Ariel W.
Yelp
Orlando was named in 1857 and incorporated in 1875. Prior to 1857 the area was called Jernigan, named after the Jernigan family, who had established the first permanent settlement in the area. Before the founding of Green Wood Cemetery, people in Orlando were buried randomly without good record keeping resulting in graves being lost. After a media campaign highlighting the problem was launched by publisher Mahlon Gore, eight Orlando citizens came together to solve the problem. In 1880, 26 acres of land at a cost of $1.800 were purchased from a Mr. John Anderson by W.R. Anno, C.A. Boone, James Delaney, James K. Duke, J.H. Livingston, Nat Poyntz, Samuel A. Robinson, and I.P. Wescott for the purpose of creating a communal graveyard. The original layout of Greenwood Cemetery was designed by Samuel A. Robinson. Simply named Orlando Cemetery, the cemetery had its name changed to Greenwood in 1915. Today, Greenwood Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Orlando.
The cemetery has since expanded to 120 acres of land, including the Greenwood Urban Wetlands which were created in 1991 as a 19-acre ecological park on the cemetery's west side. Different burial sections within the cemetery are dedicated to veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam. There are also unmarked plots for African Americans who were victims of lynching. Mose Norman was a prosperous African American farmer who was attempting to vote along with other members of the African American community of Ocoee when he was chased by a mob to the home of his friend Julius "July" Perry. Perry shot and killed wo members of the mob. As a result he was publicly lynched as a messages to the Ocoee community and his grave is in Greenwood. The 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting saw the interment of four of the victims. Some of the most famous residents of the Greenwood Cemetery include Frances Eppes who was instrumental in founding of Florida State University, National Baseball Hall of Fame Joe Tinker, 8 Orlando Mayors including Carl Langford who a park is named after, U.S. Senator Charles O. Andrews, U.S. Rep. William Thomas Bland, FL Rep. Edna Giles Fuller, the first woman to serve in the Florida legislature, and Colonel Dickson who's epitaph reads "Brought the first azaleas to Orlando".
Greenwood Cemetery has many stories of being haunted. It is said soldiers in military uniforms have been seen walking around. Another story features Fred Weeks who was sold worthless swamp land near the cemetery by three English attorneys. He got his revenge by creating a gravestone with the names of the three men who cheated him on it. Fred Weeks final resting place is a mausoleum in Greenwood where his ghost has been standing in front of it. US Ghost Adventures offers ghost tours of the cemetery and Greenwood used to offer moonlight history tours that were very popular but there are no longer any scheduled on their website. It says they are suspended until further notice. You are always welcome to take a look around daily from 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM when the cemetery gates are open.