Carthagena Black Cemetery
Photo added by Craig Doda

Carthagena Black Cemetery

Also known as Carthagena Cemetery , Carthagena Union Cemetery

Carthagena, Mercer County, Ohio, USA

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Augustus Wattles, a Quaker abolitionist, purchased 189 acres here and led 15 black families north from Cincinnati to establish the village of Carthagena. Carthagena was platted in 1840 by Charles Moore, a free man who moved north with the Wattles group. Land was set aside for a cemetery. By 1860 nearly 100 black and mixed race families owned more than 10,000 acres in adjacent townships. In addition to their farms, these families built three schools and four Protestant churches. Tradesmen in the village practiced carpentry, brick-making, and blacksmithing. African American veterans of the War of 1812 and the Civil War were laid to reset in Union Cemetery.
As more German Catholic immigrants arrived in the region, the land around Carthagena was sold off and African American farmers moved away. The last burial in Union Cemetery took place in 1957; the last African American family moved away in 1960. The Carthagena Union Cemetery is all that remains of this once-vibrant free black community.
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The cemetery is on the opposite side of a fence around the Saint Aloysius Cemetery and along the highway...it has been somewhat restored recently. (Aug 2020)



The cemetery is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Ohio State Route 274 and US 127 west of the adjacent Saint Aloysius Cemetery.



The cemetery is located in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, and is # 13935 (Township Cemetery / African-American Cemetery / Carthagena Cemetery) in "Ohio Cemeteries 1803-2003", compiled by the Ohio Genealogical Society.



Augustus Wattles, a Quaker abolitionist, purchased 189 acres here and led 15 black families north from Cincinnati to establish the village of Carthagena. Carthagena was platted in 1840 by Charles Moore, a free man who moved north with the Wattles group. Land was set aside for a cemetery. By 1860 nearly 100 black and mixed race families owned more than 10,000 acres in adjacent townships. In addition to their farms, these families built three schools and four Protestant churches. Tradesmen in the village practiced carpentry, brick-making, and blacksmithing. African American veterans of the War of 1812 and the Civil War were laid to reset in Union Cemetery.
As more German Catholic immigrants arrived in the region, the land around Carthagena was sold off and African American farmers moved away. The last burial in Union Cemetery took place in 1957; the last African American family moved away in 1960. The Carthagena Union Cemetery is all that remains of this once-vibrant free black community.
**************************
The cemetery is on the opposite side of a fence around the Saint Aloysius Cemetery and along the highway...it has been somewhat restored recently. (Aug 2020)



The cemetery is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Ohio State Route 274 and US 127 west of the adjacent Saint Aloysius Cemetery.



The cemetery is located in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, and is # 13935 (Township Cemetery / African-American Cemetery / Carthagena Cemetery) in "Ohio Cemeteries 1803-2003", compiled by the Ohio Genealogical Society.



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