Cemeteries of Etna Township

The township trustees have the authority to sell plots, set fees for services, maintain the cemetery and to provide for expansion.  One required aspect of cemetery care is the enclosure of cemeteries by a substantial fence or hedge.  This enclosure must be kept in good repair.

There are three Cemeteries in Etna Township:

Etna Cemetery -The Etna Cemetery is located on Pike Street west of State Route 310 and south of National Road 40 and it appears that this cemetery is as old as the township.  There are several burials there with death dates appearing to be in the early 1830s.  Further, in 1834 a cholera epidemic devastated Etna and about 30 people died in 10 days.  Tradition says that those who died from this epidemic “were placed in a long, trench-like grave and all buried at one time,” rather individual graves.  No one is certain of the location of this large grave, if it does exist. To the east of the earliest graves, about three rows further back, is a strip with no gravestones.  It looks like it is long enough to hold possibly 25 bodies.  In comparison to other cemeteries, Etna Cemetery is not very large and there are over 400 graves in the cemetery.  There have been about 14 new burials in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Parkinson-Babcock Cemetery - The Parkinson-Babcock Cemetery is also called the Pike Cemetery.  It is a historic cemetery and the oldest site dates back to 1813.  There is one know Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia buried there, and one veteran from the War of 1812, and numerous Civil War veterans.  In 1951 when National Road 40 was widened to four-lane traffic, this cemetery had to be moved a little to the north to make room for the larger road.  Also, this cemetery was a part of a long-term renovation project benefiting Etna Township graveyards that started in 1986.

 

 

St. Jacobs Cemetery - The St. Jacobs Cemetery is located on Palmer Road, east of Watkins Road and west of York Road.  This cemetery was established around 1834 and belonged to the St. Jacob’s German Reformed Church.  All this southeastern part of Etna Township was called Germany from about 1936 and before.  There isn’t much information as to when and how the township trustees became as the caretakers to this cemetery.