The following is an extract from the 1869 Gazetteer and Business Directory of Niagara County, NY in the Wilson portion of the Gazetteer of Towns.
“Green Wood Cemetery is located upon a point of land in the bay of the Twelve Mile Creek, a quarter of a mile west of the village. The inclosure contains seven acres of land donated by Luther Wilson. The beautiful and picturesque scenery, the taste and care manifest in the improvements render it an appropriate spot for the use to which it has been appropriated.”
Since the 1910s, the Daughters of the American Revolution have been transcribing unpublished records to help preserve them. They then publish these as part of the Genealogical Record Committee (GRC) Reports.
One of the GRC Reports is a 208-page volume (#317 of the Cemetery, Church, and Town Record Reports) from the DAR Niagara Falls Chapter (of which I am a member) of records that were copied from the Niagara County Historian’s Office.
The report lists the name of the person that was buried, born, died, and the name of the cemetery.
The following portion of an article was published in the Lockport Daily Journal in 1871 about the Greenwood Cemetery.1
“THE CEMETERY
Leaving railroad matters, I invite the reader to accompany me to one of Wilson’s most peaceful and beautiful ornaments. That is her cemetery. Mr. Wilson, senior, presented seven acres of land to the corporation, two more they purchased, and now they have, in my humble opinion, the prettiest cemetery in the county; it is admirably laid out, and many of its monuments are magnificent. A visit to this place suggest to the world-worn traveler a desire to “here drink of the waters of Lethe, and sleep the sleep that knows no waking.” A part of the cemetery is called Potiphar’s field. Here they re-recently [sic] buried an unknown seaman, who was found drowned, his solitary and forlorn looking grave, stuck away in a far corner was peculiarly suggestive of the absence of those who love and long and wait for his welcome presence, but who will long and wait in vain. Apropos to burying grounds, the Wilson people at the time of my visit were engaged in the cheerful operation of transplanting their dead from the old churchyard.”
An article found in the Union Sun & Journal reports that over fifty headstones were tipped over by vandals in 1972.
“Tombstones Vandalized In Wilson
WILSON – Vandals have again damaged headstones at the Greenwood Cemetery, Lake Rd., here, overnight.
Niagara County Sheriff’s Deputies John T Taylor and Edward F Garde about 9 a.m. today discovered between 50 and 60 markers in the south end of the cemetery had been tipped over or broken off at the base.
Deputies said the caretaker, Whitney F. Barnum, 2804 Maple Rd., told them some of the stones were damaged over the summer, but most of the vandalism was recent.
Deputies said over a dozen empty beer bottles were found in the area.”2