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Pleasant Hill Cemetery

Pleasant Hill Cemetery (AKA Rushville Cemetery), a rural cemetery located in Fairfield County, Ohio, contains burials significant to the history of the UGRR. The cemetery is the burial place of Joe Selby, a freedom seeker who died in nearby Rushville, Ohio.Selby's flight to freedom ended in the village of Rushville when he died while in the care of Dr. Simon Hyde, a local physician and abolitionist, who is also buried in the cemetery.Hyde was an early pioneer of Fairfield County, Ohio and provided medical care to an untold number of freedom seekers that passed through the area. In 1856, Selby's story was immortalized in the song Darling Nelly Gray. The song was written by Benjamin Hanby, son of Hyde's co-conspirator in Underground Railroad activities, Reverend William Hanby of the United Brethern Church.

Other burials in the cemetery include four to six other fugitive slaves buried in unmarked graves and members of the Hanby family.

The still active cemetery is open to the public from dawn to dusk daily. It is located on Basore Road (south of the village of Rushville, OH.Off US Route 22, just east of Ohio Route 664).Range 17, Township 17, Section 17. This cemetery should not be confused with nearby West Rushville Cemetery located on the west side of the village of West Rushville, Ohio.

 

Visitor Information: Currently open to public.

Location: Basore Road, Rushville, Fairfield,

National Park Unit: No

Ownership: The Pleasant Hill Cemetery Association

Location Type: Site

Freedom Seekers: Joe Selby

UGRR Operatives: Benjamin R. Hanby,Dr. Simon Hyde,William Hanby