History: By a deed dated 30 September 1888, The Greenwood Cemetery Company of Burlington purchased eight acres for $2,000 from James C. Filman, a widower. When a portion of Joseph Brant’s farm (Brant’s Block) was re-subdivided in 1869, that portion was known as the J.S. McMurray Survey. The land purchased for the cemetery was the north-eastern corner of Block No 2 of that Survey. It was a fenced property located on the western side of Rambo Creek and south of the road leading through the Brant farm to the Village of Burlington. Subsequently that road took the name of the cemetery, becoming Greenwood Drive.

The cemetery was subdivided into numbered blocks and roadways. Although the original plan of that subdivision has not been found, many block cornerstones may be found on the ground. All of these blocks now comprise the “Old Section” of Greenwood.

In some cases, the burial records and gravestone inscriptions give death dates prior to 30 September 1888. These cases are evidence of re-burials at Greenwood. Examples of these may be found in Block 50 and in Block 31. Block 50, a large block near the centre of the cemetery was purchased by John Waldie on 2 December 1889. It is bordered by a rail fence.

A change in management of the cemetery took place on 11 March 1968 when the Town of Burlington took over from the Board of Trustees of Greenwood Cemetery. In 1971 an additional five acres were surveyed into blocks identified by letters and into numbered plots. Those lands are now known as the “New Section” of Greenwood. In October 1978, the remains of people that had been buried in Tansley Cemetery were moved and reinterred in Block A of the New Section. They occupy two rows, being 29 plots numbered 155 to 184, except for plot 170. The cemetery office has no record of the quantity of remains that were reinterred or of the names of the people. There may be approximately 29. Only four gravestones were moved from Tansley Cemetery. The Cemetery Coordinator, advised that only by chance would the four stones, as placed, be above the remains of the people named on the stones.

There are many “charity” interments (which may number in the hundreds) for which there are no cemetery records. These are located along the east side of the cemetery near the children’s section. [by John Quinsey]