PLEASE NOTE: We value your privacy, therefore we do not give away or sell this information to any company, mailing list or other entity. This information is used for the sole purpose of serving your needs. As Sedgwick County became populated during the 1870's and 1880's, many small burying grounds were set aside. Today the county contains about fifty known cemeteries, most of which were started by townships, churches, or families on nearby farms. The earliest Sedgwick County cemetery on record is Highland Cemetery, located west of north Hillside, between 9th and 11th streets. The first burial was that of Albert Lewellen, age 5, in 1870, the same year the small frontier town of Wichita was incorporated. Annexed to, but not actually a part of, Highland are the Wichita Mausoleum and the Temple Emanu-El Cemetery. The Wichita Mausoleum, built in 1919, at the southwest corner of 9th Street and Hillside, was constructed and sold by an outside company as a joint venture with the Highland Cemetery Association, and is maintained today through its own perpetual care trust. The Temple Emanu-El Cemetery, bordering 9th Street, was established by Wichita’s early Jewish community in 1885. Memorials at Temple Emanu-El Cemetery are austere, largely in keeping with the Second Commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Wichita’s first Jewish cemetery is exquisitely cared for today, as it always has been. Calvary Cemetery, Wichita’s oldest Catholic Cemetery, is also perhaps the city’s most visible cemetery, with its site along Highway 54/Kellogg and Vassar Street. The view west toward town, unobstructed even today, is spectacular. Calvary Cemetery was consecrated in 1882, five years prior to the establishment of the diocese, and is the final resting place for an estimated 10,000 Catholic faithful. According to cemetery records, the first official interment was made in 1876. Popular legend has it that pioneer graves from the year 1859 also exist at the site, though no records exist as proof. Today, with only 100 spaces available and an average of 25 interments annually, it is anticipated that Calvary Cemetery will fall from active use withing the next quarter century. Maple Grove Cemetery, located on the northeast corner of Hillside and 9th Street, is Wichita’s largest cemetery. It stretches east nearly to MacDonald Municipal Golf Course and contains more than 25,000 burial sites on 40 of its 60 acres. While it cannot boast of the river valley view of other local cemeteries, Maple Grove does contain some of the most varied and wooded terrain in the county, as well as a meandering creek. The cemetery is famous as a nature reserve and unofficial arboretum, attracting area bird watchers. Established in 1988 by Albert Alexander (A.A.) Hyde and others, Maple Grove was hailed as the finest cemetery between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The services of landscape architect Albert Ellis were secured by Hyde for the purpose of laying out the new necropolis. Ellis, from New Hampshire arrived with recommendations from none other than Mark Twain, and later went on to lay out many of the city’s most beautiful parks as well as the grounds of Fairmount University.