HISTORY OF VILLAGE OF CANISTEO CEMETERIES
Three cemetries within the Village of Canisteo are co-located: Old Pioneer, Hillside and Woodlawn.Woodlawn Cemetery is the middle section. Hillside and Old Pioneer Cemeteries are in the right section.
2015 Watercolor Map by Shelly Florence Glover
Click over picture to see it enlarged.
- 1796 The Town of Canisteo was formed in March per "Steuben County Cemeteries-Good, Bad and Gone" by Helen Kelly Brink.
- 1822 The First Known Burial in what would become the Village of Canisteo, was 3 day-old Nicole Merwin, per records of Town Clerk Leora Wilson Drake. No tombstone has been found, but there are recorded stones for Sarah Merwin (1835-1896) and Mary Merwin (1850-1925) in lot #64, row 6 in the Old Pioneer Cemetery.
- 1822 Old
Pioneer Cemetery
was also known as Old Union Cemetery and Hillcrest Cemetery.
It
was active from at least the first recorded burial in 1822.
It is
located to the left of the dirt road
going up, in the middle of
Hillside Cemetery,
above the circle and below the tree line that borders the new section
of Hillside. Per records, there are 13 rows of stones
starting at
the top,
along
the tree line below the new section of Hillside. It is a separate
cemetery. Due to confusion regarding this and lack of boundaries
for this cemetery, we are listing burials, when documented, under both
Old Pioneer Cemetery and Hillside Cemetery (with a note that they are
in Old Pioneer).
- 1873 The Village of Canisteo was incorporated.
- 1887 Hillside Cemetery was incorporated June 7, 1887 per "Steuben County Cemeteries-Good, Bad and Gone by Helen Kelly Brink. Since the Old Pioneeer Cemetery was never incorporated, Hillside is the first cemetery in the village. The upper, newer extension of this cemetery started in 1950.
- 1917 Woodlawn Cemetery was incorporated in July 1917 and opened in 1918 per "Steuben County Cemeteries-Good, Bad and Gone" by Helen Kelly Brink. It was formed after a split within the Board of Hillside.
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| To the Woodlawn Cemetery Burial List | To the Hillside Cemetery Burial List | To
the Old Pioneer Cemetery Burial List |
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NOTE: These lists are from
gravestone
readings, enhanced by information from
obituaries and other sources. They are not an official record of the
cemeteries. They are works in progress.
There were burials made over time with no tombstones, and there were some that disappeared. If a person is listed in an obituary for a cemetery but no stone is found, we list them. If there is no stone or obituary documenting burial in the cemetery but it is highly likely the person was buried at the cemetery, it is so noted. In some cases obituaries have listed the wrong cemetery. In some cases a person was buried in one cemetery and later moved to another. |