Greenwood Cemetery

The Greenwood Cemetery is within the city limits of Leavenworth and owned by the City of Leavenworth. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Register of Historic Places in Kansas in the spring of 2022, thanks to an effort led by the Leavenworth County Historical Society at the Carroll Mansion Museum.

This cemetery is one of the oldest in Kansas. Formally established in 1863, Greenwood Cemetery served as an active cemetery until about 1955, when the last known burial occurred. The cemetery is a five-sided shape, bounded on the north by Limit Street, the northwest by Fifteenth Street, with houses and wooded areas to the southwest, south and east.

Between 2,000 - 3,000 burials have been estimated, although only about 500 known grave markers remain. Original burial records are thought to no longer exist. Several individuals have attempted burial indexes since the mid-1940s and research is ongoing to provide a more comprehensive record. Among those buried at Greenwood are early German settlers, Civil War veterans, former slaves and many connected to the early up-building of the first city of Kansas -- Leavenworth.

From the Leavenworth County Historical Society brochure:
"Greenwood Cemetery has suffered from adverse weather conditions and vandalism over its 160 years of existence, especially in the last few decades. Though volunteers have attempted preservation efforts in the past, none have been long-term efforts.”

In 2021 the historical society organized the Greenwood Cemetery Preservation Commission in partnership with: the City of Leavenworth, the local Henry Leavenworth Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution,  the Richard Allen Cultural Center and Museum, VFW Post 56 and other interested organizations and groups, to ensure the perpetual care and preservation of the cemetery and its valuable contribution to Leavenworth history.

Some notable burials:

• Florella Brown Adair (1816-1865) Half-sister of John Brown of Bleeding Kansas fame, whose husband Rev. Sam Adair was chaplain at Fort Leavenworth during the Civil War
• John Baum, Sr. (1840 - 1935) Veteran of the Civil War (Union Army) Served in the First Missouri Light Artillery
• Cratton (Craton) Carney (1827 - 1885) High Prairie township farmer and brother of Kansas Governor Thomas Carney
• Jemina (Lawnier or Lanier) Craig (Circa 1796 - 1896) born a slave in Kentucky;  before the Civil War, came to Leavenworth to reside for 40 years
• Philip Feth (1822 - 1885) Native of Germany and early Leavenworth builder. He was the father of William Feth, a nationally recognized architect.
• Capt. Nelson McCracken (1823 - 1864) Early Leavenworth merchant during Bleeding Kansas days. (Monument, tallest in cemetery)

• Corporal Linton Watrous (1873 - 1910) veteran of the Spanish-American War (1898) wounded in the battle of Santiago, Cuba, 35 years to the day his father was wounded during the Civil War at Vicksburg