It was the principal burying ground for the city's elites for many years, and has a fine collection of 19th-century funerary art.

By the early 19th century it was filling up, so the city purchased 11 acres (4.5 ha) of land north of the downtown from farmer Hezekiah Bull for the creation of this cemetery.

This purchase was incremented by others in the 19th century, until the cemetery reached its present size of 17 acres (6.9 ha).

Significant burial plots in the cemetery include this of the Colt and Goodwin families, both prominent in the civic and business leadership of the city.

A series of roadways provide a roughly rectangular circulation pattern through the cemetery grounds.