Waldschmidt Cemetery stands on land purchased in 1795 from former New Jersey judge and Congressman John Cleves Symmes by Christian Waldschmidt, one of the first settlers in the Little Miami River Valley. Waldschmidt, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was a veteran of the American Revolution, and he and his family are buried there. During the Civil War, this area, named for Governor William Dennison, served as a training site and hospital for the Union effort. Part of the cemetery was used as a temporary burial place for 349 Union soldiers and 31 Confederate prisoners of war, most of whom died at the camp hospital. On July 4, 1869, the Union soldiers were moved to Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, and about the same time the Confederate dead were reinterred in Chase Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.