In existence for over 220 years, the Stow Street Pioneer Cemetery is Kent, Ohio's oldest historical site. It's history is forever linked to the history of a founding family, the Haymakers. In the fall of 1805, John and Sally (nee Liggett) Haymaker left with their young three children Eve, Catherine and infant Jacob from their home in Pennsylvania to a new life in the Connecticut Western Reserve (that we now know as Kent, Ohio).
By the time they arrived in late November, an early winter had set in. They found shelter in an abandoned surveyor's hut and survived the brutal winter with help from curious Native Americans whose villages were located near Streetsboro, Silver Lake and Cuyahoga Falls.
The following spring John's father Jacob and mother Eve arrived along with John's brother George. They cleared the land and began building a cabin on the west side of the Cuyahoga River just north of what is now Stow Street. From these new beginnings, a small settlement began to grow, but Eva Meyers Haymaker, 56 years old, lived only four years after her arrival.
Her death on October 11, 1810, was the first recorded in Franklin Township. Her family chose her burial site on their property along the Cuyahoga River, then two years later deeded the acreage to the Franklin Township. For the next 48 years, Stow Street Cemetery served as the only community burial grounds until Standing Rock Cemetery opened along North Mantua Street in 1859.
The last burial at the Stow Street Pioneer Cemetery was in 1914.
List of Grave Sites