Mount Albion hosting first of 5 cemetery tours on Sunday evenings in August

By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 30 July 2025 at 1:57 pm

Photo courtesy of Susan Starkweather Miller: The tower at Mount Albion Cemetery is a memorial to 463 Orleans County residents killed during the Civil War.

ALBION – The Orleans County Historical Association will host a series of cemetery tours during the month of August, all focusing on the county’s bicentennial, according to Sue Starkweather Miller, village of Albion historian.

• The first tour on Aug. 3 will be at Mount Albion Cemetery on Route 31 with Miller serving as a guide along with Bill Lattin, retired Orleans County historian.

“To commemorate our county’s bicentennial, we will focus on several prominent pioneers around the tower area, including Nehemiah Ingersoll, and hear the story of how Albion became the county seat,” Miller said.

Guests may enter through the main gate, park at the chapel and walk to the tower, or drive to the area and park in the woods behind the tower. It is short walk up a slight incline to the tower.

• The tour on Aug. 10 will be at Robinson Cemetery, Route 237 and Glidden Road, Clarendon, with guide Melissa Ierlan, town of Clarendon historian. The tour will spotlight Lemuel Cook, last living pensioner of the American Revolution and the oldest patriot.

• On Aug. 17, town of Shelby historian Alice Zacher and Orleans County historian Catherine Cooper will lead the tour of Millville Cemetery, 4394 East Shelby Rd., Medina.

Highlights will be a visit to the wooden chapel/memorial vault and a tour of some of the impressive monuments, including the gravestone of Asa Hill, a Civil War soldier who suffered amputation of a leg, yet returned to run the family farm a few short miles west of the cemetery.

• The tour on Aug. 24 Greenwood Cemetery, 16670 Roosevelt Hgy./Route 18, Kendall, will focus on the first Norwegian settlement in the United States in 1825 in Kendall. Orleans County historian Catherine Cooper will lead this tour.

• Aug. 31 at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, 581 East Ave., Albion, will conclude the series of tours. Catherine Cooper and Sue Starkweather Miller will lead the tour, which will include a visit to the chapel to view the beautiful interior stained glass windows, and stops at several prominent gravesites.

All tours begin at 6 p.m. and are free, although donations are gratefully accepted.