Waterford Village Cemetery was the original resting place of community members who were instrumental in founding Waterford. Village founders Levi Barnes and Samuel Chapman dedicated the site as the village’s first public cemetery in 1843, but burials date back to 1837, when Wisconsin was still a territory. Those buried here included several members of Wisconsin’s early state legislature, county supervisors, and local judiciary, including Barnes, Chapman, Ira Rice, and Alfred Lockwood. War of 1812 veteran John F. Beedle was also buried here. A law introduced by Rice in 1870 assigned maintenance of the cemetery to the Village. By 1880, as the site deteriorated, many families had decided to move bodies to other local cemeteries. The last known burial here was Abigail Sawyer in 1908, and the site is protected by law as a burial ground.