History

Holy Cross Cemetery officially opened in 1849 as a parish cemetery, although burial records date back as early as 1830. In 1853, the cemetery expanded when Bishop John Timon borrowed $1,200 to purchase a nearby farm and consecrated 40 acres for cemetery use. Because the property title was held in his name, it became known as the “Bishop’s” cemetery.

The cemetery is the final resting place of many early Irish immigrants who helped shape the region by digging the Erie Canal, building railroads, working the docks and Great Lakes steamboats, and laboring in grain elevators and steel mills. Holy Cross also honors those lost in local tragedies, including nine children and a young firefighter who died in the 1880 Perry Street wallpaper factory fire, nearly 700 victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic, Casimir Mazurek, who died during the 1919 steel plant strike violence, and Edward R. Lonegrin, an Irish lieutenant and Fenian soldier killed in the 1866 Battle of Ridgeway in Canada.

When Father Nelson Baker, founder of Our Lady of Victory Basilica and the Homes of Charity, passed away in 1936, he was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in the shadow of the basilica.

Today, Holy Cross Cemetery is the largest Catholic cemetery in the Diocese of Buffalo, encompassing approximately 191 acres. It is the resting place of more than 130,000 individuals, with about 60 acres of undeveloped land reserved for future cemetery use.