CHAPTER XXX.
PENAL, CHARITABLE AND PHILANTHROPIC INSTITUTIONS

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CEMETERIES.

     About 1830 Dexter Fisher set apart about two acres of land, on the south side of the road between Port Lawrence and Tremainesville, for a cemetery.  This is said to have been the first provision for the burial of the dead made in Toledo.  The Fisher Cemetery was near the present intersection of Madison Avenue and Seventeenth Street.  It was abandoned about 1840.
     Early in the history of Vistula a small tract of ground, near the present crossing of Lagrange and Bancroft streets, was used as a place of interment until about 1838.  In that year the proprietors of Port Lawrence agreed to donate a small piece of ground (Lot No. 859) near the present intersection of Dorr Street and City Park Avenue, for burial purposes.  In January, 1839, the city council took steps to fence the land and divide it into burial lots, but the property was sold for taxes before the arrangement could be carried out and the city lost possession.
     Eight acres of land were purchased by the city from Benjamin F. Stickney in 1839 and the first permanent cemetery was established therein.  This tract lay

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outside the city limits and now forms part of Forest Cemetery.  The ground was cleared in small sections as needed, but by 1865 the accommodations of the premises had become so nearly exhausted that further provisions were made necessary.  The council appointed a committee, consisting of William Baker, D. E. Gardner and James C. Hall, to examine lands near the city, with a view to the establishment of a new cemetery.  The committee reported in favor of purchasing a tract of land in Washington Township about the Willys Park is now situated, but the council decided that it was too far from the city and instead bought eighteen acres adjoining Forest Cemetery, making a total of twenty-six acres in that cemetery, which lies between the Ann Arbor Railroad and Stickney Avenue, extending from Mulberry to Paxton Street.
     Ten years later it became apparent that the growth of the city made it imperative to provide greater burial accommodations.  Accordingly, in December, 1876, the Woodlawn Cemetery Association was organized, with the following as the first board of trustees:  D. W. Curtis, B. F. Griffin, Edward Malone, C. B. Phillips, William St. John, H. S. Stebbins, J. L. Stratton, H. D. Walbridge and H. S. Walbridge.  After examining various proposed locations, the trustees decided in favor of the Richards farm - the southwest quarter of Section 22, Washington Township - near the site recommended by the committee of 1865 and rejected by the council.  some time was spent laying out the grounds and the cemetery was formally dedicated on Sunday, Oct. 21, 1883.  This is now the largest cemetery near Toledo and it is considered one of the finest in the State.
     Other cemeteries are: 
 - Calvary, situated on Dorr Street, just west of the Parkside Boulevard and extending north to Ottawa Park;
 - St. Francis de Sales, between the Manhattan Road and the Boulevard at Lagrange Street;
 - Collingwood, bounded by Phillips Avenue, Norman Drive, Haverhill Street and the Ten-Mile Creek;
 - St. John's (Lutheran), on Seaman Street near Wheeling;
 - North Oregon, on the Otter Creek Road, between Consaul and York streets;
 - St. Peter's, at Western Avenue and Wayne Street;
 - St. Mary's, at Lagrange Street and the Manhattan Road;
 - St. Patrick's, at Dale and Wayne streets; willow, just north of the Woodville Road beyond the city limits;
 - B'Nai Israel and B'Nai Jacob (Jewish), on the Otter Creek Road beyond the city limits;
 - Eagle Point (Jewish on the Eagle Point Road near the Maumee River;
 - Haughton on Central Avenue a short distance south of Monroe Street, and
 - Memorial, on Monroe Street extended, particularly noticed in Chapter XIV.  Several of these cemeteries have offices in the city, where arrangements for burials may be made.  Caretakers are provided to keep the cemeteries in order, and the modern burial place is far different from the unsightly tangle of weeds and shrubbery that marked the early neglected graveyards.