The earliest grave here is that of Lizzie Richardson, a pioneer child who died in the summer of 1845. Roderick Rawlins, one of the area's first settlers, chose the site for the cemetery and was buried here in 1848. Among the graves in the older section is James Lemon, a veteran of the American Revolution who died on July 4, 1858. The land was not officially set aside as a cemetery until it was acquired from Thomas McKee Ellis in 1877, and since then the Lancaster Cemetery Association has bought additional land and maintains over 1500 graves.