The following groups of photos and documents are of
the Florence (AKA KErr-Drill) Cemetery
With burials from the 1830s through the 1870s, the Florence Cemetery (AKA Kerr-Drill Cemetery) located near Northcutt Place and Frederick Pike is the final resting place of approximately 58 early Dayton Area residents.
Originally re-documented in the 1930s, a group attempted to document the conditions of the cemetery in the late 1980s, successfully identifying and documenting the row and plot locations of approximately half of the headstones.
In the 2000-2005 timeframe, the Inspire, Connect, Unite (ICU) Dayton Non-profit embarked on a five year preservation effort to restore the cemetery to it's former glory, provide educational opportunities, and successfully document nearly every known headstone in the cemetery.
Unfortunately in early 2006, vandals came with sledgehammers and destroyed nearly every headstone in the cemetery, undoing the preservation efforts of ICU Dayton. Additional vandalism happened after 2012 when one of the pillars created to mark the entrance to the cemetery was destroyed.
In July 2024, Kegan Sickels, a board member of Preservation Dayton, found out about the neglected cemetery and embarked on a clean up effort that continues to this day. Contact him at 937-396-9179 or at [email protected] to learn about how you can participate in his efforts.
You can learn more about the cemetery in the Montgomery County Chapter of the Ohio Geneological Society's (MCC-OGS) Cemetery Inscriptions Volume IV, in this PDF of cemetery inscriptions created by ICU Dayton, research on FindaGrave, or learn more on this page.
If you would like to participate in restoring a cemetery, you can learn more on our Tips & Tricks page or by attending one of Woodland Cemetery's Headstone Restoration classes.
Originally re-documented in the 1930s, a group attempted to document the conditions of the cemetery in the late 1980s, successfully identifying and documenting the row and plot locations of approximately half of the headstones.
In the 2000-2005 timeframe, the Inspire, Connect, Unite (ICU) Dayton Non-profit embarked on a five year preservation effort to restore the cemetery to it's former glory, provide educational opportunities, and successfully document nearly every known headstone in the cemetery.
Unfortunately in early 2006, vandals came with sledgehammers and destroyed nearly every headstone in the cemetery, undoing the preservation efforts of ICU Dayton. Additional vandalism happened after 2012 when one of the pillars created to mark the entrance to the cemetery was destroyed.
In July 2024, Kegan Sickels, a board member of Preservation Dayton, found out about the neglected cemetery and embarked on a clean up effort that continues to this day. Contact him at 937-396-9179 or at [email protected] to learn about how you can participate in his efforts.
You can learn more about the cemetery in the Montgomery County Chapter of the Ohio Geneological Society's (MCC-OGS) Cemetery Inscriptions Volume IV, in this PDF of cemetery inscriptions created by ICU Dayton, research on FindaGrave, or learn more on this page.
If you would like to participate in restoring a cemetery, you can learn more on our Tips & Tricks page or by attending one of Woodland Cemetery's Headstone Restoration classes.
Restoration photos by Kegan Sickels July 2024-Current
Family Trees
The following is the latest attempt to connect everyone in the cemetery together. There are 3 primary families represented across multiple generations, and the 1840 census below shows these families were all neighbors, or at least within the same census area as they all appear on the same recorded page.
