Oak Grove Cemetery and Arboretum

In 1850, this eighty acre tract known as the Kilbourne farm was purchased for use as a cemetery.  The “Old Burial Grounds”, located where Ohio Wesleyan’s Selby Stadium now stands, had deteriorated and most of those remains were removed to Oak Grove Cemetery. 

The first internment here was on June 20, 1851.  Among those buried here are the founders of the city, the parents of President Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio Governor Frank B. Willis, Mary Campbell Townley, the only two-time Miss America, fifteen unknown African-American soldiers from the Civil War, and veterans of the American Revolution.

When it was opened, Oak Grove was one mile south of Delaware. Today it is a quiet sanctuary of nature; a rolling arboretum surrounded by city.  Here, also, is the resting place for more than 20,000 citizens of Delaware.

Plaque from
The Kroger Company
and
National City Bank

(05/24/2008)