and artifacts were reburied in 2003 in Troy Hill's Voegtly Evangical Cemetery after the Smithsonian concluded its' examination and analysis of the remains. The cemetery had been paved over for use as a parking lot many generations before. Source: Pittsburg Post Gazette - Aug. 19,2013
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Rhode Island | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
South Carolina | Charleston News and Courier (Charleston, SC) reported on Jan 18, 1969 that 45 feet of the historic Quaker Cemetery at King and Queen streets was cleared in preparation for the removal of an undetermined number of graves. They felt it necessary to desecrate a burial ground to build a Million dollar high-rise parking garage. | ||||||||||||||||
South Dakota | None known by webmaster as of yet. | ||||||||||||||||
Tennessee |
Tennesee Valley Authority relocated cemeteries while altering its landscape for the purpose of creating dams and power plants. They take pride in the fine job they did. Beginning in 1933, more than 69,000 graves were investigated, and over 20,000 graves were relocated. Information researched and recorded include: First and last names; Birth and death dates; TVA project name; State and county; Original cemetery and grave number; Year the grave was relocated; and new cemetery name, number, and grave number.Texas | On November 29, 1981 the Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX) reported that a pre-civil war slave cemetery would be relocated for the building of the Richland-Chambers Reservoir, southeast of Corsicana,
Texas. | On March 22, 1936 the Heraldo de Brownsville (Brownsville, TX) reported that Historic Fort Brown had its military cemetery removed in 1909, when the army post had been abandoned. The cemetery, started in 1846 was laid out in the center of the fort with 183 graves of officers in a circle around the flagpole with 3,600 graves of enlisted men circled around that. Of those remains found about 1,100 had gravestones with no names, just numbers. At this time in history soldiers did not wear identification 'dog-tags'. Although most remains were unidentified, they were handled respectfully. The bodies were placed in cloth containers, then encased in 38 inch frame boxes treated with creosote. Bodies of officers were placed in full length caskets. The remains were re-buried in the military cemetery in Alexandria, Louisiana. July 23, 1931 the Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX) announced plans to move about 500 graves from the 60 year old Bluffton Cemetery, aka "the old burial grounds," because they would be inundated by flood waters of the planned dam. The remains would be moved t a new site 12 miles west of Llano, which "has been made into an attractive burial park with a fence and a chapel of native stone. The Old Hebrew Benevolent Association Cemetery at Akard and Masonic was ordered by judge Sarah T Hughes to be abandoned and the 54 pioneer residents of Dallas buried there moved to Emanu-el Cemetery. The land the cemetery was on was to become a part of the auditorium site. A consent of a majority of descendants and heirs was obtained. The city paid the cost of $12,000 to move the bodies, reset old headstones and erect new ones. Source: Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX) November 13, 1956 findAgrave memorial page for Emanu-El Cemetery,3430 Howell Street, Dallas, Texas Utah |
None known by webmaster as of yet.
| Vermont |
None known by webmaster as of yet.
| Virginia |
RIGHT NOW (APRIL/MAY 2014) An Industrial Park project in Danville, Virginia has been deemed a valid reason to removed human remains from the Fearn Burying Ground. The plan is to move the graves to another part of the park, near a road where people could easily access them and for a historic marker to be placed at the new graveyard. | Washington |
April 18 1976 the Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA) reported how the ocean was swallowing up the old cemetery south of North Cove, Pacific County. The county obtained a $25,000 state grant to move the graves to a new site. Cemetery residents were pioneers, shipwreck victims and some Coast Guard personnel. | findAgrave site for North Cove Pioneer Cemetery. I believe this is cemetery referred to above. In Olympia, Washington a cemetery took it upon itself to moved cremated remains that were buried under near a monument. Interesting article, as the cemetery didn't have legal authority to bury those remains there in the first place, due to a water main in that area. July 2014. West Virginia |
An article that can be found repeated in newspapers across the United States in February 1980 tells the story of D. J. Skeans, who has supervised the reburial of 100 cemeteries, as an enployee of the State of West Virginia Highway Authority. Mr. Skeans specifically names the Old Baptist Church Cemetery near Buckhannon. This burial ground was opened in the late 1700's and has 647 known graves, with a possibility of up to 400 more unmarked graves. Mr Skeans seems to be very respectful and conscientious about his work. The article does not state where the cemetery was being moved to.
| Wisconsin |
None known by webmaster as of yet.
| Wyoming |
None known by webmaster as of yet.
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