The very first Cemetery in early Edinburgh was on the slope of the Thompson hill at the west edge of the little village. Here lie buried Mrs. Joseph Townsend the first white settler to die in Johnson County and Richard Conner their graves forever hidden in the hill which may also contain earlier Indian burials. Other early settlers were buried on the hill, but most were later moved to the newly established Edinburg Burying Ground. The Thompson family plot still remains at the top of the hill its future preservation and obligation of the Edinburg School Board in return for playground property deeded to the school by a Thompson heir the late Mrs. Imogene McEwen.

 

 It has proven extremely difficult to trace the early land records of the Edinburgh Burying Ground. There is good reason to believe that burials were made on what was the Breeding farm land prior to 1850, and hence prior to the above purchase for the Burying Ground. The location was probably in what is now Section B, Breeding Addition of Rest Haven. Some of the still existing grave markers have dates as early as the 1830’s. It is certain that Alexander and Rebecca Breeding continued to sell lots as late as 1869. After 1869 deeds to lots in this area were signed by the “Town of Edinburg”. To further confuse matters, Harvey Lewis also had an Addition and deeds for lots in the Harvey Lewis Addition were signed by Harvey Lewis and his wife Sophia (Mooney) as last as 1872. Records of transactions in 1875 indicate that the “Town of Edinburg” had taken over the sale of lots in this area also. It has been impossible to establish exact boundaries, but it would seem that the older Breeding burial ground adjoined Rest Haven’s present Breeding Addition Section A on the east, and that the Harvey Lewis Addition adjoined the Breeding plot on the east.

 

 EARLY RECORDS

There exists a lovely old hand-drawn plat of the present Breeding Addition Section A dated 16^th of August 1870 and titled:

 EDINBURGH BURYING GROUND BECOMES REST HAVEN CEMETERY

As the years slipped by, the Cemetery which was known as the Edinburg Burying Ground was badly neglected and became something of an eye sore. In 1925, the women’s organizations of the town the Civic League and the Business Women’s organization decided to do something about the situation. The combined efforts of these two groups had already accomplished such noteworthy improvements to the town as boulevard lights for the streets, a new bandstand for the park, new surfacing for ten blocks of Main Cross Street which had previously been nothing only mud holes, numbering for Edinburg houses, drinking fountains and trash containers on the street corers, and free mail delivery. Mrs. J.K. Badger, the Secretary of the Civic League reported on the condition of the Cemetery. “It was nothing but a weed patch with a broken wooden stile at the entrance it was a disgrace and we knew it”. The group wrote letters to former residents who had moved away, and also solicited gifts from townspeople. News of all these accomplishments spread and the members of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce decided to schedule a train trip to Edinburg to see for them selves. Advance publicity for this trip took the form of a full page article in the Cincinnati Post, issue of May 4^th 1925. The article was written for the Post by on of their top reporters, Ruth Neely, and she was accompanied to Edinburg by the Post’s cartoonist Manuel Rosenberg. Neely not only reported on her interviews with the women pictured in the cartoon, but interview some of the business men of the town as well, quoting their admiring comments about the outstanding work the women had done to improve the town. Once the work of beautifying the Cemetery was finished the women’s groups sponsored a contest to select a new named. Mrs. D. R. Webb submitted the winning entry and the Edinburg Burying Ground became REST HAVEN CEMETERY.