Four members of the Exchange Club of Springfield, Ohio attended the planting of a White Oak tree during a ceremony commemorating the 250th Anniversary of our independence. A White Oak, native to Ohio, will be planted in each of the 88 Ohio counties.
The pioneers James and Elizabeth Demint settled this land on the banks of Buck Creek in 1799, four years after the Treaty of Greenville opened this portion of the Northwest Territory to western settlement. He located the burying ground 470 feet outside the settlement’s western boundary, just north of the earliest road to Dayton.
The Springfield Burying Ground is the eternal resting place of the city’s earliest residents, including at least seven veterans of the Continental Army, settlers from the eastern states, former slaves who escaped bondage in the South, and even a member of the Boston Tea Party. It served as the city’s principle burial ground until Greenmount Cemetery was opened in 1845. The last known burial at the “Old Burying Ground” was Alice Berry in May 1863. s.
Thanks to Larry and Bev Sewell, Karen and Mark Lotz, who witnessed the historic event.
