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Oak Hill Cemetery Association |
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Watertown Wisconsin |
Oak Hill
Cemetery, Vintage Photo
The Oak Hill Cemetery
Association of Watertown has decided
to no longer support a
website of their own.
It has been agreed that
the former Oak Hill site will become part of the website of the
Watertown Historical
Society and new content will continue to be added.
The url
for the relocated Oak Hill website is:
www.watertownhistory.org/articles/OakHillCem.htm
Because of the movement
of the Oak Hill site a number of
hyperlinks are now broken but
will soon be fixed.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
1540 East Main Street
Phone: 920-261-6022 Email: oakhillcem@yahoo.com
Oak Hill Cemetery was
founded in 1850 and originally located along
Oak Hill Cemetery is a
non-sectarian burial ground and is the final resting place for many pioneer
settlers such as Timothy Johnson, the founder of Watertown, and his wife; John
and Eliza Cole, early day benefactors of the city of Watertown; and John and
Eliza Richards, builders and owners of the famous Octagon
House Museum.
The cemetery is also
home to many unique examples of tombstone architecture, such as cast iron
stones, mausoleums, and even portraits carved into the tombstones. Many of
these were carved by local craftsmen, such as Thomas McCabe. There is also an
ornate holding vault carved into a rise as one enters the cemetery which was
used to store coffins while the ground was frozen.
Oak Hill is the final resting place of many prominent Watertown people
such as city founder Timothy Johnson, businessman John W. Cole, Octagon House
builder John Richards and his family, Dr. John P. Quinney
who was a Stockbridge Indian chief who died in 1875, pioneer historian Dr.
William Whyte and brewer William Hartig.
The current Oak Hill Cemetery was opened in 1865. The first Oak Hill Cemetery was on the west
side of town from 1850 to 1865; it was only one or two acres and located in a
flood plain. Christoph Schroeder offered
the land from his farm where the current cemetery is located. Traditionally cemeteries were placed on
hillsides to avoid worry about flooding.”
St. Bernard’s Cemetery is the city’s oldest, dating back to 1845, but
it was not the first. The first was
Watertown Cemetery where the Luther Prep playing field is located. It opened in 1840 and was condemned in 1947.
Oak Hill
Cemetery video clip, YouTube
Map of cemetery
layout can be ordered
Many beautiful 1-2-4 and 8
grave lots available
Oak Hill Tree Program
The Oak Hill Cemetery Association tree planting program began in 2000 to replace
trees that were destroyed in storms or had been lost through age.
Anyone interested in the program may donate
$250 towards a new tree. The donated tree will have a plaque in honor of or in
memory of a person of the donor's choice.
The deadline for the
fall planting is October 1st of each year.
Inquire about: oakhillcem@yahoo.com
Oak
Hill Cemetery Interment Ledgers: CDrom
orders
Minutes of Oak Hill Cemetery
Association, 1850 - 1973
Watertown’s first
cemetery (1845)
Decoration of veterans’ gravesites with
U.S. flags:
A
long-standing ritual perpetuated by Wesley and Gladys Altweis
Ken Riedl, Webmaster.