McCracken County Cemetery I (before 1910)

The Paducah Sun August 9, 1931

Paducah Ordinance August 15, 1973

McCracken County Cemetery II (1906-2010)

While researching the McCracken County Cemetery off Bleich Road we discovered that there was another County Cemetery. Newspapers kept saying that it was in Mechanicsburg. An older County Cemetery had existed long before the one on Bleich! Eventually we discovered that they meant around what's now Wayne Sullivan and Tully. [About right here: 37.062274094, -88.57350329]

So here we will call them:

McCracken County Cemetery I
- (Wayne Sullivan & Tully)
McCracken County Cemetery II
- (Bleich Road, Sanitarium.)
McCracken County Cemetery III
- AKA Wilmington Cemetery, Wilmington Road.

McCracken County Cemetery I (before 1910)

314 Mill Street.
The majority, if not all, buried here are African Americans.
Dates: From about the civil war to 1910.
Reuben Saunders sold property to the county at Mill Street that included a cemetery.

The Paducah Sun September 25, 1903

True Facts Found

County Cemetery Visited by a News Democrat Reporter.

In this article, it is explained that hogs had visited the cemetery. Here it is called a "Pauper's Field" or "County Cemetery".
"Outsiders leave corpses", this claim is likely true to some degree. The bodies were not buried deep, it mentions that most graves were shallow. And there were a lot more deaths of infants at this time, a lot that women may not have wanted discovered, perhaps. At any rate it sounds logical to want a fence at this time.
The cemetery was fenced off in 1913 by the city.

The Paducah Sun March 4, 1931

Take Down Tombs, Disinter Bones In Burying Ground

What happened?

In 1906 the old Poor Farm or Alms House on Mayfield Road near 21st was closing.
In 1906, at the same time, land was being acquired for the new Sanitarium on Bleich Road.
In 1913 County Cemetery I is fenced off "to keep out animals".
In 1927 Paducah expanded its borders (Or perhaps in an earlier annexation) and now owns the land to County Cemetery I.
They decide some of this land could now be used for a park.
- We had not previously seen this cemetery referred to as Elmwood Cemetery. But we do know that it was an African American cemetery. And of course at that time a lot of things were segregated. That unfortunately even included parks. This land was going to be taken and given to the African American children to play on. While the article states the bodies were disinterred, later opinion articles in the paper stated that they were not.

The Paducah Sun March 8, 1931

Colored Citizens Have New Park On South Side

A continuation of the previous article.
They decide some of this land could now be used for a park.
- This land was going to be taken and given to the African American children to play on. It was said to have 6-8 acres here in this news article.

The Paducah Sun August 9, 1931

Letters to the Editor: "Wants "Elmwood" kept as a cemetery."

In this article, a citizen is upset that the cemetery will be turned into a park and believes this violated laws. They stated only two bodies were removed. Notice that they put the cemetery name of Elmwood in quotes. I think this verifies that the cemetery was not locally known as this at that time.

The Paducah Sun August 9, 1931

Paducah Ordinance August 15, 1973

In 1973 we can see what is left in County Cemetery I aka "Elmwood".

After fencing off the property, taking the land, turning it into a park (and from that point on we need to research), by 1973 there is still some cemetery left and it is now referred to as "abandoned".
The size of the cemetery is now at 1.042 acres.

County Cemetery I on FindAGrave

Research was started on the older County Cemetery and is on Findagrave. But at this time there are not death certificates to explore and African Americans rarely got an obituary in the paper. So when a name is discovered and burial is "county" whoever enters it on Findagrave needs to know 1. which "county" cemetery is in use at that time and 2. if they meant "in the county" or "out in the county" or if they truly meant "County Cemetery". Given their locations we believe the names listed may be accurate. More research is needed here.

McCracken County Cemetery II (1906-2010)

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