Old Indian Cemetery
Pioneer Cemetery
United Brethren Cemetery
When Ottawa was founded and populated by some of the first
white men and women of this region, most of the area
surrounding the town site was covered with dense vegetation
and muck from the Great Black Swamp. Living here was hard
work and took its toll on even the hardiest of the settlers
to the region. Many died from fevers and ague, and many died
from accidents trying to clear the area to become what is
now rich farmland and the site of thriving industry. Of
necessity, land had to be set aside for the burial of these
casualties of time and hardship, and when, in the mid-1830s,
John Huber died, it fell to Stansbury Suttons father to
select a site to receive the body.
Stansbury Sutton selected the place known as the old Grave
Yard, (Old Indian Cemetery, Pioneer Cemetery), north of the
Tawa run, on the north side of Tawa. Many burials followed
and included some of the most prominent people amongst the
early settlers, Ridenours, Adgates, Rows, and Galbreaths,
among many others. At least two veterans of the War of 1812
are buried in this cemetery.
At some point, the date is not certain, the EUB Church in
Ottawa began using the Pioneer Cemetery as ground for
burials from their sect. The Pioneer Cemetery came to be
known around this time by the third of its formal names,
the United Brethren Cemetery.
Burials continued to be performed at the Pioneer Cemetery
through the end of the 1800's. The two last burials of the
United Brethren Church were one in 1910 and one after the
church had disbanded in 1937.
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