Mail: PO Box 368 Niles, Ohio 44446

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We are pleased some attention is going to be given to the Niles Cemetery. Lou Hillier is the new superintendent and he is working on a plan to restore and maintain the appearance of the Niles Cemetery. With new technology all 24 developed acres of the cemetery will have a mapping system that will make information available on the 20,000 eternal resting sites.

Heaton plot in Union Cemetery in May 1986. The plaque was installed due to the efforts of the Niles Historical Society who also cleaned up and repaired the plot after the 1985 tornado severely damaged it

Many of the stones still need to be righted and honor and dignity given to those who have gone before us. We had a beautiful peaceful area before the tornado toppled tomb stones nd stripped the natural beauty of the cemetery when it uprooted many of our beautiful trees; American and European beech, maple, willow, dogwood, elm, horse chestnut and many varieties of oak trees.

Originally the cemetery was a fairly small area near the top of the knoll, adjacent to Vienna Road with the earliest interment occurring in 1804. James Heaton, founder of Niles, along with many of his family members are buried there. Also buried in the cemetery are many of the William Ward family, Mason’s, Stevens, Holloway, Thomas, Robbins, Allison, Blachly, Harris families and the list goes on and on. Jacob Shelar, the man who saved William McKinley and Joseph Butler from drowning and the sister of President McKinley, Abigal are also buried in that cemetery..

The lower section of the cemetery along Route 46, belonged to Joseph Roger. He quarried flagstone from that area, leaving a large depression in the landscape. In 1917, Joseph Roger sold 10 ½ acres to the city of Niles so the Union Cemetery could be enlarged.

There were three small lakes in the upper area of the cemetery, which at one time was a very beautiful part of the landscaping of the cemetery. Since then, a storm pipe was installed, draining the lakes and truckloads of soil have been dumped into that area and the one off Route 46, where Mr. Rogers quarried the limestone in 1870.

Before 1917 the entrance to the cemetery was just off Niles-Vienna Road near the intersection of Hartzell Ave. Mrs. Henry Hoffman had a stone gateway constructed in that area in memory of her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Parker Tibbetts. Mrs. Tibbets was very active in Niles, with church work, civic efforts and projects of the Niles Federation of Woman’s Clubs.

She was also very interested in tree plantings. The Mount Vernon walnut tree, still standing on the grounds of the McKinley Memorial was raised by her from a seed and later planted there.

The plaque beneath the tree states it was a "Mt. Vernon Walnut tree planted on the McKinley Memorial grounds in 1919 in memory of the World War heroes.in memory of the World War(I) heroes".

The photograph of the walnut tree was taken in 1922.

An Oak tree, named “Lieut. Mac” for a soldier of World War I was planted on the lawn of the Tibbett’s home at 810 Robbins and is still standing.

The same walnut tree, 90 years later.