The Greenwood Union Cemetery is located in Rye and Harrison in Westchester County, New York.HistoryThe first cemetery on this site was established in 1837 and it was known as "Union Cemetery of Rye". James Parker and David Brooks of Rye donated 3acre of land to Christ Church, Rye, with plots should be reserved for the ministers of the three churches of Rye and their families. Two strips on the eastern and western sides of the grounds were to be used as a public cemetery.In January 1855, the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Rye bought an additional 8acre contiguous to the cemetery, and, between 1864 and 1868, they added more than 6acre. The total land was now 14.25acre. A small corner of the cemetery, located near the entrance ramp for I-95, contains graves of Civil War soldiers of African descent.Methodist Episcopal Church operated the cemetery from 1855 until 1902 when it transferred management to a Rural Cemetery Corporation organized under the Rural Cemetery Act of 1847. This arrangement continued from 1902 to 1984, under the leadership of successive generations of the Cowan family, but in 1984 the responsibility of management was turned over to a nonprofit organization with a volunteer elected board of trustees whose members are lot owners and local community leaders.
