of events, but the minutes of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners provide insight into the workings of the council. The commissioners' minutes of November 20, 1875 state that

This day the committee appointed by the City Council of Columbus for the purpose of conferring with the board to take such measures as may be necessary to remove the pest house outside the City Limits appeared before the Board . . . it was agreed [that the board would] meet on Wednesday November 24 [for the purpose of] examining several locations and parcels of land supposed to be suitable for burials and for erection of a Pest House for the use of the County and City jointly.¹⁶

The subject develops and the intentions of the City Council are further exposed in the commissioners' minutes of December 6, 1875.

Whereas the Board is informed that the Council of the City of Columbus have expressed their desire and intention of abandoning the Graveyard lying in the eastern part of said city for the further use of burying purposes and to prohibit by ordinance any further interment in said grounds, and whereas the said council have requested this board to adopt such measures as may be necessary for the removal of the Pest house outside of the city limits said Pest house being detrimental to the health and prosperity of that part of the city in which it is located.

In order to provide a burying ground for the use of theCounty and City the board is of the opinion that it is expedient and necessary to purchase land for use of burial and other purposes.¹⁷

The commissioners advertised for bids on five to twenty acres of land within four miles of the city limits and, after examining the twenty bids received, selected a site on the east side of South High street, described in a newspaper at the time as "near the Starch Factory on Chillicothe Pike."¹⁸ The site today runs east from High Street, roughly between State Route 104 and Kingston avenue; it measured about 1430 feet east and west by 907 feet north and south and contained thirty acres. The property was purchased from Jackson and Mary Hoddy and Dixon Fullerton on April 8, 1876 for $8000.¹⁹ The commissioners' minutes of April 11 note the first payment on the land and call it the "South Graveyard."²⁰

 THE EAST GRAVEYARD CLOSED

City Council, having gotten the county to help solve the problem of replacement land for those owning lots in the East Graveyard, acted