Est. 1863 · Miamisburg Founding-Era Burials · 1884 Grave Relocation
Hillgrove Union Cemetery was established in 1863, with city founder Dr. John Treon among the first to purchase a plot. The 30-acre grounds at 1012 East Central Avenue became Miamisburg's principal burial site, receiving remains transferred from multiple earlier cemeteries as the township consolidated its burial practices.
The most significant transfer came in 1884. The former Village Cemetery — situated on what is now Library Park a few blocks away — had by that time generated an unusual historical record. Following the murder of a woman at or near the site that year, witnesses began reporting a figure in white that appeared nightly around 9 p.m., moving through the headstones with head bent forward and hands clasped behind her. The apparition was seen by enough people that residents took collective action — first targeting specific graves for exhumation, then relocating all remaining graves to Hill Grove. The sightings at Library Park reportedly continued until at least the 1980s.
Hillgrove Union Cemetery is managed jointly by the City of Miamisburg and Miami Township through a board formed in 2007. Cemetery staff assist with genealogical research by appointment with 48 hours advance notice. The grounds are accessible during published hours; contact Superintendent Wade Collins at (937) 866-2263 for appointment-based access.
Sources
- https://cityofmiamisburg.com/departments/hillgrove-union-cemetery/
- https://davemillersadventures.com/2020/09/16/miamisburg-cemetery-ghost-miamisburg-ohio/
- https://www.ohioexploration.com/paranormal/hauntings/montgomerycounty/
ApparitionsObject movement
Two distinct apparitional accounts are associated with Hill Grove Cemetery, and they involve different areas of the grounds.
The first concerns a family grave cluster where visitors have reported seeing a young girl seated over one of the markers, weeping. Those who approach to offer assistance describe the figure turning to look at them directly before disappearing. She is believed to be mourning a parent. Multiple visitors have described the encounter independently — the girl's behavior follows the same pattern: visible, briefly interactive, then gone.
The second account involves the grave of a young woman, said to have died in the late 1800s at age nineteen. Local tradition holds that she was the daughter of a preacher, that she rejected his faith, and that her family disowned her before her death. Her grave features a carved Bible as a monument. Visitors have found the Bible marker split in two on some occasions and wholly intact on others, with no attributable cause for the inconsistency. Whether this reflects weathering, vandalism, or something less explainable is unresolved in any documented account.
The cemetery also received the relocated remains from Miamisburg's original Village Cemetery in 1884, following one of the most widely documented apparitional events in Ohio history — a figure seen nightly by hundreds of witnesses at the Library Park site after a murder there. Whether any of that history followed the remains to Hill Grove is part of the wider local folklore.
Notable Entities
The Weeping GirlThe Preacher's Daughter
