1840's
From the settlement of the town, and until nealy fifty years ago, the "Wilkes-Barre Burying Ground" (so called by inhabitants and so designated on the town plot) occupied the north side of Market street from Washington street to Canal street. now Pennsylvania avenue, and extended north one third of the distance to Union street.
It was utterly different from the cemetery of modern times. There many forefathers of the hamlet slept. Shining white marble and polished granite shafts were absent, and in their stead were simple memorials marking the burial places of the worth men and women who rested there.
It continued to be practically the universal place of seculture of the departed inhabitants until the opening of the Hollenback Cemetery in the year 1856, followed by that of the City cemetery in the year 1870, to which later one all remaining in the old "burying ground" were reverently removed and the premises afterwards closely built up by the city building and other buildings. (George R. Bedford)
