The information in the associated pages is based on the photographs taken by Vivian Combs Moon and Caroline Huppi beginning in 2004 and the records in the keeping of the City of Middletown’s Engineering Office.  In 1987 the city records were used to produce the “Burial Records Middletown “Pioneer” Cemetery 1827-1987” .  This book was also used as a reference.  When the tombstones were impossible to read death certificates, internet sources, & the city records have been used to fill in some of the blanks.  The cemetery has around 7,000 burials.  Not all graves had tombstones, some tombstones have been buried and possibly some tombstones have been removed from the cemetery.  Burial locations have been added when known.  There are over 3,000 photographs tied to this site

“The old Middletown Cemetery originally contained four acres, in the south-east quarter of section No. 28. This ground was laid off by James HEATON, who surveyed it, thirteen lots being set aside for a potter's-field. The original trustees were Israel GIBSON, John M. BARRET, and Robert CAMPBELL. This was the 30th of May, 1827.

The Middletown Cemetery Association was organized May 25, 1878. On the 4th of August, 1863, two acres were added, and again, October 11, 1869, five acres were purchased. The association, when organized under the special act of the Legislature, consisted of the following persons: W.B OGLESBY, Jos. S. KELLEY, John CORSIN, Thos. WILSON, Edward JONES, B. RATHMAN, S.V. CURTIS, G.E. WAMPLER, C.W. SUTPHIN, I.C. FARIES, A.D. COLLINS, William SHEELS, William MOORE, C.S. BARNITZ, C.F. GUNCKEL, J.B. HARTLEY, J.J. PALLER”   From the 1882, A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County Ohio, https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ohbutler/cyc/

The cemetery became the City of Middletown’s responsibility when financial difficulties closed the cemetery.   The cemetery is labeled the Middletown Cemetery on the new, 2005 sign out front but the cemetery.  The USGS “GNIS” identification has the cemetery as the “Middletown Cemetery.”  Some call the cemetery the Pioneer Cemetery as many of Middletown’s founding families are buried here.  Names like Bonnell, Bowman, Doty,  Lefferson, Sutphin, Tytus, Vail, and Wolverton are found throughout the cemetery.  The original burial place in Middletown was on a bluff along the Great Miami River, by 1873 only two stones remained and by the time of the 1913 flood the burial ground was gone.  The two stones visible in 1873 were noted to be “George Russell, who died May 25-1814 and Moses Vail, son of Steven Vail, who died at the age of sixty-two years.”  Other sources claim that most of Middletown’s Revolutionary War Veterans were buried in the old burial ground as only two Revolutionary War Veterans have tombstones in the Middletown Cemetery.

Some graves have been moved by families from the Middletown Historical Pioneer Cemetery to other cemeteries.  Those removed to Woodside Cemetery and Arboretum may find more accurate records at the Woodside office.

The Southwest Butler County Genealogical Society published, and has for sale, The Burial Records, Middletown “Pioneer” Cemetery, 1827 – 1987.  PO Box 243, Hamilton, OH  45012.

Special recognition needs to go to Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Crist of Middletown, who transcribed the original cemetery records into the form currently in use at the Middletown Engineers Office.  Their work helps when tombstones were are no longer readable.  Generations will continue to make use of the information Mr. & Mrs. Crist, generously organized and preserved.  The Middletown Engineers Office continues to maintain records of the cemetery using the Crist’s organization system.