Grandview Cemetery, Johnstown

History and notable features

The cemetery association that operates Grandview was founded in 1885 to accommodate Johnstown's rapidly growing population. The first interment was that of Lucretia Hammond of Kernville (now a part of Johnstown), who was buried on April 30, 1887.http://www.johnstownpa.com/History/hist18.html, Grandview Cemetery on Johnstown, Pennsylvania website accessed September 7, 2009

The land for the cemetery, west of the city on Yoder Hill, was purchased from the Cambria Iron Company.

During the late 1880s, Millcreek Road, a steep and winding mile-long street, was built to facilitate public access to the cemetery's original entrance, but in 1904, cemetery overseers found it necessary to create a new entrance to the cemetery at Bucknell Avenue.

The cemetery is best known due to the aftermath of the Johnstown Flood of 1889. Many of the flood's 2,209 victims are buried here. A section of the cemetery called the "Unknown Plot" contains the bodies of 777 flood victims who could not be identified, and a monument to the flood victims was purchased by the state of Pennsylvania and dedicated on May 31, 1892 before an estimated crowd of 10,000 that included the governor of Pennsylvania.

In January 2024, the total number of interments at Grandview was more than 70,000. The cemetery contains forty-seven burial sections and more than 235 acre, and is one of the largest in Pennsylvania.

Notable burials

• Warren Worth Bailey
• Jacob Miller Campbell
• Elmer Cleveland
• Nat Hickey
• John Graham McCrorey
• Daniel Johnson Morrell
• John Murtha
• George W. Reed
• John Marshall Rose
• John Phillips Saylor
• Howard William Stull
• Boyd Wagner
• Anderson Howell Walters
• George M. Wertz
• John Irving Whalley

Notes

References

1. "WEEKLY LIST OF ACTIONS TAKEN ON PROPERTIES: 5/9/2025 THROUGH 5/16/2025". National Park Service.