NATHANIEL JOHNSON CEMETERY

“Interesting Part of Our History”

by Mrs. Lewis Thornton

(Written by Mrs. Thornton for The Wellsville Daily Reporter, Unknown Date; Copied from the Records of the Johnson Cemetery Association)

            The Johnson Cemetery is directly across West Genesee Street from the Trinity Lutheran Church .  It was laid out by Nathaniel Johnson in 1854 and the original map made at that time is in the Woodlawn Cemetery office in the Ebenezer Building .

            Mr. Johnson was born April 8, 1792 in Afton , Chenango County , NY .  In later years he moved to Elmira and was interested in the lumber business and came here probably in the early 1840’s.  He owned large tracts of lumber near here and in Pennsylvania .  He built a log cabin back of where the Moose Club is now and lived in it while his big house was being constructed.  This was located directly opposite the site where the old Erie Railroad Station stood.  It was a beautiful house in the Greek Revival style of architecture.  In the 1890’s it was owned by the Hon. Fredrick Church and later by Mark Hyslip, Sr.  It is now the headquarters of the V.F.W.

            He was a very liberal minded man and active in the affairs of the village.  I have always heard that he gave the land along the railroad track where the freight depot and station are to the Erie on the condition that if the gift was accepted every passenger train should stop in Wellsville thereafter.  Just recently I have heard this denied as heresay.  Anyway, all the passenger trains will stop here.

            There was no real cemetery before 1854 although the Farnum Cemetery , gift of the Farnum family, now called Woodlawn, had been used before Wellsville had a name and the infant son of Samuel Shingler was buried there in 1839.  Shingler kept an inn on Main Street .

            Mr. Johnson was a prominent member of the Congregational Church, serving on its Board of Trustees, and that may be one of the reasons he picked out the site across the street from it for the Cemetery (the Congregational Church was located there until 1870), but, the cemetery had no connection with that Church nor afterwards with the Trinity Lutheran Church.  It was a private enterprise and at his death on August 18, 1874 it went to his heirs.  He is buried there and the lot is enclosed with a beautiful iron fence as are also the lots of his brother, Seymour Johnson, and of Joseph Crowner.  The latter is particularly interesting, the design being of a cord and tassels.

            There are many prominent citizens of Wellsville’s early days buried here, among them the Yorks and the Reesers.  The latter were the parents of Nancy Howe, the wife of David A. Howe, to whom we owe our Library.

            Mr. Johnson left $1,000 in his will in care of the Wellsville Chapter No. 143, Royal Arch Masons, the interest theron to be used for the maintenance of a fence around the cemetery.  At the present time there is a good looking fence made of heavy iron rods across the north and east sides.  There is no fence on the south side but trees and shrubs separate it from the lot next to it and there is a wire fence to the west.  To the north just outside the rear gate is a small tract of land which doesn’t seem to belong to any one.  It is grown high with weeds and shrubs and only one of the tallest grave stones can be seen above them.  I couldn’t get near enough through the brambles to read any names.

            For many years the owners of lots in the cemetery kept them up but as the years went by many of them moved away or died and it became sadly neglected.  In 1926 there was a movement started to clean it up and on August 30, 1926 the First Trust Company obtained the title to it from the Johnson heirs.  The lots are owned by individuals.  There have been few burials in it of recent years but a child was buried there this month.

            In 1920 Polly McIntyre gave $450, the interest on which was to be used for the maintenance of the McIntyre lot and in 1928 Sarah York Batterson, of Syracuse , Edward P. York of Stonington, Conn and Fannie Langdon York of Rochester, children of Hiram and Harriet Palmer York, who are buried there, gave $1,500 towards its upkeep.  Owing to these gifts and the strenuous efforts of a committee, consisting of Mrs. Julius H. Fisher, Supervisor Garfield Black, and Reubin Miles, helped by others of our public-minded citizens, the cemetery was put in good shape and it has been well kept since.  The supervisor of the Woodlawn Cemetery has been cooperative and has helped as consultant and advisor.

            It has an attractive location and some of the liveliest old maple trees in town.  Next to it according to the 1869 Atlas was the W. Hale residence.  Before Mr. Hale owned it, E.M. Lake lived there.  He had a stone works and made many of the markers for the cemetery.  Some of them are very interesting.  Then came the house of W.A. Baldwin and that of Mrs. Johnson.  She was probably the widow of  Henry W. Johnson, a son of Nathaniel.  At that time there was no house where the Trinity Lutheran Church ’s minister’s house now stands.

            Sumner and William A. Baldwin were early residents of Wellsville.  They came here in 1855 from Ithaca .  Sumner lived on the southeast corner of Fassett and Broad Streets.  They founded the Wellsville Bank in 1868 and build the Baldwin Block, now the Ebenezer Block, and back of it the Baldwin Opera House, where many excellent plays were given.  New York City theatrical companies often stopped over for one night’s performance in route from New York to Chicago on the Erie .  Also local talent gave operas and wonderful minstrel shows there, the latter comparable, I am sure, to those put on today by the Lions.  In the gay 90’s, the stage was used for balls and other festivities.

            This house was sold to Clarence Farnum who lived there for some time.  Then the Odd Fellows purchased it and used it for their Lodge and in 1930 it was sold to Mr. Macris, the large hall at the rear added and it is now used for moving pictures – the Temple Theatre.

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