Woodland Cemetery (Des Moines, Iowa) Explained

Woodland Cemetery
Native Name Lang:English
Established:1848
Closed:-->
Location:2019 Woodland Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa
Country:United States
Type:Municipal
Findagraveid:96709

Woodland Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Des Moines, Iowa, having been established in 1848, before Des Moines was the state capital. It is a municipal cemetery owned and operated by the Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department. It covers at the corner of 20th Street and Woodland Ave and is the site of over 80,000 graves.

History

The cemetery was created in 1848 when five local farmers donated of land to create it. It was originally called Fort Des Moines Cemetery. The first burial took place in 1850, the burial of Thomas Casady, the infant son of Iowa state senator Phineas M. Casady.[1] The city took ownership of the cemetery in 1857, and purchased an additional 36.5 acres in 1864. It has since been expanded to and now houses over 80,000 graves. The City Receiving Vault, which was used to store bodies when the ground was too frozen for graves to be dug, was built in the 1880s.

Within the grounds are subsections. These include St. Ambrose Cemetery (relocated from elsewhere in Des Moines in 1866), the Emmanuel Jewish Cemetery founded in 1871, and an Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery.

In 1986, the city council of Des Moines designated the cemetery a local historic landmark. Various restoration projects have been undertaken in recent years. A new arch over the entrance was constructed in 2012. An effort to restore the mausoleum of Samuel Merrill, the seventh governor of Iowa was started. A project to add markers to hundreds of previously unmarked children's graves on "Baby Hill" from the earliest days of the cemetery concluded successfully in April 2017.

A number of historic neighborhoods are near the cemetery, including Sherman Hill to the east, Woodland Place to the west, Ingersoll Place to the southwest.

Notable interments

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Volunteer effort to restore Des Moines' oldest cemetery honors generations of Iowans . . 2022-11-26.
  2. Web site: Cemetery History - Woodland . 2023-01-11 . www.dsm.city . en.
  3. https://hoytsherman.org/about/

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Woodland Cemetery (Des Moines, Iowa)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.