Jefferson County Chapter

Jefferson County Infirmary Cemetery Was located in Steubenville Township
(Written by Flora L. VerStraten)

The infirmary was located where the Jefferson Community College, 4000 Sunset Blvd, Steubenville, Ohio now stands. The tennis court and the water tower area in the rear of the college is where the County Infirmary Cemetery was located. There are no records from the cemetery available. We even checked with the Steubenville Union Cemetery to confirm if any removals were made from the Infirmary Cemetery at the time the land was being purchased to build the college. No records avail to date. Some researching our ancestors have located death records or wills where our ancestor has "died at the Infirmary" and we can't locate any burial records for them. We are sure some of them were buried in the Infirmary Cemetery.

When my father was a boy and young teenager, he grew up just about 1 -2 miles from the Infirmary. He remembers walking up Sinclair Avenue and cutting grass in the cemetery and getting pay about 25 cents each time he cut the grass. He informed me that he remembers the cemetery being a large cemetery. There is chapter member that remembers the cemetery at a later date and he also informed me that he cut the grass in the cemetery, remembering it to be about the size of the tennis court.

When the college (city of Steubenville and/or Jefferson County) were installing the water tower (located in the rear of the college campus grounds) just a couple years ago (about 2006), someone called me and told me that there were a couple tombstones thrown down over the hill from the tennis court area in the area where they were digging to install the water tower. I asked a cemetery volunteer to go out and have a look and she found nothing. She remembers seeing a couple tombstones in that location previously as well. Some research has revealed a few tombstones in that location, but we failed to locate any substantial records for the Infirmary and/or Cemetery.

The tail of the story is - if you haven't located a burial record or tombstone inscription record for your pioneer ancestor, here in Jefferson County, that doesn't mean they weren't buried here. It just means, you can't locate their tombstone or their tombstone is gone! If you have any records that show your ancestor "died at the Infirmary" you will probably never find proof of a burial location, sadly. If you know of an ancestor or have a death or burial record that states, "died at or buried at Infirmary," please contact Flora at jeffersoncounty1@att.net . We would like to begin compiling a possible list for those that may have been buried at the Infirmary.

Murray, Charles
b. unknown d. May 26, 1912

The County Infirmary is located where the current Jefferson Community College now stands (March of 2008). Many remember, prior to the college purchasing the land to build, there was a cemetery that stood behind the infirmary, in the location of the present tennis court and a recently built large water tower, that stands beside the tennis court. We’ve had eye witness, first hand stories, told to us about how they remember mowing grass at the county infirmary during the summer. We have not located any records referencing any re-interments from this cemetery to another location. They could be in a mass grave at the Steubenville Union Cemetery. If you have a will or any document that shows your ancestor(s) living and/or dying at the “County Infirmary,” they were probably buried there and you will not locate a tombstones or any proof of burial, to date.

County Infirmary - where the county cemetery was once located. The cemetery was located in the rear of the infirmary, on what is now the tennis court and runs down to where the water tower now stands. Data as of the fall of 2008.