Overview

Layman’s Cemetery is the oldest surviving cemetery in Minneapolis and contains the graves of a wide variety of early settlers, veterans, and immigrants. 

• Location: 2925 Cedar Avenue
• Neighborhood: East Phillips

Guidelines

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Historic profile

Layman’s Cemetery is the oldest surviving cemetery in Minneapolis and contains the graves of a wide variety of early settlers, veterans, and immigrants. It is also known as the Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. Layman's Cemetery was founded in 1853 on land next to the farmstead of Martin Layman.  

The cemetery is in the churchyard style. This style is practical and symmetrical, with closely spaced graves in a grid pattern. Lanes between the graves were accessible and lined with trees.  

It is the final resting place of 20,000 settlers, veterans and immigrants, although only about 1,800 markers remain. It contains the graves of early Minneapolis residents, and soldiers and veterans of:  

• War of 1812
• Dakota Uprising of 1862
• Civil War
• Mexican American War
• Spanish-American War
• World War I

The cemetery was not segregated although this was common practice at the time. Around the time of the Civil War, New England abolitionists and Black Americans fleeing slavery came to Minnesota in search of greater freedoms. These residents are also buried in Layman's Cemetery. The cemetery's last addition opened in 1886. These sites are predominantly German and Scandinavian immigrants.

Notable individuals buried in the cemetery include:

• Philander Prescott: Prescott traded with Dakota people and learned the Dakota language. He was a government interpreter. He interpreted during the treaty negotiation that opened much of southern Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota to white settlement.
• Charles W. Christmas: He was the first to survey land in Hennepin County, forming the basis for the city of Minneapolis.
• William Goodridge: Goodridge was formerly enslaved. He operated a Pennsylvania leg of the Underground Railroad in the 1850s. He was a nationally renowned abolitionist and became a successful businessman.

By 1920, burials decreased and plots were neglected. There was pressure to move the graves and develop the site. In 1925, a group began to organize to save Layman’s Cemetery for its historical importance. The group’s effort is recognized as an early, local attempt at historic preservation. In 1942, a monument to Charles W. Christmas was installed by the newly organized Hennepin County Historical Society. This was the last significant addition to the site.