Miami Cemetery ~ Located in Corwin, Across the River from Waynesville

Modern Map of Miami Cemetery in Corwin, Ohio
The road at the top is old Rte. 73. The "S" shaped road at the bottom is Clarksville Road. The Main Gate (see below) is on the west end of the map leading directly from the center of Corwin, Ohio.

Miami Cemetery in Corwin, Ohio
The old Methodist graveyard was incorporated as a public cemetery,
Miami Cemetery, on April 2nd, 1866.
See, Map of Waynesville and Corwin, Ohio

Miami Cemetery began its existence as a family pioneer cemetery. It was the cemetery of the Burwell Goode family. With the establishment of the Methodist Epsicopal Church in Waynesville, which first met a couple of miles south of town along the Little Miami River and also at a closer location to the village in the Goode farmhouse, the private family cemetery became the graveyard of the Methodists.

The need for a larger public cemetery being recognized, the Miami Cemetery association was incorporated in 1866. The list of the first subscribers makes up a list of "whos-who" in Waynesville and the surrounding area: John W. Keys, William Manington, J. A. Irwin, David Chenoweth, W. Retallick, Henry McKinsey, William Barley, Elton Dudley, Giles Satterthwaite, John Hawke, O. J. Wright, G. T. O'Neall, A. Lincoln, E. R. Printz, Reeve Holland, S. S. Haines, Thomas M. Wales, Joseph Hisey and John Hisey, J. M. Hadden, A. P. O'Neall, Charles F. Chapman, Jonas Janney, David Reed and David Lashley. The cemetery was surveyed by Joel Evans who also served as a Trustee for many years.

The first trustees were : Seth Silver Haines, A. P. O'Neall, Thomas M. Wales, Emmor Baily (who was elected President), and John Hawke. William Manington was elected the clerk and Reeve Holland was the Treasurer (see, Miami-Gazette newspaper, April 11th, 1866).

The following article , "Appeal to the Liberal", appeared in the Miami-Gazette on June 6th, 1866:

It is know to most persons in the neighborhood that a tract of land has been purchased, lying in the angle of made by the Wilmington and Clarkesville Roads, above Corwin. The amount is about 44 acres. The grounds have passed into the hands of a Cemetery Association, who, for the purpose of laying it off into lots, avenues, alleys, etc, and otherwise make it attractive as well as useful, must necessarily incur a large expense. There is a considerable debt yet existing against it; but the proposition of the Trustees is liberal. To all persons paying anything (of much value) a certificate will issue, agreeing to redeem the same with burial lots, or paying the same back when it suits the convenience, with interest. Let every person that can (and here are but few who cannot) now take an interest, subscribe and pay it, and let the grounds be freed from debt, and in the future take your certificates in lots; they will be secure to you or your assigns, and cannot be sold for debt.


The day for small country and family graveyards has gone by. They are necessarily required in first and early settlements. Pass into the country a few miles in almost any direction, and you will see abandoned and neglected graveyards. The cemetery grounds selected here is a large part dry and sandy, a matter of great importance; while the most of the graveyards in the neighborhood are a stiff clay soil, holding water a large part of the year, to near the top of the ground. The burial of the dead, under the most favorable circumstances is a solemn matter, and when added the thought: that the bodies of our children and friends are committed to a home of water and mud, it is calculated to increase our afflictions. Let the suffering mind be brought to reflect that the body of our friend was decently interred, that the last resting place is dry and secure, that everything around it wears (with the solemnity of the location) a lovely and invigorating aspect, and it will in a great measure be relieved from the depressing influences that hang around the neglected receptacles of the dead. Let all contribute for the above object. Your offerings, however small, will not be despised, but especially all that can spare the means, let it be done with a liberal hand. It will add to our population, wealth, energy and prosperity. ~~ A Friend of the Cemetery

Miami Cemetery became a beautiful cemetery and arboretum. Leopold Weltz of Wilmington, Ohio was the landscaper. Miami Cemetery became a tourist site due to its rural local and peacefulness. People from Cincinnati would travel via the Little Miami Railroad to the Corwin~Waynesville station, get off the train, check into the Panhandle Hotel in Corwin, and stroll up to the cemetery to spend the day.

The website of Maimi Cemetery is http://miamicemetery.org/.

Also see:

Robert F. Shidaker Family (Robert F. Shidaker was a superintendent of Miami Cemetery at the turn of the 20th century.)

Internet resources:

Miami Cemetery ~ Corwin, Ohio~Index of Names, Section, Lot, Grave, Date of Death & Source

http://www.mlcook.lib.oh.us/
Miami%20Cemetery%20Listing%20of%20Names.htm

Warren County Genealogy Society: Miami Cemetery, http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohwarren/Cemetery/Miami/
miami.htm (includes photographs of tombstones).

Warren County Genealogy Society: Miami Cemetery Inscription book (Vol. 8) index online: http://www.co.warren.oh.us/genealogy/cem/
Cemetery-Vol-8-A-G.htm

Warren County Genealogy Society: Miami Cemetery Inscription book (Vol. 12) index online: http://www.co.warren.oh.us/genealogy/cem/
Cemetery-Vol-12.htm

Political Graveyard for Warren County, Ohio:
http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/OH/WR.html

Reference works:

Vol 8 ~ Miami Cemetery at Corwin, Ohio (Cemetery Inscription series for Warren County, Ohio) Compiled by Warren Co. Gen. Society. Names and dates are copied from the stones, recorded as of 1985.

Vol 12 ~ Miami Cemetery at Corwin, 1985-2000
Compiled by Dorothy Carter & published by Warren Co. Gen. Society. This Miami Cemetery, Wayne Township book covers the time period of 1985-2000. The names and dates were completed from obits printed in the Western Star and other newspapers. However, it is not a complete listing of all buried in that time period. It also includes death notices of Wayne, Massie, and Washington Township people who are buried elsewhere