About Us

The Venice Cemetery was established in 1817 when Dr. Benjamin Clark, who originally laid out the town, donated an acre of land for burial purposes. The original burial grounds were located across Layhigh Road from the Venice Presbyterian Church. The Venice Presbyterian Church was organized on May 30, 1828, with thirty-five charter members. The land for the first church building was given by Abner Lutes. While the date of that first building is unknown, the current church was built in 1856. The church later owned land on the west side of Layhigh Road, a few hundred feet north of the original cemetery site. The two properties were eventually traded, and in 1824 the cemetery was moved to its present location. The first permanent part of Venice Cemetery is the southern portion of the current grounds. Burials made before the relocation were moved, but records from that time are incomplete and ownership of some plots is uncertain. More reliable record keeping began in 1875. In 1875, a group of prominent citizens organized a board to oversee the cemetery, known then and now as the “Venice Cemetery Association.” The first board officers were President William Clark, Secretary I. R. Anderson, and Treasurer I. A. Boal. The first trustees were N. C. Wade, S. W. Dick, O. H. P. Vandyke, J. K. Demoret, and J. B. Frost. Today, seven members serve on the Venice Cemetery Board. One of the board’s first actions was to purchase additional burial ground. They purchased 1.98 acres of land from Benjamin Brown for $398. A second addition of 3 acres was purchased from C. W. and Mary E. Stephan in 1905 for $600 and a burial lot. A third addition of 8.8 acres was purchased from Joseph Stadler for $3,300. In 2011, the cemetery purchased 10 more acres from the Brown family with the help of a generous donation from Don Demoret. The first major improvement to the cemetery was a vault built by J. W. Porter in 1880. A tool shed, built by Clem Wilds in 1910, followed. In 2018, Venice Cemetery added a columbarium unit. No further major improvements have been made since 2018.