ST. JOHN HISTORY

Above the hustle and bustle of Mill Creek Valley activity sits a small peaceful place of final rest for Catholic German immigrants and their descendents.

St. John's Cemetery was founded in 1849, at the end of a wretched summer of cholera. The trustees of the German Catholic Cemetery Society located in Price Hill, seeing that the original St. Joseph's Cemetery was quickly filling up, sought more land. They purchased 27.2 acres above Ludlow's Station from Mathias Schulhof, who operated a vegetable farm on the sight. The first sexton, Henry Bruegge, lived in Mr. Schulhof's house on the property, as did succeeding sextons.

St. Bernard had not been plotted yet and the area was little more than a rural hamlet, with 10 German Catholic families living in the area. The cemetery itself may have helped spur development of St. Bernard as two German Catholics, John Schroeder and Joseph Kleine, subdivided land adjacent to the cemetery. They also set aside one piece of ground for a Catholic church and school, thereby solidifying Catholic presence in the community.

Although the cemetery was consecrated on Oct. 7, 1849, several monuments mark the deaths of those who died before that time, such as Wilhelm Koch, who died March 13, 1844. A large burial vault on the property's north end has the year 1849 etched above the door. Many of the older burials in this area are unmarked.

There are several extraordinary examples of monument sculpture in St. John's. One is a bronze of the Blessed Mother and Christ Child by Clement Barnhorn, noted Cincinnati sculptor. Another contains branches of a family tree with family member names etched in each leaf. Some of the early Franciscan priests of St. Clement Parish are buried here.

St. John Cemetery
St. John Finding Us Map