May 1, 1890: Process of relocating Forest Hill Cemetery begins

On this day in Duluth in 1890, J. D. Ray began the process of moving remains interned in the first Forest Hill Cemetery along Chester Creek to the new Forest Hill along Woodland Avenue between Hunters Park and Woodland. The previous day Ray began running an ad in the Duluth News Tribune: “Those having friends buried in the old ‘Forest Hill Cemetery’ will please call upon the undesigned and make known their wishes relative to their removal to the new cemetery.” Ray, who first arrived in the 1850s and established the town of Portland (essentially today’s East Hillside) made his fortune in real estate and served as the head of Duluth’s Cemetery Association. The original Forest Hill ran from East Fourth Street up to East Seventh Street between Twelfth and Fourteenth Avenues East. When Forest Hill was first established, bodies buried in the “Pioneer Cemetery”—located on Minnesota Point at Franklin Square—were relocated to the new site. Read the history of Forest Hill here and Duluth’s early cemeteries here (and use our search function to discover much more about Duluth’s historic cemeteries).

The vault originally built for the first Forest Hill Cemetery in the 1880s. (Image: Maryanne C. Norton)