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| Bellevue Cemetery Map |
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| Danville Historic District |
Bellevue
Cemetery was founded in 1847 as the Danville Cemetery. Robert
Montgomery and William Speed purchased the first four acres from the Philip
Yeiser farm. The cemetery now
consists of 29 acres near the historic district of downtown Danville,
Kentucky
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| A Lawn Park style Cemetery |
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| Bellevue Cemetery |
Designed
as a Victorian Lawn Park style cemetery, Bellevue is made up of tree-lined
paths and pastoral vistas. Upon entering the cemetery from North First Street,
an allee of red oaks acts as a divide between the eastern and western sections
of the cemetery.
The
eastern section of the cemetery contains newer graves; the western section is
where you will find the older monuments and statues. This is the section that still maintains the look of the
Lawn Park cemetery from the 19th century.
The
Danville Cemetery had a name change in 1897 and became Bellevue Cemetery The
City of Danville took over management of the cemetery in 1931.
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| McDowell's Monument |
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| McDowell Family Stone |
Although
not buried in the cemetery, Danville doctor, Ephraim McDowell has family buried
here. McDowell is buried at
McDowell Park in the center of town, near the Old First Presbyterian
Church.
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| Ephraim McDowell |
McDowell
was a doctor and world renowned surgical pioneer. On Christmas Day, 1809, he performed the first ovarian
surgery on Jane Todd Crawford, a Kentucky resident. An ovarian tumor weighing over twenty pounds had to be cut
into several pieces to be lifted out.
Crawford was awake for the procedure, since anesthetic was not yet
invented. Jane Crawford survived the
operation and went on to live another 33 years. She died at the age of 79. McDowell became famous as the pioneer of abdominal surgical
techniques. He performed the same operation on two more women. He published his report “Three Cases of
Extirpation of Diseased Ovaria” in 1817.
Ephraim McDowell died in 1830.
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| Governor William Owsley |
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| Brigadier General Jeremiah Boyle |
There
are several U.S. Congressmen, two Civil War Union Generals; Boyle County native Jeremiah Tilford Boyle and Danville native, Speed Fry, along with Kentucky Governor William Owsley buried here.
Bellevue
is also the site of a National Cemetery.
At the start of the Civil War, the federal government set aside 18
cemetery lots in the Danville City Cemetery. Made up of less than half an acre, the section was laid out
in a rectangle with all four corners marked with U.S. corner posts.
A
total of 394 Union soldiers were buried here, most of them had died at Civil
War hospitals scattered throughout Danville. A Confederate lot set up just east of the National Cemetery
has 66 interments. In 1868,
the Danville National Cemetery was established. Burials continued in the National Cemetery until 1952. In
1998 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Bellevue
Cemetery does not have a web page, Facebook page or Twitter account. For information about the cemetery,
contact Josh Morgan, Assistant City Engineer at (859) 238-1206. The cemetery is located at 377 North
First Street in Danville, and is open daily from dawn to dusk.
Although
finding information on Bellevue Cemetery is somewhat difficult, the cemetery
itself is a treasure. Plan on
spending an afternoon wandering among the older stones and mature trees of this
gorgeous old Civil War era cemetery. The statues and stones are outstanding!
~
Joy
The
eastern section of the cemetery contains newer graves; the western section is
where you will find the older monuments and statues. This is the section that still maintains the look of the
Lawn Park cemetery from the 19th century.
The
Danville Cemetery had a name change in 1897 and became Bellevue Cemetery The
City of Danville took over management of the cemetery in 1931.
Bellevue
is also the site of a National Cemetery.
At the start of the Civil War, the federal government set aside 18
cemetery lots in the Danville City Cemetery. Made up of less than half an acre, the section was laid out
in a rectangle with all four corners marked with U.S. corner posts. 
A
total of 394 Union soldiers were buried here, most of them had died at Civil
War hospitals scattered throughout Danville. A Confederate lot set up just east of the National Cemetery
has 66 interments. In 1868,
the Danville National Cemetery was established. Burials continued in the National Cemetery until 1952. In
1998 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Although
finding information on Bellevue Cemetery is somewhat difficult, the cemetery
itself is a treasure. Plan on
spending an afternoon wandering among the older stones and mature trees of this
gorgeous old Civil War era cemetery. The statues and stones are outstanding!
