The Elizabeth Cemetery Association was issued a charter by the Court
of Common Pleas President Judge Isaac P. Stennell on May 22, 1869. The
charter was recorded on June 22, 1869. The Board of Managers at that
time was comprised of John Craighead, Alfred Brauff, Robert A.
Craighead, Robert Craighead, and Andrew Craighead.
The Craighead family operated the cemetery until December of 1991. After over $100,000 in vandalism was done to tombstones, Martin D. Craighead, the remaining director for the Craighead family, turned the cemetery over to a group of citizens for the purpose of operating the cemetery as a non-profit comunity-oriented corporation. The cemetery had been in the Craighead family for over 122 years.
Although official records state the establishment of the Cemetery Association in 1869, there were at least 44 burials prior to that, some dating to the Revolutionary War era. The first recorded burial that we are aware of was that of John McCune in 1773. The next recorded burials are that of Lucinda Finney in 1800 and Lonetta Kidney in 1801.
There are at least 194 veterans buried in the Elizabeth Cemetery.
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A list of surnames from the cemetery records is available online at FamilyTreeTracer.com. Transcriptions of this cemetery have been done and are available at the Elizabeth Township Historical Society. The purpose of the next transcription shall be to bring the existing information up-to-date and to establish the actual location of each gravesite. This will not be a small task, as there are visible gravemarkers for several thousand interments.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about Elizabeth Cemetery, please email me at scott@monval.com.
Photographs of the cemetery and individual gravesites are available. Click for more information.
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