Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, Cincinnati

The Pioneer Memorial Cemetery (also known as Columbia Baptist Church Cemetery) is a historic pioneer cemetery in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is located on a small hill overlooking Lunken Airport[2] at 333 Wilmer Avenue on Cincinnati's east side.

Columbia Baptist Cemetery
Gravestone of Major Benjamin Stites.
LocationCincinnati, Ohio
Coordinates39°06′23″N 84°25′42″W
Built1790
MPSColumbia-Tusculum MRA
NRHP reference No.79002709[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 24, 1979

The oldest cemetery in Hamilton County,[3] it lies at the site of Columbia Baptist Church, founded in 1790. Columbia is the oldest settlement in Hamilton County, as it was founded in 1788, one month before Losantiville (later Cincinnati).[4] The cemetery is the only extant remnant of the Columbia settlement.[5]

Included in this cemetery is the grave of Major Benjamin Stites, 1734–1804, founding father of Columbia.[6] The fellow founder of Columbia and pioneer, soldier, and legislator Ephraim Kibbey (1756-1809) is memorialized here on the monument "To the First Boat-load" erected in 1879.[7]

Frederick L. Payne, then Supervising Horticulturalist for the Park Board, began a restoration project in 1967 for the cemetery.

The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under its historic name of "Columbia Baptist Cemetery".[1]

Since 1958, the Pioneer Cemetery has been known as an archaeological site — in that year, evidence was discovered that the terrace upon which the cemetery lies was once a Native American village site. Due to the presence of the cemetery, no excavation has ever been conducted there; consequently, all that is known about the village is that it was inhabited during the Woodland period.[8]

The Cincinnati Parks Department maintains the property.

Notes
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. Agran, Hannah (October 2002). "Restoration Heaven: Columbia-Tusculum is a Hot Spot for Painted Ladies". Cincinnati Magazine. p. 54. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  3. Federal Writers' Project (1943). Cincinnati, a Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors. p. 245. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
  4. Edwards, Jennifer (December 29, 2003). "Columbia Tusculum redo planned". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  5. "Pioneer Memorial Cemetery". Cincinnati Park Board. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  6. Maj Benjamin Stites at Find a Grave
  7. Howe, Henry (1908). Historical Collections of Ohio ... an Encyclopedia of the State: History Both General and Local, Geography with Descriptions of Its Counties, Cities and Villages, Its Agricultural, Manufacturing, Mining and Business Development, Sketches of Eminent and Interesting Characters, Etc., with Notes of a Tour Over it in 1886. Illustrated by about 700 Engravings. Contrasting the Ohio of 1816 with 1886-90, Volume 1. State of Ohio. p. 809. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  8. Columbia-Tusculum Historical Society–Miami Purchase Association. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Columbia-Tusculum Multiple Resource Area. National Park Service, 1978-10-27. Accessed 2011-02-25.
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