[2] Mount Calvary is divided into two sections that were historically paid for and separately maintained by two parishes of different ethnic backgrounds.
[4] A plot of just over 25 acres (10 ha) of land, outside the city's original limits, was purchased in 1865 by John F. Zimmer in trust for the Diocese of Columbus, and burials on the site also began that year.
The Diocese finally requested in 1887 that burials be moved from there to Mount Calvary, but met resistance from family of the deceased.
The controversy was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio, which ruled in the Diocese's favor that the old cemetery was no longer practical to maintain.
[5] On March 25, 1913, a catastrophic flood devastated the nearby neighborhood of Franklinton and covered the western portion of the cemetery, destroying some property and records.