Elmwood Cemetery is located on the east side of Mount Pleasant Avenue, three blocks from Main Street, in Lancaster. It is one of the oldest and most historic cemeteries in Lancaster. The city purchased the land from Thomas Ewing and Catherine Creed in 1835. It was known as East End Cemetery from 1837 to 1840.

Each denomination was to have a tract of the 20 acres set aside for their use and marked by the erection of fences or stone alignments for each division. Two of the divisions were to ne used as a “potter’s” field for the burial of the poor. In 1840, the burial ground was renamed Elmwood for all of the elm trees growing in the area. These trees were later removed due to Dutch elm disease.

It is the burial place of several famous people: Henry Giesy, a Civil War General, Joseph, and Dorothy Hunter, the first white settlers in Lancaster, Charles Sherman, father of William T. Sherman, Darius Tallmadge, the “Stagecoach King”, Frances Stanberry, Scott James, a Civil War soldier, and Lancaster’s first black officer, and Zane, the first postman in the United States.

This well-maintained cemetery contains many interesting old gravestones, many with detailed carvings. It is thought by some to be haunted.