History

The history of the St. John's Cemetery dates prior to 1811 durang a period when the function of a Church was to provide a burial place for members who passed, in addition to furnishing a hous of worship.

This was accomplished by local churches providing a "Churchyard", now called a cemetery, adjacent to their church building.
+St John's Cemetery Office
+St John's Cemetery, Cemetery 1
In accordance with this custom, the Union Churches of Hamburg established their first Churchyard beside the first log chuch build south of Pine Street and east of Primrose Alley in Hamburg.

It is on this plot of ground that the first settlers  of Hamburg are buried, including it's founder, Martin Kaercher.
As the numbner of available burial plots diminished, a second cemetery parcel was purchased in 1811 on Pine Street behind St. John's Church to keep the Churchyard tradition.

Records from May 23, 1853,  show the price of burial lots ranged from $6 - $10.

During 1951, another new parcel of land located alond the south side of State Street in Hamburg was purchased and incorporated into the cemetery in later years. This new section of St. John's Cemetery would be know as Fairview Cemetery.
+St John's Cemetery, Cemetery 2
+St John's Cemetery, Nice Crypt

During this era, each family was required to care for their own burial lots. However, eventually families no longer had decendants in the area, and so the lots were not kept in a presentable condition, giving the cemetery a very unsatisfactory appearance. To correct this situation, a new corporation known as St. John's Cemetery Company, Inc.  was organized on April 23, 1919.

The responsibilities of the new organization would include maintaining a work staff, equipment, a building, and to solicit endowments with for the perpetual care of the cemetery.

Although the company would no longer have any direct affiliation with churches, the local churches were glad to turn their limited assets over to the company as the cemeteries were becoming a maintenance and economic burden to the churches.

+St John's Cemetery, Cemetery 3
+St John's Cemetery, Boulevard
During the late 1800's another group of local churches founded their own cemetery called Greenwood Cemetery, located on the west side of North 5th Street in Hamburg.

Eventually, they too had sold out of burial lots and were faced with the problem of expansion and maintenance expenses.

In 1933, the directors of Greenwood Cemetery requested that St. John's Cemetery Company, Inc. absorb their affairs and expenses.

After this transition was completed, the four Protestant cemeteries in Hamburg were managed by one company and its Board of Directors.