Located in Goshen, Indiana, Oakridge Cemetery had its earliest known burial in 1832 and was officially founded by First Methodist Church in 1839. In 1859, First Methodist passed it to the city of Goshen. The cemetery has 40+ acres of land and contains quite a few historic burials including eight mayors of Goshen along with veterans from every major American war. I had the opportunity to visit Oakridge Cemetery during one of my Tenderness Tour events in Elkhart County when, somewhat unexpectedly, the cemetery was actually part of my route because the trail I was using went right through it. As I tend to enjoy visiting cemeteries, I ended up spending quite a bit of time in the cemetery (and ultimately ran late getting to where I was actually going). The cemetery has several interesting sections - Grand Army of the Republic, Potter's Field, Sharis Israel (a Jewish congregation), International Organization of Odd Fellows, and Eastern Orthodox among them. The cemetery has quite a bit of pavement within the boundaries of the cemetery and is pretty easy to wheel through. It's a large cemetery, for sure, and there are some inclines that can make visiting some graves a little difficult. Oakridge is still a city-run cemetery. In addition to locals, there are three known Congressmen here and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient (Ruel M. Johnson). In 2019, the cemetery added a natural burial option for cremains called Forest of Remembrance. It makes burial a more natural experience and is surprisingly affordable. There's no denying this is an older cemetery. However, it is well maintained by Goshen and it continues to be used with space available to this day. I found my visit fascinating and it's actually an ideal place for prayer, contemplation, or simply walking/wheeling through. read more

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