Room for the dead ran short, so Wilmington bought this 65-acre tract east of Burnt Mill Creek for Oakdale Cemetery. The first interment here was little Annie DeRosset, age 6, on February 5, 1855; her father, John DeRosset, a physician, served as the first president of the cemetery corporation. As you walk the lanes, you’ll pass distinct, named sections: an enclosed Hebrew Cemetery dating from 1855, a Masonic section, at least one Odd Fellows section, a portion where burials moved from Front Street Methodist church after the 1886 fire now rest, and a section for those with no other family.
Toward one side a monumental Confederate burial mound rises — erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for the dead Confederate soldiers from the Second Battle of Fort Fisher. Dedicated in 1872, a bronze statue of a regular soldier stands atop a large circular stone base; the dedication plaque reads 'THIS MONUMENT WAS DEDICATED MAY 10, 1872 / TO PERPETUATE DEEDS OF THE BRAVE AND IN GRATEFUL / TRIBUTE TO THE...' Your path leads on past that Confederate mound, the enclosed Hebrew Cemetery, and the shaded plots set aside for family.