Upon his arrival in Maryland, the younger Holmead purchased two additional land patents (Beall's Plains and Lamar's Outlet) along Rock Creek north of Widow's Mite.

It is unclear whether he actually established a family burial plot there by 1791, or merely contemplated one, but the intended location was a 100 by 120 feet (30 by 37 m) space on the southwest corner of what is now 19th and T Streets NW.

The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who chose a portion of the states of Maryland and Virginia on January 24, 1791.

Finally, on August 31, 1796,[11] the federal government at last determined the exact locations of 19th and T Streets and the boundaries of Square 109 and permitted Holmead to purchase his 100 by 120 feet (30 by 37 m) plot of land.

[13] Even though technically within the boundary of the city, for most of its history Holmead's was essentially in a rural area of forest with heavy undergrowth.

There were almost no buildings around it, and the cemetery could only be reached by 20th Street—which could be distinguished from the surrounding forest only because the trees along the route had (mostly) been cut down and there was a rutted wagon track to follow.

[14] The site was so rural that, for many years, the track followed by the northbound mail stagecoach ran through the center of Square 109.

[18] In 1807, the laying out of burial plots at Holmead's Burying Ground was finally completed, and the cemetery opened for business.

[1] Three commissioners were appointed to oversee the cemetery,[15] and for many years these positions were held by Lewis Johnson, Jacob A. Bender, and Dr. Joseph Burrows.

[6] To ensure that the cemetery remained open to all members of the public, the city enacted a law in 1829 under which the sexton could be fined $10 for refusing to bury someone.

)[6] The cemetery was to be segregated by race, with a fence of thorn bushes separating the African American section from the rest of the burial ground.

[21] Much of the land around Holmead's Burying Ground was sold for development by the early 1850s, and houses and other buildings began to be constructed on nearby city blocks.

[25] The goal of the designation of Holmead's as a public nuisance was to permit the mass disinterment of bodies and the reclamation of Square 109 for development purposes (such as housing).

George Christian, a clerk in the office of the Surgeon General of the United States, opened a resurrectionist business about 1870, and stole not only bodies but funerary materials (clothing, coffins, shrouds, and urns) as well.

One of his assistants, Maude Brown, would attend the funeral of a newly deceased person who appeared to lack friends or family.

On December 12, 1873, Christian and his companions were arrested for public intoxication, suspicious behavior, and drunk and disorderly conduct on a sidewalk near Holmead's Burying Ground.

Once a wealthy socialite married to Senator John Henry Eaton, her reputation was destroyed during the Petticoat affair of 1830-1831 that rocked President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet.

With her family's graves at risk, Eaton had to beg wealthy D.C. philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran for the funds to move her relatives to Oak Hill Cemetery.

Chief among the concerns was the common assumption that the Holmead family had turned over its portion of Square 109 to the city for use exclusively as a burial ground.

While Anthony Holmead had paid for and owned the 100-by-120-foot (30 by 37 m) lot in the northeast corner, the federal government had not transferred title to the rest of square to the District of Columbia.

Somewhat anticlimactically, the title investigation also revealed that the Holmead plot would not revert to the heirs if it was abandoned as a burying ground.

[15][33][d][34] The law also granted the city permission to begin disinterments, and contained a provision to reimburse lotholders for reinterment costs.

[15] On June 4, 1880, Congress appropriated $2,000 to allow the District of Columbia to assist families in removing the bodies of loved ones from Holmead's Burying Ground.

A public scandal erupted in April when local children were seen playing with leg and arm bones, and placing skulls on poles.

During floor debate, the conference report was amended to give the city the authority to sell Holmead's Burying Ground so long as the proceeds were used to fund the D.C. public schools.

[41] The work crew of 70 men resumed disinterments on October 28,[44] and by late November a total of 3,000 bodies had been removed from Holmead's.

)[6][21] On December 16, funeral home director A.H. Gawler exhumed the body of Lewis Powell from Holmead's Burying Ground.

Powell, one of the four conspirators hanged for playing a role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in July 1865, had been buried there in an unmarked grave (the site known only to Gawler and a few U.S. Army personnel).

[6][15] The cemetery was racially segregated, and the southwest quarter of the square (which was somewhat separate from the rest of the site by a ravine)[6] served as the burial ground for African Americans.

[6][15] At one point before 1879, a portion of the military section was illegally sold to a local African American association which had formed to create a cemetery for colored people.