Originally Pioneer Cemetery was known as Oread Cemetery. The Pioneer Cemetery today lies on a gentle plateau on the far, southwestern edge of a praire hill grandly named Mount Oread by the New Englanders. By October of 1854, Oread Cemetery had its first occupant: Moses L. Pomeroy, dead from an "Illinois fever." On several stones epitaphs read like lullabies. Charles and Adeline Duncan buried three of their children here between 1857 and 1859.

In Kansas, however, "fever" soon became synonymous with violence, so it was not long before Oread Cemetery had its first martyrs being laid to rest with full military honors.

By the early 1860s the cemetery became the burial ground for many soldiers, some were unknown, but eighteen of the Thirteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry have since had their graves marked with military regularity: their stones sturdy and in crisp formation even today. Typhoid took its toll as surely as any musket balls could have.

For many years it had been part of the N.P. Demming farm and cattle grazed among the marble overgrown with sumac and honey locust. Headstones were the objects of target practice for farmboys as well as objects of theft for fraternity boys throwing a Halloween party. In 1928, under the direction of Lawrence Mayor Robert Rankin, the cemetery was cleaned up, fenced, and officially renamed Pioneer Cemetery, with a memorial quartzite boulder marking the grounds. A decade later, however, The Lawrence Democrat scolded the city about the poor state of the cemetery deeded to the University and significant steps landscaping now associated with the cemetery were undertaken with a grant provided by the Kansas University Endowment Association, which now maintains the grounds.

It was in the late summer of 1863 that Oread Cemetery had its greatest number of burials: William Clark Quantrill and his band of 450 confederate irregulars saw to that on August 21, 1863, over 200 unarmed men and boys were massacred on that, Lawrence’s darkest day. A trench was dug and as many as 70 men buried in it the days following the raid. Today, only four stones survive to mark the graves of Quantrill’s victims. Many of those originally buried there were moved in 1865 when Oak Hill cemetery opened east of town.

In 1864 there were about 15 burials in Oread. In 1865, there was but one. By the late 1860s, Alfred and Sarah Peake were buried in the southwest part of the cemetery, marking the end of the pioneer era. No more burials would be made at Oread Cemetery for nearly 80 years.

George B. Stutliff of Fairhaven, Vermont died "Far from home," his stone was sent 1,500 miles to Lawrence by his parents.

Pioneer Cemetery is across Iowa from Hashinger Hall.

Credits: Photo II, Mrs. Farrar, West Jr. High, Pioneer Cemetery Survey Historic Mount Oread Fund, Karl L. Gridley, 1997,HMOF.

© Celese Siebert, 2000.