ORIGIN of OAKLAND CEMETERY  

Submitted by Dorothy Dayton in 1988

            Oakland Cemetery got its start on Feb. 13, 1843, when the legislative assembly of the territory of Iowa approved donating out lot number ten to the citizens of Iowa City “for a public burying ground…to have and to hold…(for that purpose).”

            According to James Wonick, of the cemetery staff, out lot ten was the square block lying northeast of the intersection of Church and Governor Streets in the original townsite.  An 1870 city map shows out lots ten and eleven, and blocks nine, eleven and twelve of Woods Subdivision as included in the cemetery.  A 1900 city map further shows four lots of the Irish extension of Woods Subdivision, and the east half of block ten of the subdivision itself as also being in the cemetery.  Wonick has not yet been able to discover the details of these expansions.  Reno Street, or its right-of-way, had extended into the cemetery, but in January of 1900, that portion of Reno north of Ronalds Street was vacated, thus adding some more land to the cemetery.

            Apparently no further land acquisitions took place until September of 1917, when the city purchased the northwest one-fourth quarter of block ten of Woods Subdivision; the southwest quarter of this block is also in the cemetery, but how or when it was acquired is not known.  In March of 1919, just over forty-eight and one-half acres – from Christian Gaulocher – were added to the cemetery; this included the bulk of the Hickory Hill wooded area. 

            According to a 1973 chart, prepared by Billie Hauber, a small section of this land is being used for cemetery purposes; the balance of the purchase could be used for expansion of the cemetery if the city council should concur in such a plan.  However, the land in question is presently being used as park land.  In March of 1951, another forty acres – from Claude and Mabel Conklin Woods – were acquired; but this land is currently considered unsuitable for cemetery purposes, and since 1980 has been designated as park land.

            Among improvements to the cemetery have been the following:  in 1930, the entry gates on Brown Street were put in place; the concrete street system was installed in 1934; and in 1954, the cemetery bought its first backhoe – this marked the end of the long era of digging graves by hand.  With these improvements, and with the addition of various parcels of land through the years, Oakland Cemetery became as we know it today.