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Delray Beach Memorial Gardens
S. W. 10th St Delray Beach 33444 [see Cemetery Map below]
A prior county coordinator owned the book Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, 1903-1987, plus veteran burials, 1903-1997. The book is also available from Palm Beach Genealogical Society, P O. Box 1746, West Palm Beach, Fla. 33402-1746.
The Ladies Improvement Association established the cemetery in 1902 on 7 acres. They called it Pine Ridge Cemetery and charged $5 for a family lot and $1 for a single plot, according to a history of the cemetery written by the association. At the time of its founding, the cemetery, like everything else in town, was segregated. Blacks buried their dead on the far south side, whites on the north side.
It was squatter's rights back then - families just went out and picked a piece of ground for a plot. The haphazard system created havoc in 1926 when the town first tried to record who had been buried where. "Many of the graves are not located on the lots which they are supposed to be, there are many in the streets and out of bound," city commission minutes said that year.
Wooden stakes rotted away, leaving no trace as to who owned a plot or occupied grave. Most headstones are handmade, and prone to toppling over. On some, names are faintly etched by hand in hard-to- read lettering. Some families marked their plots with concrete barriers, bushes and trees instead of headstones. The city stopped allowing burials in the old northeast corner several years ago.
Partial Transcription
| Name | Born - Died |
|---|---|
| Anthony, Davis J. | 1910 d. 1980 |
| Baker, Grover C., Sr | 1893 d. 1970 |
| Barker, Arthur H. | 1896 d. 1961 |
| Billings, Chester Leroy | May 21, 1894 d. Mar. 31, 1964 |
| Billings, Elma Eugene McCarty | Sep. 19, 1895 d. Jul. 1, 1966 |
| Byerley, Edward | May 16, 1910 d. Jul. 17, 1978 |
| Carter, Louis Leonard | Dec. 13, 1908 d. Jan. 20, 1970 |
| Chisolm, John A. | unknown d. unknown |
| Cleminson, Robert | 1871 d. 1937 |
| Gow, Myles | Mar. 8, 1899 d. Feb. 25, 1964 |
| Gow, Winifred S. | Mar. 23, 1910 d. Sep. 8, 1976 |
| Gross, Sylvester Jacob | Jul. 13, 1906 d. Mar., 1960 |
| Potter, Rose Henrietta Anderson | Oct. 6, 1898 d. Aug. 26, 2001 |
| Steiner, Henrietta Kurlancheek | Nov. 10, 1906 d. Mar. 11, 1998 |
| Switzer, Evelina A Dusch | Apr. 21, 1881 d. Mar., 1978 |
| Switzer, Fred C | Aug. 7, 1877 d. 1959 |
| Tyson, Charles Edward, Jr | 2005 d. Apr. 27, 2006 |
| Wallace, George Felix | Mar. 25, 1942 d. Feb. 23, 2006 |
| Ward, Charles A., Jr | 1888 d. 1955 |
| Ward, Frances L. | 1893 d. 1970 |
| Wright, Leslie Edgar | unknown d. unknown |
