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Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Miami. The cemetery consists of 86 acres with more than 20,000 burial plots currently in place, with the oldest recorded and legibly marked grave dated 1892.
The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Cemetery is located on the west side of U.S. HWY 69 (Historic U.S. Route 66) on the northside of Miami, Oklahoma. The G.A.R Cemetery has over 22,000 burials in its beautifully maintained 86 acres. The cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Miami, Oklahoma.
The Cemetery's website includes a Burial Search feature that provides the description of the grave locations and a map with GPS directions to assist in locating burial sites, as well as a feature that allows family and friends to upload photos, videos, and documents to individual memorial pages. Additionally, staff is available in the Cemetery office, during regular office hours, to assist in locating graves. Current office hours are available on the cemetery website.
In 1890, the U.S. Government granted a 200-acre land patent to Peter Labadie, a member of the Confederated Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea and Piankashaw tribes, in Indian territory. Burials occurred on a section of this land as early as 1892.
The burial ground became an official cemetery in 1899, when the J. B. McPherson Post of the Grand Army of the Republic purchased 36 acres of the property to be used for the burial of post members and the community. In 1910, the members of the G.A.R. post transferred care of the cemetery to the city of Miami. The original 36-acre cemetery is now known as the G.A.R. section.
G.A.R. Cemetery consists of 86 acres, with over 20,000 burial plots currently in place. Burials began taking place as early as 1892, about 7 years prior to the G.A.R.'s purchase.
The land on which G.A.R. Cemetery now sits was originally owned by Peter Labedie, a member of the Confederated Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea and Piankashaw tribes. Labedie obtained the land through a patent in 1890 from the United States Government for 200 acres. He reserved four acres for “A Miami and Peoria Church”.
Labedie died in 1895 with his land being divided up by his heirs.
In 1899, R.M.J. Shriver, commander of the J.B. McPherson Post No. 11.2 of the Grand Old Army of the Republic accouned in the local newspaper that they had purchased 36 acres from Emily Ensworth, a daughter of Peter Labedie, for use as a burial ground for its members. In 1913, the GAR acquired the four acres of land that Labedie had set aside for a church, bringing the total acreage to 40.
In 1910, the GAR had transferred the original 36 acres to the City of Miami. Sometime after 1923, the City acquired the additional 4 acres as well.
It is generally believed that a son of Peter and Amelia Labedie was the first burial in the cemetery. The Ottawa County Historical Society received information that the first grave opened in the cemetery was for the child of Jesse and Laura Dragoo, having died in 1895 at the age of six weeks. In the 1930s a fire destroyed many of the early records of burials. However, the oldest marked grave is that of Atha Josephine Cardin, born in 1872 and died in 1892. Another marker that has survived change and time is that of a one-year child, Irene Isabel Thaxton, who died in 1897. Her father once operated a ferry across the Neosho River.