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OAKWOOD WEST MAIN STREET ON NORTH SIDE ANOKA, MN
The first burial in Oakwood Cemetery was Alexander Lane on December 19, 1855. He is not the oldest grave here; his body was removed and reinterred elsewhere. In 1857, the Oakwood Cemetery Association was formed and they took care of the land and burials. In 1867, Judson Shaw, who held the deed to the land, deeded it to the town of Anoka. The records of those early transactions are recorded in big ledgers and are still in possession of the City of Anoka today. Copies are available for research in the Anoka County History Center’s reference library. The oldest grave still in Oakwood is that of Laura E. Little. She was 22 years old when she died in 1857. Her stone is still standing here in Oakwood. Perpetual care was begun by action at the city commissioner’s meeting on December 2, 1929. It stated that perpetual care included cutting and raking the grass, trimming the trees and shrubs as the City deemed it necessary. The cost of this perpetual care? $25.00. The cemetery is no longer active, so you won’t see any burials here. Enough lots were filled or already sold to people by 1890 that the city felt it necessary to open a second cemetery. That one is Forest Hill and it is just a couple blocks west of Oakwood. By the 1950’s, Oakwood really stopped having burials unless someone died who still had a plot here. Those were very few and far between as no lots had been actively sold here since 1890 when Forest Hill opened.
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