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The second stage of cemetery evolution encompasses the lawn cemetery and the third stage is called the memorial park cemetery. The lawn cemetery stage encompassed most of the late 19th century. The memorial park stage and its unique characteristics came into use in the early 20th century. Promoters of the lawn cemetery envisioned an open green grassy lawn as the ideal cemetery. Instead of walking along paths to the site of a grave, visitors now crossed the green sod that covered the grounds.[9] It is during this stage that you begin to see the straight roads and block like structure of sections. This is a common characteristic of the newer areas of cemeteries across America.

Memorial Park
In the early 20th century imbedded tombstones were introduced as an option to upright headstones. This is where the name “memorial park” cemetery originated. Many cemeteries today have sections limited to these imbedded stones. The memorial park has most of the characteristics of the lawn cemetery stage, but requires the imbedded markers characteristic to it and forbids traditional family headstones. It has been long claimed that this type of cemetery is easier to care for. Based on his experience, Rusty Roberts, Superintendent of Cemeteries in Cedar Falls, argues otherwise: “It actually costs more to maintain imbedded stones, than it does upright stones.”[10] This is because imbedded stones tend to settle, especially with occasional heavy equipment and machinery traffic going over them. The family then has the option to re-set the stone if they wish, but the cost is nearly equal to putting in a new one. Greenwood Cemetery has one area designated for imbedded stone markers, the Oaklawn Addition, Blocks B and C. Other than those blocks, Greenwood Cemetery allows the family to place any acceptable style of memorial in the other areas. 

These movements contributed a great deal to the eventual development and evolution of today's cemetery. Many older cemeteries still in use across America have features from each period, as does Greenwood Cemetery. In the Original Section of Greenwood Cemetery, to the northeast, one can see the influence and images of the rural cemetery movement. The older areas of Greenwood Cemetery have the air of an oak grove. With its location on the slopes of bluffs overlooking the Cedar River, its large oaks and winding roads, it is easy to see the influence of the rural cemetery movement. As Greenwood Cemetery expanded, the ideals of the lawn and memorial park cemetery movements were utilized. The more recently purchased areas, encompassing the western and southern edges of the cemetery, are relatively flat. The trees that dominate the older sections are fewer and smaller. These sections, along with imbedded stone section mentioned previously, are examples of the second stage. With some understanding of Greenwood's place in the evolution of the American cemetery we can now focus on its own history. 
The history of Greenwood Cemetery dates back to around 1850. The cemetery's origins lie in three separately owned and operated family cemeteries: the Overmans, Mularky’s, and Wilds. Each family owned land on the hillside and buried their kin in family plots there. In the eastern United States the first cemeteries were churchyards before the development of the rural cemetery movement. Greenwood Cemetery and many other pioneer cemeteries in Midwestern towns originated as family plots.  After the Overman property was developed as a cemetery (now the Original Section), one begins to see the impact of the rural cemetery movement on Greenwood Cemetery's history and development. 

Overman's Family

Mularky's Family

The Overmans came here from Ohio, and purchased land from pioneer William Sturgis, and built a mill on the Cedar River.[11] The first burial in what is now Greenwood Cemetery was a daughter of Dempsey Overman who died in 1849, and was buried in the Overman family cemetery.[12] The property was eventually turned over to the city of Cedar Falls. The land given to the city by the Overman family makes up the area called the “Original Section” on the present map of Greenwood Cemetery. 

Dempsey Overman

Map of Cedar Falls

The Mularky family also owned private land along the bluffs near the Overman Cemetery, and developed it as their family burial ground. The earliest burial of the Mularky clan was William Mularky in 1852. As well as using the area for their own family’s burials, the Mularky’s sold lots to other people, naming their section Riverside Cemetery. After the most desirable lots were sold, it was taken over by the city and incorporated as the First Addition to Greenwood Cemetery.[13]

First Addition

First Addition

The Overman and Mularky plots in Greenwood Cemetery run along the northeast bluff overlooking the Cedar River. The cemetery continued to expand in the years following its first two acquisitions. The trend of development was to the west and south, away from the bluffs, but keeping to the remaining naturally timbered slopes of the Overman Cemetery.[14] West of the Overman land lay yet another family cemetery. This cemetery was called Wild’s cemetery after the family buried there. The earliest burial of the Wild family was of Daniel Wild on February 4, 1903. The Wilds are buried in the southwest corner of what is today Block 1 of the Second Addition. After some years of private ownership the Wild land was purchased by the city and added as the Second Addition to Greenwood Cemetery.[15] What later became the Woodlawn and Sunnydale Additions to Greenwood Cemetery were parts of this purchase as well.[16] 

Bluff

The northwest portion of the cemetery was named St. Bernard’s after the Catholic Church bought the land, probably from the Mularky’s, in 1901. Catholics are buried in consecrated land and originally developed separate cemeteries. (Today all of Greenwood has been blessed.) In 1938, all cemeteries under the control of the Catholic Church became separate corporations. It is during the incorporation that the name was changed to St. Patrick’s. In June 1987 the land was deeded to the city.[17] Since the city took over St. Patrick’s, the area is no longer limited to Catholic burials. This section also includes a unique Priest’s Section, a small circular area is located in the middle of St. Patrick’s. The section remains reserved for the burial of priests. There are currently five priests buried in this section. In October 1901, Reverend Bernard Goyle, a former priest at St. Patrick’s Church in Cedar Falls, was the first burial here.

Cemetery Map

Priest’s Section
More recent additions to Greenwood Cemetery include the Oaklawn and Sunny Slope Additions. After spending time at Greenwood Cemetery one notices the elevated ground of the Oaklawn Addition. This is due to having used the area as a place to put the backfill of graves from the older parts of the cemetery before the area was developed for burials.[18] The Sunny Slope Addition has not yet been plotted for burials. 

As for the plotting of the lots within Greenwood Cemetery, they were neither plotted nor surveyed during the cemetery's earlier history. This led to confusion, as there was no order to lot boundaries, description, or size.[19] A plotting and survey system was slowly introduced over time. Former County Superintendent Harold Dennler stated: Lot number one was in the southwest corner of the Original Section of the Cemetery. This was in almost the exact opposite corner from the first graves (the Overmans). The lots in use before the survey was made were mostly given numbers, but these were not in any relation to their location in the Cemetery.[20]
 Record keeping of the graves themselves were also ignored for a great many years. The plotting and surveying occurred before anyone thought of keeping a record of burials in Greenwood Cemetery. Only in 1930 did the sexton begin the process of recording those buried at Greenwood Cemetery. Before this time, record keeping was done by the sexton, but by memory alone.[21] If no monument or marker was placed at a grave it was not recorded, and when friends and relatives were gone, it was completely forgotten.[22] In the year 1930 Frank Burton, Assistant City Clerk at the time, started a catalogue system for burials at Greenwood Cemetery, but he died the next year. In 1932, sexton Joe Eiler implemented a complete system of lot and burial records.[23] Over 80 years had passed before a written record of burials and plotting had been established at Greenwood Cemetery. This is not uncommon, for many early American cemeteries have similar histories of poor or non-existent record keeping. While it can be seen that many of the older graves may never be located or recorded, a start was made that should leave out some of the confusion that existed before.[24] In 1993 an alphabetical survey and transcript of tombstones was published, and it is now the best record of Greenwood Cemetery's early burials.

Joe Eiler

Early Postcard

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