Burridge Farm Cemetery

            This cemetery is extinct, and there is very little evidence of it. It has been assumed that it is in the area of Burridge Road in Mentor, but upon further study, it is more likely further east.

            According to a newspaper article, the first white person buried in Old Mentor was in the Mentor Pioneer Cemetery. He is said to have been Jesse Phelps and was buried in 1811. However, in a manuscript about David Abbot by Simeon C. Hickok, written between 1878 and 1901 ((The Historical Society Quarterly May 1962) a similar story is somewhat different. It states that “Jesse Phelps, then living in the Village of Painesville subsequently owned, lived and died and was buried on the farm now owned by Eleazer Burridge in Mentor. Some years later it was called the Phelps lot.”

            Now, according to the 1874 landowner map, Eleazer Burridge owned 281 acres of land on Mentor Avenue with Hopkins Road running through the middle of it. It butted up to the new Mentor Cemetery on Jackson Street. A house is located on Mentor Avenue, just west of Hopkins Road. The home would have been on what is marked as the Phelps lot. Burridge also owned another 30 plus acres further west, probably where Burridge Road is now, but not on Center Street.

            The Phelps Lot was owned by Amassa Cobb in 1840. Amassa and his wife built the house on the 100 acre property. His deed from a previous owner included a small block as burial ground and right of way for the heirs. The property later became the Burridge farm and is pictured in the Lake County 1874 Atlas.

            So, the unanswered question is whether Jesse Phelps was buried in the Mentor Pioneer Cemetery or the Burridge Farm Cemetery.

            From information from Mrs. Howard Anthony, "Hiram Mentor, an itinerant pioneer, was said to also be buried on the Burridge farm and was also moved to Mentor Cemetery."

            Eleazer Burridge (1822-1910) is buried in the Mentor Municipal Cemetery.