Collection: Oak Hill Cemetery - Hammond

From the time it was officially founded in 1885 to provide burials within the boundaries of the newly incorporated city of Hammond, Oak Hill has been a cemetery in transition. What began as a Catholic cemetery was expanded acre-by-acre through donations from the city’s founding families and finally the sale of 3.5 acres of the now-vacant St. Joseph Church property. Through 1961, the cemetery’s evolution is orderly — vigorous sales campaigns make Oak Hill a popular choice for city residents. That all changes in 1962 when Oak Hill Cemetery Co. President M. Morton Towle dies and a still-unknown owner takes over. Two years later, banker John Wilhem and realtor Warren Reeder purchase Oak Hill due to lax record-keeping. When Reeder dies in 1976, the cemetery loses its patron and once again falls into disrepair. Without a traceable owner, plots are resold, tombstones are discarded and funeral dollars paid in advance go missing. Ownership of the cemetery is transferred — the result of Roy Ro