Township Cemeteries
Washington Township oversees six cemeteries that include:
- Centerville-Washington Township Cemetery -Maple Avenue
- Sugar Creek Baptist Church Cemetery (also called the Old Centerville Cemetery) – North Main Street
- Woodbourne Cemetery – West Whipp Road at Paddington Road
- Washington Presbyterian Church Cemetery – State Route 725 at Southwind Drive
- Rehoboth Methodist Church Cemetery – State Route 48, north of Webbshaw Drive on Pennfield Road
- Sugar Creek Friends Meeting House Cemetery – Clyo at Olde Quaker Court
Centerville-Washington Cemetery
The Centerville- Washington Township Cemetery, located at 68 Maple Ave., is the only active Washington Township burial ground, with more than 2,300 gravesites on ten acres. The office is located on the cemetery grounds. Questions regarding cemetery operations can be directed to the cemetery sexton at 937-433-0150 , Monday through Friday, 8 am to 3 pm.
Columbarium
The Centerville-Washington Cemetery also offers a 24-niche columbarium for residents to store their loved ones ashes.
Historical Highlights
Provided by Centerville-Washington History. Questions regarding cemetery history can be directed to Centerville-Washington History.
Sugar Creek Baptist Church Cemetery
Entrance is north of Chiapas Restaurant
The first recorded meeting of the Sugar Creek Baptists was November 2, 1799. In 1802, property was purchased from Aaron Nutt and by 1803 a meeting house was erected on the west side of the cemetery. Early residents traveled to the church on trails which were blazed through the wilderness from settlements five miles away. On July 4, 1807, the church trustees appointed Benjamin Robbins and Whitely Hatfield "to lay off a burial ground in proper manner." Additions to the cemetery continued until 1868, which extended the cemetery to its present boundaries. Many early settlers, including veterans of the Revolutionary and other wars, are interred there.
In 2020, members of Centerville-Washington History and community volunteers began a multi-year restoration project at the Sugar Creek Cemetery. Washington Township donated funds to the project and in 2020, 86 volunteers spent a combined 1,376 hours cleaning 320 headstones. In 2021, 52 volunteers cleaned the remaining 125 headstones and a professional company was hired to repair 83 broken headstones. In 2022, approximately 100 tilted headstones will be repositioned by a professional company.
Woodbourne Cemetery
Whipp Road at Paddington Road
In 1823 Richard Wheatley elected to bury his son Richard in lot 16 of the industrial town of Woodbourne, thereby establishing a town burial ground. Others were buried there before the Christian Church was built on lot 11 in 1846. This Church then associated itself with the cemetery. With the decline of the town the church was abandoned and eventually torn down in 1939. The last interment in the cemetery was in 1891. There are nine markers for 15 known burials, but many more are believed to be buried there.
Washington Presbyterian Church Cemetery
State Route 725 at Southwind Drive
Encouraged by Edmund and Johnathan Munger, the church congregation met for the first time on November 29, 1813. Services were held in the larger of Munger's two barns until a quaint brick church was built in 1830 on two acres purchased by Johnathan Munger for $35. The church sat between the cemetery and Miamisburg-Centerville Road at the corner of what is now Southwind Drive (formerly Washington Church Road). The church was abandoned in 1928 and razed by the State of Ohio in 1971. There are 89 graves including that of Revolutionary War General William Dodds. The earliest grave is dated 1830 and the last 1898.
Rehoboth Methodist Church Cemetery
North of Webbshaw Drive on Pennfield Road
The members of this church first met in 1809 in the home of Henry Opdyke on the Alexandersville-Bellbrook Pike near the Greene County line. In 1816, the members built a small brick church in front of the cemetery that faced State Route 48. The church was abandoned and torn down many years ago when the congregation joined with the United Methodist Church of Centerville. The cemetery contains 51 known graves dated between 1821 and 1879.
Sugar Creek Friends Cemetery
Clyo Road, south of Quaker Way
After attending monthly meetings in Waynesville and Springboro for many years, members of the Society of Friends built a log meeting facing Clyo Road on two acres of land purchased from Soloman Miller in 1823. Abandoned as a church in 1858 when most of the members moved out of the Township, the structure was converted to a house only to be consumed by fire soon after. The cemetery contains nine markers for eleven members of three families, but Quaker records show more than that. The cemetery was deeded to the Township in 1979.