150th anniversary of this very historic cemetery patterned after the rural cemetery movement with winding carriage paths that give it a pleasant park-like feeling.


Admission is $10 in advance and $15 the day of the tour. Youth under 17 are free.


Come prepared to walk to various monuments such as the large one paying tribute to those killed in Quantrill’s Raid in 1863, a water fountain placed by the Women’s Relief Corps in the 1920’s as a memorial to Civil War soldiers, Section 4 dedicated to U.S. Colored Troops, and the grave of John Knox Rankin of the Kansas 2nd Cavalry. Other burials of note are James H. Lane (first U.S. Senator from Kansas), John Speer (member of the Territorial Legislature and abolitionist newspaper editor), Lucy Hobbs Taylor (first woman to graduate from a dental college as a Doctor of Dental Surgery in the U.S. and the first woman dentist in Kansas), Charles and Mary Langston (grandparents of black poet and writer, Langston Hughes), John P. Usher (President Lincoln’s Secretary of the Interior), Dr. Charles L. Robinson (helped found the City of Lawrence and was Governor of Kansas from 1861-1863), Dr. F.C. “Phog” Allen (KU basketball coach from 1907-09 and 1919-1956).


To make reservations please go to www.WatkinsMuseum.org or contact Jan at (785) 841-4109, Ext. 202.

Location Oak Hill Cemetery, 1605 Oak Hill Ave., Lawrence, KS