Whenever we travel anywhere I usually end up looking for older cemeteries are in the area. This is what brought me to Pioneer Cemetery in Bowling Green, KY back in May of 2023. Our family was taking a road trip from Savannah to Chicago and we decided to stop for a night in Bowling Green.
The cemetery was once “Public Cemetery” then “Repose Cemetery” and now is “Pioneer Cemetery.” While the name would imply many of the early Kentucky pioneers are buried here, there are also many enslaved persons buried here as well. Unfortunately, their graves are in the areas of the cemetery without headstones. There are also 103 unnamed soldiers buried in the cemetery. The cemetery appears to have started in 1811 and was nearly at capacity in 1861 due to the Civil War, railroad accidents & the outbreak of diseases.
